This is not a question of global geopolitics any further than that the whole world has jolted badly to the right. The US has two parties. The Republicans - by policy - are further right than any mainstream party in Europe. The Democrats are at best left of centre but currently are led by a right of centre Biden. They are not pushing socialism in any meaningful way and continue to pander to the money. So, the US has no left, it rejected Bernie Sanders and continues to exist as a nationalist state which puts the needs of the wealthy ahead of the needs of the poor. How about you read something beyond your right wing nutcase commentators and broaden your own knowledge of the world- since you are so open to both sides?
It’s funny that you described it almost as I see it, whilst still being totally wrong about almost all your other takes . Although I would debate the Biden right of Center point. I would argue that he doesn’t know where he is himself, other than a corruption filled dementia care home. He is quite a corrupt and heinous individual tbh. I don’t know why he gets so much love
No. But he is at least as bad. Just the corruption is hidden because the Dem media shouts louder than the Rep media. Also, Biden is actually a racist. Have you seen the clips of him from his early career? He seemed to be virtually pro-segregation at one point. The virtue signalling he does now makes me feel sick.
So you prefer someone who makes sexual comments about his own daughter, defrauds ordinary people, goes to war with little girls, attacks people who want to keep their land when building his golf courses, hides evidence, and most importantly throws tantrums and attacks the very roots of democracy when he loses? Got it!
I don’t prefer either. Like I said, I don’t subscribe do identity politics. I would choose someone based on policies and if I think they will make my family’s life better, and the country as a whole better. I don’t like either, or think they’re good people. But I would have voted for Trump over Biden for a few reasons. I think a big problem with politics today is that people but into this “left v right” thing, where each side has to lander to certain views. It’s one of the big reasons democracy is failing. For example; because I think vaccine mandates are immoral, you and few more on here think I’m fully right wing. When it’s simply not the case. You have bought into these narratives that the media have created. Imo you can be progressive on some topics, conservative on others. I don’t like the way some people think they know someone’s political leanings based on certain topics. It shows they’ve bought into propaganda
If he feels so strongly about this subject, he has a choice. Resign from his well paid job and seek election to be an MP on a very much reduced salary. He can then actually put his money where his mouth is. This applies to all rich celebrities who preach from the side lines.
What about Andrew Neil for example then? He is allowed to be a contractor for the BBC and the right wing Spectator...
I don't understand the fuss regarding Lineker's post. He is a free-lancer and not an employee of the BBC and is surely entitled to have his own opinion as opposed to trot out the anodyne reporting of the BBC - especially with regard to the country's immigration policy. The comment was made on a platform other than the BBC's and he has put his money where his mouth is by accommodating refugees in his house. There is no way he should have been made to stand down from Match of the Day and the whole episode is a storm in a teacup which, if anything, will alienate the readers of the newspapers who have pushed for Lineker to be sacked. The issue of immigration is not a UK issue but a global one brought about by the fact that life is extremely difficult due to political stability encouraged by the influence of states such as the US, Russia and China as well as the issue of global warming which has made some environments unhospitable. I can see a future where this will have become such as issue that people will need to migrate to the western world to survive and that this will happen at such a volume that there will be nothing that these countries will be able to do about immigration. It is something that the West will need to prepare for and accept that it will have to accommodate. Turning boats away is not a solution as it is just deferring the problem rather than fixing it. This will persist as long as the West remains more viable than other parts of the world.
Ok, but if that’s the case every current BBC employee or subcontractor now needs to have their social media history during their employment vetted and be suspended if they have commentated on the government or opposition, they will then have to make the same choice. The problem with the Lineker situation is they have applied a double standard. I also find it hard to believe he would have been suspended had he praised the language instead, but that’s conjecture.
But Lineker does practice what he has preached. He has housed refugees and therefore I would suggest he has a degree of knowledge regarding the topic he is speaking about. Even if I agreed that something needs to be done about immigration, I could never accept that this government has made a good job about managing it. As I have said, the levels of immigration we are experiencing at the moment and likely to experience in the future are not things we can ever hope to manage and control. We need to work out how the situation can be accommodated and managed as opposed to preventing people from migrating. This might mean an extensive foreign aid policy which goes well beyond what we currently spend and that represents a significant chunk of our GDP. The only solution is re-distribution of wealth but this is something that the West has never really mastered.
I'd actually disagree that Biden is right of center at this time. Biden is the consummate party man; he is wherever his party is. In the 1980s and 1990, the center of gravity in the Democratic Party was a bit further right (the party had a much greater ideological spread then, because there were still Southern Democrats who were considerably more conservative than even Joe Manchin, just as there were genuine GOP moderates), and consequently Biden staked out positions that were in the ideological center of the party as it existed then. His positions are more broadly centre-left now, though with a couple notable exceptions, mostly crime/immigration (unfortunately). On the broader point though, you are correct. The Democratic Party is a pretty standard centre-left party on the international scene. The Republican Party is miles further to the right than any 'mainstream' right-wing party: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/opinion/sunday/republican-platform-far-right.html And that data is a few years out of date. The GOP has slid quite a bit further right since then. The Democratic Party hasn't done anything similar.
To really put the cat amongst the pigeons Gary Linaker needs to make a very generous donation to the Labour Party and make sure it is well publicised.
More straw men. Someone above gave a list of reasons as to why they thought you were right wing. More than just the view on vaccine mandates (which never existed in the way you claimed and you admitted to). But you focused on the parts of those posts that you took to be personal attacks than the lists given. What did you think the purpose of the “walks like a duck” posts were? It was people explaining to you, with clear lists of examples, why they think you are right wing. And you have done absolutely nothing to convince them otherwise. You are under no obligation to. But you can’t then whinge about being called right wing. If you aren’t - prove it. If you are - perhaps just own it? You talk a lot about being open to both sides but you are not. You just are not. You rarely (if ever) bring up talking points that haven’t been promoted by those on the right. What you do instead is try to dispute that those people are on the right. If you don’t like people taking a guess at your political leanings based on a mountain of evidence you give them then perhaps make some effort to appear more balanced? That might work. Provide a crumb of evidence that you consume something other than commentators who are focused on appealing to the American Right with their commentary.
The Dem media shouts louder than the Republican media? You can’t actually be serious? It’s comments like this that make people call you right wing (whether you are or not, and it doesn’t matter if you are but you seem to think it does). It is just utterly divorced from any semblance of reality.
