Opinion
The Road to Perdition of Jeremy Corbyn's most extreme supporters
The thought process of some of Jeremy Corbyn’s most fanatical devotees is extremely simple, but no less scary for it. Here is how it works.
September 12, 2018 12:50
4 min read
The thought process of some of Jeremy Corbyn’s most fanatical devotees is extremely simple, but no less scary for it. Here is how it works.
September 12, 2018 12:50You're 20 years old and unemployed. You've grown up in poverty, watching a government cut operating budgets for vital resources because there “wasn't any money”. There seemed to be more than enough money for the people leading that government, and all their friends in the financial sector. It was you and your brother and your Mum who suffered. You're angry.
Or you're in your forties and work in the NHS. You've seen services slashed to the bone. The government says they're putting more money in, and that's technically true, but factors such as population growth mean that the system’s needs hugely outpace the growth in spending. You see nurses and doctors being forced to work shifts which make it all but inevitable that terrible mistakes, due to sheer exhaustion, will be made. You see administrators desperately trying to manage by cutting care provision but calling it “consolidation”. You're furious.
Or you’re in your fifties. You've worked in the building trade all your life, but now suffer from crippling arthritis. You don't have qualifications for a desk job, and no easy way of obtaining any. You are made to feel like a beggar by a government which demands seventeen different kinds of proof of your condition, and even then are reluctant to help. You know people who were classified as ‘fit to work’ when they were almost on their deathbeds. You are incandescent with rage at the injustice.
And then a leader comes along who tells you that things don't have to be this way. A man who you believe has spent his whole life fighting against injustice. Against seemingly impossible odds, he has become leader of the Labour Party. And now he's in touching distance of leading the country.
Never mind that he doesn't offer a great deal of detail as to how exactly he will go about ending the injustice. The important thing is that he sees the injustice - he gets it, in a way no other politician you've seen before does.
True, he can't point to much in the way of legislation he's introduced during his decades in Parliament which would actually make the country a better place, but when there were protest marches against all forms of injustice, he was there, marching alongside you. When he talks about the inequality in this country, you can hear how it pains him.
How can anyone not get behind him and his message of change?
Now, there are a lot of bad stories which have circulated about him. Apparent associations with some nasty people over the years. But who’s spreading these stories? News organisations controlled by the wealthy and powerful, the good friends of the same government that's been keeping you and others like you down in the dirt. They know what's coming for them if your man gets it. So of course they're willing to lie about him, or twist the truth until it's unrecognisable. Your man hates injustice, that's all. He spoke to some unsavoury people, certainly, but only to open up a dialogue which might help to bring about peace. Never mind that he only ever seems to have spoken to those on one side of any argument, it was all done with positive intentions.
But there's another group of people who seem to have a problem with your man. They claim to be terrified of him. Most recently, they've claimed he's an antisemite. It fills you with anger to hear Jeremy - you can call him Jeremy, after all, he's more than a politician, he's your friend - slandered in such a fashion.
He's a lifelong anti-racist! These Jews don't know what they’re talking about, that's all.
But maybe it goes further than that. After all, everyone knows Jews are rich - they must have a lot to lose if Jeremy gets in. And many of them support Israel, too, which everyone knows is a bad place. Yes, that must be it - they support Israel, while Jeremy, who hates injustice, has campaigned against Israel for decades. No wonder they don't want him getting in. Anyway, there's a small group of Jews telling you that it’s all nonsense, these smears against Jeremy. They're the real Jews, this lot. The others must all be lying.
The press - that Tory loving press - won't shut up about it though. And neither will the MPs - people who claim to call themselves ‘Labour’, but they're against Jeremy, so they're traitors. This issue of Jeremy and the Jews won't go away, even though you know that it’s all a lie, that it's all a smear. Jeremy loves Jews. Haven't you seen that picture of him smiling and shaking a Rabbi’s hand?
The more you think about this, the angrier you feel. How dare they do this. How dare they say these things. They've never felt the poverty you have - they're all rich, aren't they? They've never been desperate. They're just saying these things to keep people like you down. You've been reading all about it on some pro-Corbyn blogs. You don't bother reading mainstream media anymore - why bother? It's all lies, anyway. And there are a lot of Jews working for the mainstream media, aren't there? And in the financial sector. Surely that can't be a coincidence.
You just wish they'd be quiet, for once. But those damn Jews just won't shut up, with their lies. In fact, you've heard there's actually a book called The Jews and their Lies. And another, called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, revealing the extent of Jewish control. Some guy was talking about it in the We Love Corbyn Facebook group you're part of. Maybe these Jews hate Jeremy so much because they realise he can't be bought, or because their loyalty is really to Israel.
One thing’s for sure, if they prevent Jeremy from getting into Number 10, you'll make sure they pay for it. You've been reading the New Testament, and it wouldn't be the first time they sought to take down a good and righteous man who was calling out injustice.
And if Jeremy does get in despite the best efforts of those Jews, they're in for a world of hurt. You'll make sure of it.
Welcome to Perdition.
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