Politics Thread 6

[Godzilla]

The only good thing about this situation is it's much easier now to spot a banana split. Just ask one question... "Do you think it's right that children go hungry?"

If they say anything other than "no" then you have identified someone who isn't worth your time. The Save Christmas brigade who bang on about us being a Christian Country are always quiet when it comes to anything that costs money. Apart from a festival for Brexit, well worth spending money on.

[Balladeer]

‘No, but...’

[Jenuall]

"Obviously I don't want kids to go hungry, but if someone's kids do have to go hungry then it shouldn't be mine"

How about we make it so no kids need to go hungry?

"What is this, communism!?"

[OrangeRKN]

I think if you want to change someone from a tory voter to a labour voter you'll have better results in persuading them that the party has become bad rather than always been so.

Convincing someone the party was always bad requires them to acknowledge they voted badly in the past i.e. to admit fault. That will make people defensive and unreceptive to rational argument. At the next election the more effective persuasion on swing voters I think will be from pitching Labour as returned to competence under Starmer and of the Conservatives having betrayed and fumbled their responsibilities they had been trusted with.

That is to say the handling of Free School Meals is damning either way, but it will be more effective to say "look how badly the conservatives have messed up something so simple!" than "you voted for this you idiot".

[Tafdolphin]

At this point I'm a nihilist in that I think that anyone who voted for Boris strawberry floating Johnson is a lost cause and should be treated as such. There's no reasoning with that gooseberry fool.

[Rex Kramer]

You would have thought that even a Tory voter would look at the existing situation and start asking questions about what value the public purse is getting for these contracts. If those companies are charging us £15/week to supply £15's worth of food (and it isn't this amount, it's significantly more going off the information on some tweets) then they should be up in arms. You're probably not going to win the argument with them as to whether £15 is enough or should even be given but frame it as 'you've paid £15 for this'. Surely they're not happy they're being robbed along with everyone else?

[Moggy]

You would have thought that even a Tory voter would look at the existing situation and start asking questions about what value the public purse is getting for these contracts. If those companies are charging us £15/week to supply £15's worth of food (and it isn't this amount, it's significantly more going off the information on some tweets) then they should be up in arms. You're probably not going to win the argument with them as to whether £15 is enough or should even be given but frame it as 'you've paid £15 for this'. Surely they're not happy they're being robbed along with everyone else?

"Yeah it's terrible but think of the mess Corbyn and Abbot would have made!"

[That]

It's possible to convince a person, on the level of individual to individual conversation, to stop being a Tory / fascist. That kind of deprogramming is very difficult though. The details of how to approach it depend on why they have those beliefs and what they (sometimes subconsciously) want from them. You're looking at spending some substantial time with that person, who believes and says (and quite possibly does) horrible things, with no guarantee of success.

It's not really possible for individuals to, through some kind of mass campaign of reaching out to racist colleagues (or whatever), reverse the foothold far-right politics has in political discourse. The rise of fascism is a systemic problem in our society caused directly by the failure of the neoliberal consensus. There are huge institutions dedicated to pumping out far-right propaganda. You can't fix systems through individual force of will.

But you can contribute to the creation of alternative systems and institutions. Left-wing propaganda and counter-narrative is key.

[Tafdolphin]

I adore that you correctly termed it deprogramming.

Bravo etc.

[Jenuall]

Why can't people just have an "good/evil" switch on the back of them which we can flick over like that Krusty doll in The Simpsons!

[Moggy]

twitter.com/DaveGorman/status/1349070781079236610

[Cuttooth]

Again just remember this next election when someone tells you they're voting Tory.

Horde of thieves intent on squeezing the poor for all their worth in a plague infested hellhole - 40% (-)
LAB - 38% (-1)

twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1349027102201417730

twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1349073823375777796

strawberry float me.

[Tomous]

41% of the country are scumbags. Depressing thought.

[Moggy]

strawberry float me

[Godzilla]

After Brexit I thought it was over 50% scum, 41% is actually ok.

[Moggy]

After Brexit I thought it was over 50% scum, 41% is actually ok.

If Labour, Lib Dem's, Greens and the SNP can work together? Then yeah it's not bad.

But those 4 will never work together. And so we're strawberry floated.

[Tineash]

Any other leader

[Lex-Man]

I'm hoping it's a bump because of Brexit and Labour will back in the lead soon, but getting the Tories below the high 30's seems impossible.

[Moggy]

Any other leader

I can't see the Tories getting an 80 seat majority with Starmer as Labour leader.

[Rocsteady]

Any other leader

Jesus, are we still pretending Corbyn was an even halfway competent leader of the opposition?