Agreeing with the far right:

Ahmad Baker

It was troubling to bring myself to the idea of listening to Steve Bannon’s lecture at the Oxford Union. I despise the guy, his harmful and dividing rhetoric, and his dangerous ideology. But one must admit that he is successful, he succeeded in putting Trump in the White House, despite all the odds he united the “deplorables” under common goals and got Trump elected. His thoughts and views are sought out by the far right and right groups in Europe (including the UK, we still part of that continent) and he provides them with advice, strategies and methodology to win elections.

Still I listened to his talk and the Q&A session, and it was not surprising to me that I agree with him, on a lot of stuff. But I mainly agree with Steve Bannon in his diagnosis to the problems we face in our societies, not the treatment, not his way of resolving these problems, or even addressing them.

In this country we have Theresa May, a robot who is supported by major media outlets and rich donors, and most of the British public feel sorry for her, but do not trust her. On the other hand, is Jeremy Corbyn, who has been consumed by internal fights and disruptions that showed what a week leader he is, but still he offers genuine politics that can improve our day to day lives.

Steve Bannon and Trump campaign saw Bernie Saunders as a real opponent who could easily defeated Trump, because like Trump he offers real alternative to the current political status, he was talking about the same problems Trump talked about, but providing different answers, the “deplorables” could trust him because he did not treat them with contempt.

That is what we need in this country, people who are willing to talk about the injustices in our communities, in details, and offer real solutions that do not just blame the immigrants. We need the likes of Corbyn and Saunders who do sympathise with the hardly pressed sections of the society, and willing to take money from the rich and invest it in our present to improve our future.

Extremism is on the rise, the far right is gaining more and more grounds and becoming normalised every day in the UK, because they are able to talk about the problems we face and offer a simple straight answer to most these problems: it is the OTHERs to blame. This simple answer is divisive, harmful, and clearly wrong; however, many people are buying into it because it is an answer, not any answer, it is an answer to their problems that they are living through ever day.

Steve Bannon says in this talk that to win those people, to win elections, you do not need Facebook and the massive media, you need to knock on people’s doors, talk to them, the ones you disagree as well as the one you agree with, sympathise with their concerns and offer them answers to their problems.

He is right and make a start by listening to his talk, do not fall for his white wash of the many things he or Trump said or did, but listen to his passion in addressing a congregation of students who most of them disagree with him, but he was willing to make the effort to reach out to them.

I am always astonished by this say which summarise our state of affairs  “Oh god I seek refuge in you from the laziness of the righteous and the perseverance of the wrong doer” (Omar bin Alkhattab). Yes, those who are right and honest and truthful hardly move, they are the silent majority. On the other hand, the wrongdoers, the liars, the narcissist the xenophobe racist scums are the ones with the loudest voice, taking part in every rally and campaign.