Mick Hartley

It’s the old red-green alliance again – the hard left and the Islamists. Jawad Iqbal in the Times – Tears for ayatollah are a troubling sign in British cities:

How is anyone to make sense of the outbreak of grief at some UK mosques and universities after the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? While Iranians celebrate the death of a tyrant, a small minority in this country choose to hail Khamenei as a martyr. It is both unfathomable and deplorable….

The sympathy for Iran’s theocracy reveals a troubling mindset, shared by many on the so-called progressive left, that defines itself primarily through opposition to western motives and actions. Is there any explanation for this praise for Khamenei? Well, he was a powerful religious authority and spiritual guide for many millions of Shia Muslims worldwide. Marking the passing of a major religious figure by those of the same faith is natural enough — but context is everything. He was also the merciless head of a regime that routinely butchered its own people, denied women the most basic rights and freedoms, jailed political opponents and sponsored terrorism.

Green for Islam – but also green for, well, the Greens. According to the latest opinion polls they now command the support of an astonishing 21% of the electorate after their victory at the Gorton and Denton by-election. Their leader, Zack Polanski, seems little better than a grifter who’ll say anything for his fifteen minutes of fame, while deputy leader Mothin Ali is an Islamist who supports the Iranian regime and whose wife covers her face with a niqab. That’s what is unfathomable and deplorable. They don’t even pretend to care about the environment any more.

Patrick West in the Spectator – The real reason Greens are gaining ground – sees the new wave of supporters as, basically, political illiterates:

Ten years ago, this was the demographic who were being instructed in ultra-progressive dogma at school, or who were entering academia, where their skewered view of the world and fantastical take on the human condition became further entrenched. It was at university where they learnt about the evils of Western ‘civilisation’ – those contemptuous inverted commas being mandatory – the unconscious racism built into the minds of white people, and the unique European crime of colonisation, with Israel now standing as the epitome of that villainy.

Those school children and students of ten years ago, with their highly moralistic, Manichean politics and otherworldly theories on gender and race, are now the voters of today. They are also our first post-literate generation, a demographic which doesn’t read newspapers, which doesn’t read books willingly, who instead get their politics on their smartphones from emotive TikTok videos devoid of nuance, depth and context. This is the demographic with a reduced attention span that doesn’t even listen to radio bulletins or watch the news from reputed broadcasting organisations.

A generation which has been taught that all knowledge is relative has got what it wanted: news with no pretence at impartiality, propaganda masquerading as reportage from partisan activists and bad faith actors. All of this depthless and dubious content, delivered with breathless hyperbole, reinforces the notion that the world can be clearly divided into good and bad people and forces.

It’s also the generation that’s been led to believe that racism is the ultimate sin, and that Islamophobia is racism. That sees criticism of women wearing veils as “racist as fuck”.

I’m still hoping this is all a mid-term malaise as people express their frustrations with a useless Labour government, after years of useless Tory governments, but I’m not that confident any more.