I live in London. Let me give the facts:
1. Stabbings by a British born with African parents
2. He was a Christian choirboy
3. Reports that he was just a normal kid
4. People attacking mosques
5. People attacking police
6. Indiscriminate vandalism
What the protesters believe:
1. UK is less than 15% of Muslims, but country is being Islamified apparently
2. Police didn't stop Palestine protests but are out for these protests, unfair (they can't see the level of their own violence)
3. Stop the boats (a legitimate discussion point)
Some facts about EDL and similar groups (clips are on social media) :
1. Leader Tommy Robinson lives in Spain
2. One lady believe that the Titanic sank because of there being too many people on board, dismisses the involvement of the iceberg
3. The legend who says that the evil Muslims are making a "Muslamic ray gun" - guy even has a song about it
My take is that they are concerned about immigration and that is a valid concern and should be discussed. Unfortunately, these fuckers are so stupid to the level that they can't construct a sentence. I worked at West Ham and met thousands, they have the cognitive ability of 3 year olds. They'll lick a Vindaloo of the street, but hate Indians at the same time.
What they want to say (based on the demographic of the rioters) is that immigrants are taking their jobs and money that should be given to them. Despite UK not producing much talent in anything, they should not hire foreigners, but in London at least no hospital could last a day without foreign skilled or willing to do jobs that these lazy shits want to do.
I know London is in its own bubble, but I'll say that the Africans are the ones that make this a Christian country because only they have kept the churches alive. Other groups that have built places of worship have done so for their community, they pay from their pockets and fill them up. I was in academic science for 10 years and the most brilliant minds can be found from all ethnicities. The minority in my university were British White. These literally worthless rioters can't see that the UK would be nothing with foreigners.
I'm 100% sure that had England won the Euros, there would be no riots whatsoever. This small set of idiots are that dumb.
Nice summary. And you're right about Christianity and Africans. The Catholic Church, for example, knows Europe is a lost cause. Even the U.S. South America has stagnated, and their real growth and new zealots are all in Africa now. How ironic that Africa is arguably the future of Christianity.
Nazism/fascism of 20th century is often taught as a gross aberration in "civilized" european history that left as quickly as it appeared, but in reality it was a continuation of european colonialism and its logic (white supremacy, manifest destiny, etc.) turned inwards onto europe itself. That former nazis reintegrated into the west rather easily after the war is less surprising through that lens.
Have you heard of MAGA Communists? It's a wild ride. There are people who see Trump as the white-wing populist messiah that has shifted the Overton Window to allow for a new communist social order rooted in populism. Basically, they're cheering on the MAGA maniacs to keep drinking the Kool-Aid, because they think they show the tendencies that will make them good American commies.
Their one worthy point to explore is that none of this is right or left anyway. It's all a distraction as ways of defending the moneyed interests of the capitalist oligarchy.
Has been for a long time.
Brexit was the nail in the coffin.
The exceptionalism is what bugs me. Solzhenitsyn was right about human nature. It's not just "those 20% who prefer authoritarianism". That ratio is in everybody. And all it takes is conditions, such as gang violence in El Salvador or drug lords in the Philippines, to make people switch when democratic rule seems a failure.
Brexit was the nail in the coffin, and ironically it arguably demonstrated that isolationism and nativism are a failed economic strategy in a modern world.
What's happening in many UK cities isn't all that original compared to, say, American cities when many descendants of black slaves from the South moved north for industrial jobs and moved in to traditionally white neighborhoods during the 20th century.
But it's the identity thing I struggle with. It's the "Hi, I’m your neighbor. Not only do I get to decide my own life, I get to do it for you too: whether you can live near me, your skin color, the God you worship, whether or not you can have children and how many … you know, to counter the Great Replacement. This is because of my birthright and commitment to freedom."
Xenophobia is real, and human nature will always supply plenty examples of bad people doing bad things of any race, religion, etc. But it's that belief that everyone around me has to tribally has to look a lot like me, even if I will never ever want to speak with them other than through a mobile phone on my X account. Talk about a Kool-Aid-chugging idea that's rooted in a delusional history of idyllic myths of past prosperity and community that was never true.
I grew up in a neighborhood on the edge of Chicago where everyone was a white South Sider, but half the people you couldn't trust because they were either thieves, drug addicts, or assh*les. Of course, I eventually became an emigrant willingly out of privilege, so I'm loaded with bias.