The Thinking ‘Kat: Unwarranted Interference
Recently, London played host to a rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson. As part of this rally (which included assaults on police officers), and in an act of tremendous irony, Elon Musk gave a speech via video link which the crowd lapped up, failing to understand precisely what made the whole affair so ironic (though this is a bit beside the point I am to make). What Robinson and his cadre want is to have Britain be for Britons, though you have to be of the right (or white) background. They don’t like foreigners and don’t want foreigner interference in British affairs. Well, this is what they say, but in reality they don’t mind. After all, why else would they gleefully lap up a speech from a foreign national, calling upon them to subvert democracy?
This is what Musk was effectively doing with his speech. The wealthiest man in the world, with an enormous presence on social media, has already been fanning the flames of violence against the left in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, and in calling for an unnecessarily early election in the UK to vote out Labour, he is aiming to undermine the democratic process here. Somehow, in the eyes of Robinson and his thuggish allies, this is alright! Somehow the interference in UK affairs by foreigners becomes acceptable when it’s carried out by a billionaire South African with ties to the USA.
Make no mistake, we live in dangerous, uncertain times. Between the steady and determined influence of Putin’s Russia, the firebrand commentary of Trump, and Musk’s insidious effects to corrupt democracy for the purpose of wannabe Nazis (and make no mistake, that is precisely what Robinson and his hardline followers are), we face a world being stoked toward violence and insurrection. It is offensive to see powerful foreign nationals seek to damage the democratic process via inciting the mob, and it is absurd that the mob has elected to find this acceptable. As I said earlier, it is also ironic, but I suspect that irony will be lost on Robinson and his fans.
There’s further irony to be had. Whilst Musk and his cohorts claim the left seeks to censor the right, it’s Musk (whilst championing freedom of speech) who throttles progressive left-wing voices on Twitter. How can he be taken seriously as a bastion of freedom when he clamps down on those he doesn’t like, calls for insurrections, and aligns himself to wannabe Nazis?
There is further irony (I know, it keeps coming). The political right has, in recent days, been hurling accusations at the ‘violent’ left. It is interesting that the right has made little-to-no effort to strike a conciliatory tone, and figures like Trump and Musk have instead used aggressive language to denounce the left, without any self-awareness. It’s also interesting that the right (as referred in a prior post of mine) is more violent than the left. Is this of any surprise, given Musk’s recent comments? It’s certainly of no surprise to me.
