Who They Are

Gary Younge on the shared pathology of victimhood among right-wing Trumpers and Brexiters:

"The notion of personal responsibility was once such a linchpin of conservative thinking that almost every riposte to liberal ideology ran through it. Whether the right was making the case for longer prison sentences or against the welfare state, the argument generally rested on the principle that we must stand by the consequences of our actions. To cite the context that shaped how a decision was made, insist on the parallel importance of collective responsibility, or expect the state to cushion the blow, were all signs of whiny weakness. To think otherwise revealed not just a flawed political philosophy but a lack of moral fortitude.

But the new right, on both sides of the Atlantic, is increasingly behaving in precisely the manner for which it lampoons progressives. Its politics start from the point of victimhood. Its persecutors are many – the media, the elites, the liberal establishment, feminists, Muslims, migrants. In the past week alone the US president, Donald Trump, has targeted the media for both reporting him accurately in Britain (he was on tape), and failing to realise that he meant the exact opposite of what he actually said about Russia."

WATB, all the way down.