Battling Violent Rhetoric Starts With Brexiter Nigel Farage And Trump (TWEETS)

By
Jon Mark
-

Brexit’s leading right-wing extremist, Nigel Farage, should brace himself for the impact of a lawsuit from the group Hope Not Hate. The group had the support of Labour Party MP Jo Cox, who was murdered in July 2016 by another right-wing extremist.

The reasoning behind the lawsuit has more meaning when we learn that Nigel Farage lashed out at Cox’s widower Brendan Cox. Farage said during a radio interview that Brendan was supporting an extremist organization, which combats far-right groups.

In an opinion piece in The Guardian, writer Owen Jones says that extreme right-wing groups have targeted him in internet memes. But in the piece, he expresses his limit of tolerating Nigel Farage’s hateful rhetoric. Many people must feel the same as Jones because funding for the group’s campaign to sue Nigel Farage for the offense has really gotten a boost lately.

The “dispute” started on Twitter after the attack on Monday in Germany. Thus far it appears that right-wing leaders like Farage and Trump lash out from Twitter, after every incident. Much like the American billionaire, Farage went after German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying that the terrorist attack in Berlin would “be the Merkel legacy.”

The attacks took place when a yet unidentified person drove a truck through a crowd killing twelve. Brendan Cox responded to Farage on Twitter and Farage responded on the air on Tuesday.

The Right-Wing Extremists’ Violent Rhetoric

As the months have passed and the British lawmaker has become more popular, his style of public speaking is violently aggressive. Farage is angry, insulting and the rhetoric triggers action, either from him or his supporters.

The Brexit referendum made Nigel Farage famous after the people voted to leave the European Union. His campaign made use of images of immigrants entering the country, to convince the people to vote for Brexit. He stepped away from politics after its success and threatened to return if lawmakers reversed the vote.

The U.S. was already a year into its presidential election when the vote for Brexit sent it a signal of things to come.

People made parallels to it with the election of Trump and Farage encouraged it with his presence. Both ended up sharing the same stage in the U.S. as a symbol of the rise of right-wing extremism. Both have also shared the animosity towards Liberals where Trump has suggested the assassination of Hillary Clinton. Nigel Farage’s cold and almost encouraged dismissal of Jo Cox’s murder has become the norm. In a climate of political attacks which rely little on direct evidence, Farage might as well have encouraged a supporter to murder her.

Accepting Responsibility Of Constituents, Denying Responsibility For Their Actions

https://twitter.com/WillemXIII/status/811236065331806208

During the primary of the Presidential Election, the people could compare the compassionate Republican with the extremist. The presence of a timid conservative was a check on the extremism. Violent rhetoric doesn’t always have to encourage violence. But it’s violent in how disconnected it is from reality.

Jo Cox’s killer shouted “Britain first,” when he shot and stabbed her in broad daylight, and it was so a week later, when the country voted yes for Brexit. The killer’s phrasing is the equivalent of one of Trump’s slogans, “America first.”

According to an article about the man’s arrest, a raid of his home revealed Nazi-related material, a mindset that is also gaining more of a presence in today’s society. Are Farage and Trump to be held responsible for the actions of these extremists? At the killer’s trial, the judge confronted him with his claims of being a patriot. He pointed out, however, the sacrifices made to end Nazisim.

“Our parents’ generation made huge sacrifices to defeat those ideas and values in the Second World War. What you did, and your admiration for those views which informed your crime, betrays the sacrifices of that generation.”

We’re used to seeing politicians go out of their way to denounce these groups and neither Trump nor Farage have. In some cases, they’ve made some effort but only when it is forced out of them. Even with that it’s barely audible. The fact is that they need the energy, and their populism has earned them that energy.

In the article about the extremist’s sentence, Home Secretary Amber Rudd talks about fighting extremism.

“As home secretary, I am determined that we challenge extremism in all its forms including the evil of far right extremism and the terrible damage it can cause to individuals, families and communities.”

If Hope Not Hate sees their lawsuit against Nigel Farage through, it would be a decent start to take on hateful rhetoric.

Featured image by The Global Panorama on Flickr available under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR