You've been looking in the wrong direction, the dangers are coming from the right.

I'm accussing them of make the world a more dangerous place in which millions of people have to suffer. They are doing this for their own power and agendas and to protect the version of life that they are comfortable with even if it means this suffering and subjugation of others.

Why does there have to be a leader? There are several influential figures. Putin, Rupert Murdoch, Christian Chandler, Steve Bannon, Nigel Farage, Angelos Frangopoulos, Boris Johnson, Jacobs Rees Mogg, Donald Trump, Marine LePen, Charles Koch, Viktor Orban, Bolsanaro, Lukaschenko, Tucker Carlson, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and many many more I'm sure.

Is all this a surprise to you?

Do you think there has to be collective group with an appointed leader and strategies for anything I'm saying to be the case?

This from today in the House of Commons.

Arron Banks, for those who have failed to connect the dots, is the man who is suing Carol Cadwalladr because she correctly identified him as being problematic with respect to Brexit.

Nice little earner for Farage, even though not all that is from RT, sure he can be trusted to be unbiased on his nightly show on GB News. As I pointed out last night, this is why he has tried to deflect attention on to the topic of climate change and trying to prevent anything meaningful happening there. He knows he will find welcoming ears for that argument and then they are likely to defacto defend him on the topic of Russia.

Call out the people who are causing damage to democratic processes, governance and the intent to work towards a prosperous secure planet for as many as possible.

Don't laugh them off as being 'good for ratings', entertaining, just calling it as they see it or anything else. If you're going to get mad at people supposedly doing damage to the world, get mad at the right people. What else can anyone do?

Again with the 'all the worlds ills'.

You claim to know what it is I think and you can't even repeat what it is I am saying, maybe slow down a tad and have a think about what I've said before presuming or actually wishing I said something else that is easier for you to challenge.

There was no need for you to give us your own life's evolution with respect to politics like it included some sort of moment of revelation, I haven't referred to you specifically and yet it seems as if you feel I did as if I touched a nerve with respect to your personal position. If you truly understood politics, you would know that Putin was never considered as far left as you could go. He has always fallen under the category of a dictator with personal motivations and never displayed any sort of benevolence towards the people of Russia.

You are correct about the existence of floating voters, that has always been the case, and yet if you stopped to think about it long enough, you would see how recent significant elections say there is something going on and that people do not seem to be voting based on the performance of the candidates. Trump saw his vote count increase after 4 years of a wildly ineffectual and damaging Presidency which culminated in his disastrous management of Covid, inflaming of the BLM conversation and his undermining of election integrity. And this happened because he and his friends in the media (his very close friends in particular) created a false flag where the enemy was this 'radical socialist left' of which there is zero real world evidence of in the US, and they nearly pulled it off.

Similar happened in the UK with Johnson being handed an 80 seat majority despite the disclosure of the falsehoods of Brexit, his own ineptitude and self-serving motivations and again a media diverting focus from these realities. (That's not ignoring Labours ineptitude in presenting an alternative which was also a factor that led to the final scale of the majority)

Just to go back to your opening statement about my presumed assumption that 'only the left are open to robust debate and discussion.' Again, they're your words, not mine. But I would point out the examples throughout the recent years of right wing influencers directly expressing no interest in the views of medical scientists in relation to dealing with Covid, Trumps history of wanting to claim that he knows more than anyone about anything and Michael Gove saying that people had had enough of experts. And as for the open and robust debate and discussion about the climate situation, where is that among right wing ideologies?

Are you aware the case only concluded being heard in January and a judgement has yet to be announced?

You clearly assume way too much.

To make it clear as to my own experience in engaging with people from various groups, I've said this before, and really don't need to defend my position, but I've nothing to hide.

As you know, I currently live in the US. Here, I am good friends with a number of conservatives, including one who worked for a US senator, although they typically weren't in direct contact with them. We discuss politics frequently. I'm casual 'friends' with a former cop who is very anti anything Liberal. In my friends back in Ireland, there are a couple who hold views similar to yourself. I'm also friends here with a Russian whose young family is still in Russia. He too is conservative in nature and was a Trump fan of sorts. From my time in the UK, I have a Muslim friend of Indian heritage and a number of Asian friends from various backgrounds. So I'm more than comfortable with saying that I feel I have lived far from a blinkered existence.

When it comes to News media, I've watched way more Fox than CNN, NBC or what have you though no longer really watch any television.

You are consistently trying to make this about me, that's fine, I'm more than happy to defend my own position, but shouldn't have to repeat it when I've said it already more than once.

With that out of the way, for what is I think the 3rd time to you directly, I have never expressed the position that anything non-left wing is evil. Stop trying to give life to that strawman so you can pretend to kick it to death.

Maybe instead of looking at yourself, as some perceived exemplar, you should look at the world around you and see what is going on within it.

The evidence is there, don't ignore it. Or try to deflect from it.

You are posting like you dropped in to the middle of the thread and don't know what it is what was said in the OP, I suggest you read it again or maybe post 116 is a succinct summary that might work for you.

The sense I get from your posts is that you are deliberately misconstruing what I've said, I've clearly and repeatedly referenced Brexit, Covid and the climate conversation as being influenced by this mindset. All these are relevant to people in Ireland. And we already observe and discuss in detail events in the US.

I also said that I no longer watch cable news TV, and haven't for at least 5 years, (obviously I see snippets here and there but no longer have access to turn it on immediately). You have no idea how long I have been in the US but suffice to say it is less time than I have been posting on Boards, and is inside the timeframe since I stopped having access to constant cable news. And yet you insist that that is why I have a particular view.

And stop with this nonsense of me trying to force my framing on Irish people. We have countless threads on here about issues outside of Ireland, many of the conversations on here that touch on the right wing ideologies are started by people referring to events in the US or elsewhere outside Ireland, do you think that is trying to force a view on Irish people? Was the thread on multiculturalism in Sweden specifically relevant to Ireland moreso than anything that I have discussed here? Or how about events with migrants in European cities? The fact that you think I am doing this and are apparently ok with threads on the other topics is exactly why I felt it was appropriate to put this thread on here.

I didn't say global politics is aping America, I said there are similarities in politics around the world with events in the US. Do you see the difference?

You are correct, Irish politics does not have a credible 'the right' and lets hope it stays that way. And that doesn't mean I want only a Left wing government either, Ireland doesn't have that either. We did have a thread on here not so long ago saying that we need a stronger right wing viewpoint in Irish politics so, not that I need it, I think that is more than enough to talk about the issues with that mindset.

You had me 'tapped straight away' 😁 I see you're influenced by american terminology yourself. As I said, I'm posting on Boards since 2014, way before I came to US so you might want to stick to the day job before becoming an online detective.

What would you think if I dug out some 4Chan posts and suggested the were the same as the frequent non-woke type threads we see on here frequently?

All of the above aside, again, you're focused on me, which is fine, I get it, shoot the messenger and all that. But the point from the OP still stands, right wing ideology is currently, and has been for several years, much more likely to generate ideals that are bad for society if not outright disastrous. The focus on pro-nouns and what bathrooms people use has been a deliberate deflection tactic.