Random Discussion Thread

There’s definitely extremes on both sides. For me, I definitely lean to the right on policies regarding immigration. I’m not against immigration at all, I know it’s a good thing when it’s controlled, but should the UK be accepting thousands of illegal immigrants arriving from the safety of Europe, only to spend millions on hotels for them whilst we have people living on the streets and people unable to heat their homes? A lot of people on the left here seem to think we can just keep taking and paying for more and more people who are here illegally. The trans debate is a difficult one for me. I’ve no issues with people being whatever they want to be, though it’s gone way too far when we’re giving young teens puberty blockers, and we need to respect women’s private spaces. We have huge issues with knife crime in the U.K, particularly London and the facts are the majority is within the black community. But we’ve also been told by the left that the police stopping and searching in the street is now racist, even though that’s been happening historically with no issues, now knife crime is absolutely out of control in London. We have people protesting in the street when a criminal gang member, on the run after shooting somebody and with a long history of crime, tries to run over police with his car and is subsequently shot and killed - the policeman who shot him now has a bounty on his head and is in hiding after he was taken to court charged with murder (which the jury thankfully threw out).

Just speaking for the U.K, the above are some issues that a lot of people (not all!) on the left are either unwilling to deal with, or just call you racist if you have real concerns about them.

Theres definitely extremes on both sides and there’s a lack of respect from both sides from a chunk of people. Unless views are really extreme, I think it’s sad when people just think anyone who doesn’t agree with them politically is wrong/a bad person etc. It’s definitely doing more damage to the more liberal cause when people just shout racist! bigot! at anyone who disagrees. It makes people more determined to vote against it, which I think we’re seeing across the world. Labour won the most recent election in the U.K. but right leaning parties actually made up the majority of the vote, with Reform (a new party headed by Nigel Farage who I’m sure most people are aware of lol!) pulling in 4 million votes. I think social media plays a part because it’s just a huge echo chamber so people end up with this “I’m right you’re wrong” attitude because all they see are the same views as theirs. Idk, this was a long post but I just think it’s sad politics has become SO divisive over the last 10 years.

I agree with you on a lot of those points and I myself am a right leaning centrist but my issue with Trump wasn’t so much his policies (though economists are predicting his economic policies will put us further in debt, etc. so it’s not like his plans are completely perfect either), but him as a person and what he and his followers represent. The insurrection and his crimes should have been enough to make sure he could never run again, let alone win. Sometimes it is about the person and not the policies. You could have the greatest policies in the world but if what you represent as a person is not good, it’s sort of moot.

I’m normally not one to play the race or gender card, but I do think in this case it says a lot about who we are as a nation that a relatively competent and intelligent black woman with experience in office (aside from whether you like her policies or her as a person) could not win over an old, white man with a literal criminal record to his name. No matter what the policies were on both sides. A lot of conservatives did not vote Trump this time around. They couldn’t justify it given what’s happened since 2020. And I think that is what a lot of people take issue with. Where does the line get drawn? He is the first convicted felon to get voted as the US president, let that sink in. It says a lot about who we are as a nation that that is what we ultimately chose to lead the highest office in the country.