Sunday Independent - 3 December 2023

So they're trying the Great Replacement theory on us

They are in too deep to see themselves as suckers, the kind of people who trashed the US Capitol for Trump - many of whom have gone to jail for a long time, while their main man is still out there, denying all responsibility. They are McGregor without the money - and when you consider how angry he is despite all that opulence, the mind boggles at how angry they are without it.

Yet because they live in a world of Steve Bannon's bullshit, somehow they will never be angry about the right things.

I keep going back to the great film Nomadland, about this world of people abandoned for the greater good of Corporate America, and that moment when it hits you: that the evil genius of the far right is to persuade such victims of the oligarchs that their problems are caused by those who have even less money than they do.

And that those with the most money - Trump, Musk, Carlson, McGregor - are somehow on their side.

They're not... obviously.

I was listening to an interview on The Stand with Eamon Dunphy with Philip O'Connor on the current situation in Sweden where the prime minister has called in the head of the armed forces to help deal with a surge in gang related killings.

The conversation progressed to deal with more recent Swedish political history such as the rise of the Sweden Democrats and how they went from neo-Nazi skinheads in bomber jackets to the power brokers in the Swedish parliament. This can provide a warning to those dismissing the Irish far-right figures.

He also mentioned "The Oxygen of Amplification" report written by Whitney Phillips which provides some useful guidelines for reporting on the internet. I want to read that again.