Just Stop Sneering

I woke this morning with a headache, so instead of starting the next project I’m going to write a rant instead. Normal commenting rules apply.

I am not here to write about Reform’s excellent showing in the U.K.’s local elections or the Unite the Kingdom rally that took place a few days ago. Other commenters have written excellent pieces from all points of view, and frankly I wrote something myself that provoked some interesting debate. I am here to write about the response to those two events and if you don’t mind (if you do ... sorry) I’m going to approach it from a slightly odd angle.

There is a two-sided paradox in my life that can be explained like this. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is being talked to as though I am an idiot. I have endured such treatment since childhood and I am thoroughly allergic to it, to the point that I automatically dismiss the opinions of anyone who speaks to me in such manner, be it a tone dripping with half-hidden condescension or more open accusations of outright stupidity. If you wish to provoke me to a murderous rage, that is the easiest way to do it.

What is the paradox?

First, talking to me as though I am stupid tends to make me do stupid things. A person who offers good advice wrapped up in an insulting level of condescension does not make me want to subscribe to their newsletter, let alone take their advice. Indeed, I want to do the exact opposite of what they are telling me to do. I am aware of this flaw in myself, as writing this article proves, but it is strikingly hard to overcome.

Second, anyone who talks to me in a manner that suggests I am stupid comes across as very stupid themselves. It is plain to the merest dunce that insulting people you need to do something is counter-productive: a politician who treats his voters as stupid, for example, risks driving them away to politicians who do not treat them as simpletons. If you display ignorance, stupidity, or malice (the cause of many problems), you should not be surprised when people refuse to listen to you. Why should they?

This is basic human psychology. When you dismiss very valid concerns, and bear in mind that most people consider their concerns to be valid even if they are objectively wrong, and treat those who have them with contempt, you have no right to be surprised when they turn to people who do not dismiss such concerns. People who feel angry at you will not do you any favours; people who think you are stupid, and by treating them as stupid you are proving that you are stupid, will hold you in utter contempt. By contrast, when you engage with them and discuss their concerns in a manner that makes it clear you understand even if you do not agree, you can earn respect even if you do not convince them you are wrong.

What was this have to do with modern British politics?

Despite the best efforts of the BBC, Netflix, and various others to portray past-Britain as a multicultural paradise, the truth is that Britain was relatively ethnically homogenous for much of her history. There were disparate groups within the United Kingdom - the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh ... as well as the English themselves - but most tended to blend together with relatively little friction. A couple of generations, as I know from my own family history, could see differences erased to the point they were essentially forgotten. Outright colourist racism was relatively rare. What wasn’t rare, unfortunately, was religious discrimination and, much worse, oikophobia. The British aristocracy has always nurtured a healthy fear of the working classes and this leads to them trying to co-opt, subvert or stamp on any working class movement that threatens the balance of power. They see such movements as threats, largely correctly, and portray those who join them as ... well, ignorant, stupid, or malicious. It is beyond their comprehension that the working class could have any legitimate complaints because such complaints do not fit into their worldview. Their lack of understanding leads them to have a very warped view of working class life. They don’t see the stresses and strains that keep the working class permanently on the brink. The realities of such a life simply don’t exist for them

The response to both the local elections and the rally clearly illustrates this point. The vast majority of left-wing responses to both have been nothing more than sneering, insulting the people who voted and attended a rally. They have been called everything from gammons to racists and bigots, mocked relentlessly by people who think themselves better because they do not face the same challenges. The sneering is appalling even if you think Reform is not going to be any better than any other party and the rally led by highly-dubious individuals who really should be in jail. Making fun of people only makes them hate you. And then you have no right to be surprised when they vote for someone else!

Put crudely, every time you sneer at a Reform voter, Nigel Farage gets ten extra votes. And it is likely he will ride those votes into Ten Downing Street.

You may be reading this and thinking that such people deserve to be laughed at. In some sense, you might even be right. But it is not remotely helpful to treat people in a manner that makes them hate you when you need them to vote for you, consider your points, or at the very least refrain from voting against you. When you treat people as idiots because they have a supposedly simplistic view of gender, for example, and mock them relentlessly, you are poisoning their minds against you. And while you deserve this, how many others will be caught up in the poison you have unleashed?

And how many others, who might agree with you, watch you doing this and think “you’re not wrong, you’re just a jerk?” And how many of them vote for you? Fewer than you might hope, because one rule of jerks is that a person who is prepared to be a jerk to someone else is a person who is prepared to be a jerk to you.

It gets worse.

I saw this cartoon a while back. I won’t deny that I found it very offensive.

Part of this comes from the simple fact that I am a cancer survivor. My form of cancer was relatively light, yet it came very close to killing me. Ten years ago or so, it would have killed me. The idea that I would be outraged if someone discovered a pill that cured cancer tomorrow, a pill that spares someone else the hell I went through, is outrageous. It is offensive in a manner I find hard to put into words. I can be a bit of a rectum at times, but that would be the sort of behaviour that makes normal rectums look bland and boring by comparison.

But the rest comes from the fact that it is a blatant misrepresentation of the “no student loan forgiveness” argument. The people who are against such forgiveness have valid reasons for opposing it even if you don’t agree with their argument. It rewards students who defaulted on their loans, they argue, while punishing the students who repaid their loans and taxpayers in the first place. It provides incentive for colleges and universities to raise their prices, secure in the knowledge the taxpayer will pay for it, and for lacklustre students to attend such institutions instead of places that will teach them valuable and often more profitable skills. The cartoon does not engage with such arguments. Instead it mocks - and it portrays anyone who holds such views as a irredeemable rectum.

And no one has any right to be surprised when this hardens attitudes on both sides.

It is vitally important that we in Britain have a frank and open discussion about the problems plaguing our society. Immigration, extremism, our relationships with Europe and America, the weaknesses of our Armed Forces and the perfidy of a police force more interested in social media posts than serious crimes ... all of these are issues that must be discussed openly. But we cannot do that if one side is sneering at everyone who disagrees with them and the other increasingly furious and unwilling to consider that, sometimes, those who sneer are not ignorant, stupid, or malicious. At this rate, we are going to sneer our way into a civil war ...

And that would be stupid, wouldn’t it?