Primary Colours

You know, for those that have the ability to embrace a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-social, non-binary, rainbow world it is quite alarming how they can only actually see things in binary black and white. While they simultaneously adopt contradictory positions - feminists against feminists, gays backing immigration from profoundly hetero-centric cultures - they cannot conceive, even in their cognitively disordered minds, that others who do not share their doublethink could ever be right. They appear to accuse us of having a monotheistic stance to everything.

In their world view anybody who does not automatically confer uncritical approval on even the tiniest minority proclivity is an unreconstructed caveman with a single bigoted brain cell. It is far easier to cast a bogeyman as wholly bogey than of having shades, hints, of common decency. Far more effective to tar the whole man as just a part of him; that way the feathers are going to stick wherever they fall. They talk of us ‘othering’ those who don’t fit neatly into our world view, yet they do precisely the same when they assume that somebody with a different vision for society from them must be an inhuman monster.

So, a Tory voter is automatically a hater of the poor, a denier of human rights, a money-grubbing investment banker working for the global anti-humanist cabal, when the reality is that he or she almost certainly works, struggles to make ends meet, believes in the social contract and loves their children just as much as somebody who insists it is the state’s job to feed and house them. All humans are non-binary in their views; there are very few absolutes, but in order to foment rage against those of us who feel no need to constantly protest, we are painted in single, primary colours to mark us out for vilification.

But why are we not allowed to be sceptical when things are not as clear cut as some people want it to be? It’s not that we completely refute that human activity has an effect on climate change, but that knee-jerk punishment taxation may not be the most effective way of combating it. It’s not that we think people of different skin hues are inferior, but when crime rates soar as a direct result of mass immigration from the third world, surely we need to establish why and take measures to protect ourselves. And it’s not that we don’t accept that some people are genuinely born with the wrong sexual equipment, we just don’t believe it is a great idea to suggest transgenderism to malleable young minds.

But none of these qualifications are recognised; we are climate change deniers for questioning policy which financially disadvantages those least able to afford it. We are labelled racists because we object to female genital mutilation and organised ethnic rape gangs. And we are monstrous transphobes for believing that the gender dysphoric are a truly tiny minority. We can’t order society to recognise and respond equally to all differences; in a democracy the wishes of the majority are used to direct policy and the compassionate consideration of the minorities seeks to include them wherever we can. I wonder how all these differences competing for attention would fare under a mob rule system?

No matter what our true beliefs, we will be excoriated as racist Nazi scum for daring to suggest that we should each seek to heal ourselves. That self-reliance is a far better strategy than expecting others to come to our aid; that jumping to conclusions about another’s allegiances based on one strongly held belief is naïve and unhelpful. But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander (although PETA would frown on such vegan-phobic language) so we all indulge in similar miscasting of our adversaries’ motives.

Whadda you got?

But the phenomenon isn’t even-handed. The devil, they might say, makes dogma for the idle to adopt and those occupied more fully in leading good lives, supporting a family, instilling values of fairness and a genuine work ethic don’t pay much heed to labelling. Those who recognise that waiting for outside agencies to wave a magic wand over your life chances is futile have little need for the conjuring up of demons to hate. But those who would most benefit from adopting the mindset of the strivers are apt instead to give way to envy and blame all their ills on the ordinary people who are, out-of-character, going to march in London on Sunday in yellow hi-viz vests to protest the sidelining of democracy. Colour me shocked