“Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die," Elon Musk told the large crowds at Saturday’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally.

More than 100,000 people descended on Britain’s capital on Saturday for one of the country’s largest far-right rallies in decades.

The “Unite the Kingdom” rally was organized by Tommy Robinson, a convicted fraudster with a violent criminal record, and attended by billionaire Elon Musk via video link. Amid a sea of flag-waving and soccer-style chanting from large crowds that exceeded expectations, violent clashes with police led to dozens of arrests.

It came amid a surge of nationalism in the U.K., with a far-right party topping the polls, and the murder of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk — an assassination Robinson used to mobilize support in the run-up to the event.

  • rozodru@piefed.social
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    8 days ago

    they were even doing it this past weekend here in Toronto, Canada. People marching and holding up posters of Kirk. was insane.

    Funny thing was seeing a bunch of POC among them and I’m thinking “you moronic motherfuckers, if the cops weren’t here they’d turn on you without a moments hesitation.”

      • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
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        7 days ago

        Which translates to “even though I hate most people who look like you, I am surprised to find that you have a redeeming quality”

        I’m mixed race and I usually get asked which side I more like. Or a mind boggled “What ARE you?” - if I answer “Canadian” it makes them have to squirm around and say “no, not in that way”

        • Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml
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          7 days ago

          Exactly, please don’t think I was l excusing or defending this attitude.

          Must be infuriating. Doesn’t get ask of white people.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Britain must stand united

    Where almost half the flags are not Union Jack but the English flag. 🤣🤣🤣
    Such a bunch of morons.

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      I’d bet a few of those actually do want to exclude people from the other UK nations. Not as many as are flying the flags, I grant you, but nonetheless. Colonialist mindset still runs deep in some of the English.

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      8 days ago

      I’m astounded that in a gathering of fascists two people holding English and Irish flags can stand in the same vicinity of each other and not start throwing punches.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    As an American, my message to my friends in Europe is, to paraphrase Musk: “Whether you choose Trumpian right wing thuggery and nationalism, it is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”

  • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you.

    From the even further right as it turned out.

    • bramkaandorp@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Wait, I chose no violence, but it will still come my way?

      Now they’re just saying the quiet part out loud.

      Again.

  • indomara@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    We are so fucked. There is no escaping this global rush of extremism.

    I am originally from the states, but was lucky enough to move to Australia 11 years ago.

    I thought I escaped the growing right wing crazy, and watched from afar as Trump was elected the first time, and my country descended into fascism.

    Then here in Australia there was a white supremacist rally. Then another.

    Then in my city there was a “March for Australia” organised by known white supremacists, but claiming not to be racist.

    “They just don’t want all this immigration”.

    Their website also said they wanted remigration.

    Remigration is an originally European far-right proposal for ethnic cleansing via the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and their descendants, sometimes including those born in Europe, to their place of racial ancestry.

    Sounds pretty racist to me.

    This march was planned for the final day of the state multicultural festival. Its planned start and end point was the park where the festival was being held.

    My family and I decided we would go. I haven’t been to a protest since I was a teenager, but I felt it was our duty to show that not everyone agrees with this.

    The day before the march our best friend said their friends were afraid to go out to lunch with them that day, because their parents were verbally assaulted in a grocery store on Friday for being immigrants.

    They later said people came to their parents house and were beating on the door and yelling about them being immigrants.

    My husband stood there in his suit, I stood in my pretty dress with flowers, our daughters held signs that said things like “so bad even the introverts are here”.

    The March was not peaceful and was definitely racist. We started off to the side, sitting with flags my daughters and I made with hundreds of countries on them, and eventually we were swarmed as the crowd veered to come right past us.

    They screamed obscenities at us, pushed into me, pushed my husband, tried to rip the sign from his hands. They ripped down the flags we made. Blew an air horn in our faces.

    Many claimed they were not racist but my husband got called a f-ing Jew multiple times??? Maybe it was the beard and the hat, I don’t know.

    Seemed pretty racist to me.

    Eventually police came and stood in front of us while we packed our things and left. We would do it again, in a heartbeat.

    Before the rowdy crowd came looking for trouble we had immigrants come up and thank us, hug us, and we want them to know that not everyone agrees with this march.

    Not wanting immigration is not what this march was about. This march was about fear and racism.

    I urge all of you, show up, make signs, show that not everyone agrees.

    • Part4@infosec.pub
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      7 days ago

      At some point climate change is going to cause more migrants than any ‘developed’ nation can support. Net migtration into the UK is currently coming in at around 700k a year. This is London a decade for a country that is pretty close to as population dense as the area around New York - I think they call it the tri-state area. Imagine nearly a New York a decade into the tri-state area. That is what the UK is currently doing and has been doing for decades now.

      With the best will in the world it simply isn’t sustainable. The UK is not food secure and is not energy secure now. Are we supposed to rely on a belligerently corporatist EU for food, and then Russia, for energy? (edit - I haven’t looked at our current energy situation, I am not interested in media stories about UK energy. I have looked into it enough to know a lot of it is bollocks.) It actually isn’t possible now for the UK to have the immigration we have.

      The door is going to be closed and at least many millions of the poorest globally, who haven’t caused climate change, are going to lose their lives unnecessarily. I don’t like it at all, but this IS going to happen. So when do we close the door? The poorest in the UK are already having food taken out of their mouths, and that working poor is growing due to many decades of neo-liberal capitalist policy. Same dynamic as the US expressing itself in a slightly different way.

      I spent the second decade of this century is a small city of about 250k people that experienced about 30k immigration in the last two decades. It is a poor city anyway, with cheap available housing due to previous government decisions forcing many of the people born there to leave. They dumped a load of people into communities that cannot support them. It is not racist to say that this isn’t doable. When ‘liberal’ media people say it is racist to complain the people I grew up with (who I don’t particularly like, but will defend from outsiders) will just say 'well fuck you, I[‘ll vote for the racist party’.

      I don’t like any of this. I am just describing the reality. You either face up to reality or you will see fascism as a result.

      • indomara@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        The issue isn’t that they don’t want immigrants, or want immigration reform.

        The issue is that they literally want remigration (ethnic cleansing of all non whites) and were threatening and ugly.

        They chose to hold a protest on a day when families were out enjoying different cultures.

        They were violent towards me and my children and husband, and spouted bullshit American rhetoric while doing it.

        Claiming that they like immigrants, they just don’t want illegal immigrants.

        Australia is an island! We lock up the immigrants who come by boat on an island! We don’t have illegal immigrants!

        • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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          7 days ago

          We lock up the immigrants who come by boat on an island! We don’t have illegal immigrants!

          In a shop window in northern California, I recently saw a sign saying “nobody is illegal on stolen land.”

        • Part4@infosec.pub
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          7 days ago

          Perhaps we are talking about two slightly different things. I was describing the situation in the UK and across ‘developed’ nations (i.e. the rise of fascism) that is leading to the same public sentiment you experienced. We had a neo-nazi march in the UK over the weekend too. You are describing what happened to you. I am explaining why,.

          Maybe you were the downvoter. You can’t downvote away reality. It is foolish to try.

    • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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      7 days ago

      There is no escaping this global rush of extremism.

      You can’t escape it, you have to defeat it.

      • indomara@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I stood up for what was right, as did my husband and daughters, I’m really proud of them.

        We are only one family, but we would do it again.

    • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      This is a very disheartening story. Do Australians realize anyone not brown isn’t indigenous to Australia?

    • redwattlebird @lemmings.world
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      7 days ago

      I’ll see you there then. This has been going on for long enough. They’re so full of crap, they don’t even realise that this land was never ceded from the traditional owners who have walked this part of the earth for over 60k years.

  • WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org
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    9 days ago

    Live for humanity, that’s the opposite of all this drama. They profit from your life and use you for their fights. They don’t let you have real faith in yourself or humanity because they need you to have faith in them and so they can continue to use you.

    Become fearless, have faith in self and genuine humanity, and become able to see through all this.

  • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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    9 days ago

    Right wingers in Europe are becoming more and more radicalised. I can see it everywhere but EU has itself to blame due to its failed immigration policy particularly from Africa and middle East.

    • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Congratulations on buying the propaganda you absolute chode of a human being. You’re doing exactly what Elon and all these fucking idiots want.

      • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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        8 days ago

        Here’s a lesson you can learn, you want to be heard? Don’t be a rude prick, I’m entitled to opinion as much as anyone. I’m actually pro migration.

        • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          You’re entitled to an opinion. You’re not entitled to be respected for it.

          Opinions precede action.

          • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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            8 days ago

            Actually, opinions are the foundation of democracy and therefore must be respected always. You might not agree with someone’s opinion but I’m not here to convince you otherwise. You are clearly here because your extremist voice and flagrant disrespect of anyone you disagree with stands in your own personal development. People like you are the reason the right wingers become more extreme. Proof of the matter is obvious everywhere in Europe. Politicians don’t respect the wishes of the people who elected them. The EU has had an immigration problem for at least a decade , they are now electing extremist and populist politicians out of desperation that their voice isn’t heard. Populist parties rise to power out of general unhappiness of the electorate, not the other way around.

            You might not like them, hell I certainly don’t but you cant change the society in a few years, it takes decades, even hundreds of years. Feel free to drown yourself in the sorrows of your utopia when right wing nutters are being elected all around Europe.

            • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              Opinions are the foundation of all ideologies. Hitler’s opinions on undesirables for example.

              The reason right wingers become more extreme is because of allowing their opinion on violence go unchecked lets them begin to actually start practicing it. Even the Charlie Kirk killer was a Trumpist who thought Kirk was too much to the left.

              The issue in humanity has always been that the left has always only fought back once things become dire. They’ve only ever functioned as a check to a society’s collapse rather than a deterrent to it’s downward decline. If the left actually adhered to the paradox of intolerance, then society and humankind would progress much faster, because those who are a factual detriment to society - the greedy, the power hungry, the psychopathic - wouldn’t be allowed to gain power, either permanently or through meaningful consequences.

              The issue is the left is inherently peaceful to a fault. They don’t actually go out and start punching let alone killing until it’s too late and they’ve literally been forced into it.

              It’s also why rarely does violence actually permanently fix things - because those willing to do it usually want power rather than justice, and even if that is the case, it does not remain permanent policy.

              But then, being reactionary rather than preventative to threats has always been the greatest fault of humanity, but especially the left. Not being aggressive with aggressors early on, not dealing with climate change until it’s kinda too late, etc.

              • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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                8 days ago

                And democracy is an ideology that we are supposed to follow. That ideology comes mostly in the form of representative democracy where you elect someone that is supposed to represent your group.

                You don’t know if Tyler Robinson is left or right , that is all media speculation at this stage. As someone that lived behind the iron curtain, the concept that left is inherently peaceful is complete nonsense. Neither left or right is inherently violent or peaceful. Violence of the far left and far right is always a result of someone who thinks their ideology is superior, disregards all moral grounds, and forces their will and/or dogma on somebody else. Leninist-Marxist, PLO, Earth Liberation Front, too many examples to list. I do agree that the left is generally less violent today.

                • Lumisal@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  As someone who lived behind the iron curtain, you may not realize this, but people lie.

                  Something or someone calling itself leftist does not mean it is. The USSR pretending to have been socialist is about as authentic as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea being a democracy.

                  Earth Liberation Front is about the most violent actual leftists example you listed, and even they pale in comparison to what the right wing does, and is again an appropriate response mechanism for permanently altering the climate of the entire planet in a devastating way for the fictional concept of money we have collectively decided to value. If anything, again proving my point of too little too late when you consider the consequences, and considering they formed back when there was acid rain literally happenings due to pollution.

                  The right is inherently violent because it’s an ideology of power and authority, not union and equality. Belief in power and authority is inherently violent, because subjection of humans goes against the inherent will of personhood, and will inevitably lead to conflict. The pursuit of power is also inherently violent, because it requires therefore forceful subjection. That’s why all authoritarian governments are right wing.

                  I can think of only one example in recent human history that broke that mold - only one dictator that, as far as I know, sought power solely for the purpose of improving their country and the lives of people while eliminating corruption, that being Lee Kwan Yu. They were the closet I’ve seen to an actual violent leftist ideology, and their governmental system remains an outlier in that it’s a democratic competitive authoritarian system.

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      That’s just not true. They are radicalized by lies, propaganda and the hate spread by right wing grifters.

      • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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        8 days ago

        This is not a chicken and egg problem. Extremists are a result of society’s ailments, not the other way around. . I’ll give you a few examples from the 20th century.

        • Hitler - became leader of Germany because of the impact WW1 had on German society
        • Al Queda/ISIS - got into position of power due to the suppression of moderate leaders by authoritarian regimes ie. Taliban.
        • IRA - the discrimination of Irish Catholics by the British-protestant colonialist.
        • Khmer Rouge - got into power due to Vietnam war bombing of Cambodia.
        • Kokutai - the perceived betrayal by the west after WW1 (yes Japan fought against Germany in WW1), lead to the rise of extremist ideologies which supplanted Japan’s desire to fight against the West.
        • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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          7 days ago

          got into position of power due to the suppression of moderate leaders by authoritarian regimes ie. Taliban

          The Taliban came long after Al-Qaida and had very similar ideology. They were organised and funded by the Pakistani security service, the IIS. The original Taliban groups were Pakistani seminary students harassing the less backward elements of Pakistani society. The movement was later spread to Afghanistan. And the Taliban were allied with Al-Qaida, never attempted to suppress them. Some other Middle Eastern governments tried to suppress them (Saddam’s Iraq, successfully; Egypt’s corrupt military junta, far less so). The Taliban hosted Al-Qaida fighters and training camps, and elements of the Pakistani military provided Bin Laden with safe haven on a military base.

          Al-Qaida started as a Wahhabi-based xenophobic movement to purge Saudi Arabia of Western influence. The Wahhabi movement itself was a fanatical Sunni movement founded over 200 years ago with the intent to exterminate non-Sunni Muslims and non-Muslims. The Saudi and Qatari royal families are Wahhabi. The former from a more virulent faction than the latter.

          Anyway, that’s just one of your bullet points dismantled. In general, the idea that every group of extremists was somehow inevitably caused by some kind of social upheaval or injustice is simplistic and has no predictive value.

        • nialv7@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Sure, but the ailment of our time is not immigrants. It’s wealth inequality, it’s 1% enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else, it’s unchecked self-destructive capitalism.

          Rich people are the problem, not immigrants. And it’s lie and propaganda that drove people to believe otherwise.

          • Petr Janda@gonzo.markets
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            7 days ago

            That is true about the state of capitalism today. However, you choose not to see the relationship between the inherent nature of human tribalism, which is as old as humanity itself, and seeing a large influx of aliens in your tribe, as part of that same tribal nature. If you want to change the human nature, you will require a long time, if it’s at all possible. The left, just like the right, gets caught up in the cycle of “we have power, we can do everything we want, and we want do it now” when these deep societal changes require very long time to be implemented peacefully, perhaps the length of a life time.

  • Mike Hunt@lemmy.ml
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    9 days ago

    It’s crazy that people are claiming 3 million, I refuse to believe people are actually believing it.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    here in the states younger patrons come in have said they related to him and are in mourning

    fucking nuts just yesterday a younger couple came in and was the first thing mentioned and was like what about his views on keeping women in their place or his other extreme owner class ideals and woman with him stayed very quiet and busied herself with petting the shop cat

    nothing but praise for the guy came from them or any other of most of the younger patrons and even the older crowd seems to be for him but the media is toxic and controlled as is all narratives even with education

    United States was never the United States for all of us here but feels like getting worse but want to keep being hopeful just challenging

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Absolute fucking morons.

    Every single one of those people is going to end up in poverty as a direct result of who they want to elect.

    • Darren@sopuli.xyz
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      9 days ago

      Even then, it’ll be the fault of the people coming over with fuck all to try and rebuild their lives.

    • comrade_twisty@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

      What you have to understand about these people is that they already feel they are down on their luck and are to weak to do anything about it.

      The best they can hope for to feel better about themselves is that other people are even worse off, which is why they are so full of hate and want immigrants to be punished.