There are no critics.

“There are an awful lot of Hindus, I’d guess 40%, who basically dislike Muslims and have no problem at all with this government’s approach,” says an American political scientist of Indian origin, who prefers anonymity (a subclause of the CAA allows the government to strip émigrés of their Overseas Citizen of India status).

—From The Economist, in ‘Narendra Modi’s sectarianism is eroding India’s secular democracy


Every move is designed to cow opponents and critics into silence—within and without.

Race traitor: Oxford dictionary word of the year?

Instead the protesters are at best dupes, and at worst foreigner-loving race traitors, ashamed of being Chinese.

—The Economist, in Why Chinese officials imagine America is behind unrest in Hong Kong

Continue reading Race traitor: Oxford dictionary word of the year?

Target voter for all nativist/hativist political parties…

trusting retirees, with a bit of disposable income, and a natural inclination to hate modernity and change—an inclination that could be heightened, radicalized, and exploited.

The Long, Lucrative Right-wing Grift Is Blowing Up in the World’s Face, April 10, 2017, at 06:51 PM

The sentence may be written for the voters in the west – the ones who elected Trump, and voted for Brexit. However, from my conversations on visits back home, it’s the same voters who also support Modi & BJP in India – heightened, radicalised, and exploited.

Continue reading Target voter for all nativist/hativist political parties…

Anti-immigration <==> Don’t know many immigrants

The National Front has, in recent years, become more popular in many rural areas and small towns like Wizernes, places that are often relatively homogeneous and have few immigrants.

– Will France Sound the Death Knell for Social Democracy?, January 26, 2017 at 10:59AM

It’s the same here in the UK – many of the places that voted most heavily for Brexit, and are most anti-immigrant, are also the ones with very few immigrants.

I’m guessing it’s easier to whip up a fear of the unknown – immigrants people in, say villages of NE England, have never met – than of the known – immigrants people in London meet, work and play with every day.

Further down, in the same article… Lecoustre is anti-immigration, NF supporter, while Sailliot is anti-NF, leftist union leader.

I asked Lecoustre if immigration had changed his life in any direct way. He thought for a moment. “No,” he said.

Sailliot interjected. This was the absurdity of it all, he said. There were hardly any migrants in the area, and yet somehow, immigration was everybody’s biggest problem. How could that be?

Right wing playbook for media

In defining “fake news” so broadly and seeking to dilute its meaning, they are capitalizing on the declining credibility of all purveyors of information.

Over the years, we’ve effectively brainwashed the core of our audience to distrust anything that they disagree with.

Wielding Claims of ‘Fake News,’ Conservatives Take Aim at Mainstream Media, December 28, 2016 at 04:23PM

Continue reading Right wing playbook for media