Thursday, January 04, 2007

Quotes of the Day 4.1.2007: The 200th Post

"The problem with the description “far-right” is that it tends to imply that the likes of the odious BNP are in some sense Tories, but more so. Whilst that might be a useful political device for some sections of the left in some circumstances, it’s neither accurate nor generally helpful.
Let’s call the BNP what they are - a bunch of odious white-power racists with authoritarian tendencies who will jump on any policy bandwagon that looks like it might win them a few votes." - Sam on Antonia's blog
Here is an excellent quote from Martine Martin:

3 comments:

Tom said...

Sam is wrong. Here's the reprinted spiel:

I think that 'right wing' can be taken to mean 'in favour of preserving or extrenuating current arrangements of social relations, or wanting to return to others which where less egalitarian in their results than the current'.

Basically, socialists always used to see racism as a necesary side effect of capitalism, the current system of social relation, and as such wanted even more to abolish it than centrist liberals, who themselves despise racism, but only on the basis of it's illogic in itself.

Of course, where racism has existed in the past, Burkean conservatives (the bulk of the 'right') would simply be suspicious of the use of government or socially imposed initiatives to change it (and may therefore, on the basis of tradition, genuinely consider racism to be acceptable themselves). Of course, according to socialists, those further to the right, according to socialists, believe in economic relations in which racism is one of the many tools which must be used to prevent the downfall of such a system, although others (more libertarian than truly conservative, and thus not simply left or right) see racial discrimination as an illogical bar to the free market.

That said, a libertarian approach also enamours the belief that an economic producer has the right to control himself and his property, so they resist measurer to actually prevent racism...

Sir-C4' said...

What a load of drivel from a leftie living in denial.

Tom said...

denial of what exactly? I'm certainly not in denial of my leftiness...

Why don't you think the argument above makes sense?