Conflating the Left and the Right

There is a campaign from the right to conflate the left with the extremist right. It might not be a new

occurrence but I have noticed recently this sentiment seeping through people's words and minds, influenced by some unknown force, some memetic persuasion, mediated through mass printed news, authorised by the corporate via the relentless work of the think tanks.

The criticism of Charlottesville expresses this notion: Trump has said it: The left are as bad as the right.

I have read many times the assertion that the Nazis were socialist; an intellectually fraudulent remark asserted by only those on the right. They are eager to disassociate themselves with the failings of their ideological kin; they are compelled to amputate their far fight associates and conveniently offload them onto the left.

Their arguments, as they often do with right wingers, regularly delve into obsessive semantics where the definition of a word is used to support their claim. They fail, as always, to understand the arbitrary nature of words or the intellectual dishonesty they use to conveniently alter a word's meaning.

They regularly cite specific sentences spoken by Nazis to prove their case as if everything a politician says is sincere or reliable, and frankly, anyone who uses only the words of a politician to prove their point has not argument and forfeits their right to have an opinion about anything. Then they fail to indulge in the necessary analysis of policy and events which would lead to a more accurate telling of events, as employed by the thousands of historians who have categorically concluded the Nazis were right wing extremists.

The assertion that the Nazis were socialist is a favourite of the Cultural Marxist fanatics – that is the group of people who believe Cultural Marxism exists and who label everything they do not like as Cultural Marxism. They not only conflate the far right with the left, they claim everything they disagree with is Socialism. The mental dishonesty here conflates Capitalist failings, corrupt politicians, corporate hegemony, and, of course, the Nazis with Socialism.

The obvious reason for this campaign is to make the left look bad, making them guilty by association. It is the same reason for the claims of anti-Semitism in the Labour party when investigations show there is no more of a problem there that in any other main party. There the aim is to shame Labour voters, in particularly Corbyn supporters, by associating them with racists and the extreme right. It is a campaign to control debate and, like those who are so keen to conflate the Nazis with Socialism, denounce the lest through convoluted means.

It is no surprise this campaign is readily adopted by right wing voters. So humiliated by the right wing association their party has to far right groups, they will do anything to offload the burden, to make themselves look sensible, and to make the Nazis someone else's problem.

Trump has been keen to conflate the anti-Fascists with the Fascists and it is interesting that he has associates who actively promote right wing hatred. By employing the promoter of white supremacy Steve Bannon, Trump has shown he is actively encouraging these social divisions.

Trump also enjoys the backing from the pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon G Adelson, who is seemingly content funding a person who is not only endorsing racial hatred but endorsing anti-Semiticism as well. Not only that, Israeli leaders have been particularly silent about Nazis activity in Charlottesville.

This article compares Adelson's support of Trump to the Zionists forming an agreement with the Nazis; the racists want the Jewish people out of a country while the Zionists want the Jewish people to support and even move to then Palestine, now Israel. It also points out the convenience alliances Israel has made with racists, both sharing opposition to Islam and Muslim countries.

I do not think this is the wholly the case. I believe the reason right wingers and the wealthy fund far right groups is a simple divide-and-conquer trick. The creation of a distracting and dangerous group keeps people's minds off the real villains: the super wealthy and the corporations who oppose democracy and put self interest over the interest of the wider public.

Not only that, they can further denounce the left by creating ridiculous and unfair comparisons to the far right. The corporate media already set up the stage for this, through a relentless campaign of describing moderate Social Democrats as 'hard left'.

Legitimate criticism of the right, of the wealthy, of USA, of Israel, of Britain, of corporations can therefore be dismissed as fanaticism and lunacy. The left are continually labelled as aggressive and violent; the trademarks of the right. Here, arguments of the left are not provided with a counter argument, they are simply dismissed through a vague association with extremism.

As much as I believe Trump to be a racist, I can just as easily believe he is not a racist – at least, not especially racist. Race doesn't necessarily matter in the right's endorsement of extremism except as a device to encourage social divisions, to encourage people to hate each other rather than hating the profiteers who restrict their freedoms and exacerbate their poverty.

As far as I can see, this is not simply a case of billionaires actively hating certain racial groups. Many of them might very well be racist but I do not believe this to be the main driver for this campaign. As far as I can see this is simply a case of: the wealthy versus everyone else. The rich want to maintain and increase their wealth, and they will do whatever it takes to ensure that. Everyone else can go to hell.