We’re losing the centre to the lunatic fringe

PURITY of ideology has become the new god, writes Michael McGuire. Never has it been truer that the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and it doesn’t matter how loathsome they are.

IS anyone for anything anymore?

Or are we all just against something else? Or somebody else. Both sides of this increasingly polarised world seem to be much more comfortable trying to tear the other side down, rather than building themselves up.

It can’t be healthy to only define yourself by what you are not.

It’s the rise of the antis. The anti-Muslims, the anti-immigrants, the anti-climate changers, the anti-vaxxers, the anti-Trumps, the anti-capitalists, anti-religion, anti-western civilisation, anti-feminists. And it goes on and on, feeding into an increasingly hysterical world where shades of grey, subtlety and communication have all been abandoned at the altar of those that shout the loudest.

We are full of people telling us what they don’t want in this world. As if we can only save society by destroying it first.

You can see it with those who are pro and anti-Donald Trump. Of course, Trump makes it easy for those who are against him. He’s clearly an abject human being. He is an egomaniac, probably a bit dim, who is only interested in America in as much as it adds to what he perceives as his personal glory and ambition.

Trump, of course, is anti-just about everything, with the possible exception of anti-racist (which is one of the good-antis). He’s also fond of Russia and Vladimir Putin, of course. Trump’s personal credo appears to be the bigger the lie, the louder I will shout it.

UK white supremacist Tommy Robinson was failed for repeatedly putting at risk a trial by breaching media reporting restrictions around a criminal trial. (Pic: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP)

Those on his side of the fence are okay with overlooking the blatantly obvious lies because he takes on those they perceive to be their own enemies. Some combination of shadowy elites, big business, the media and other politicians. Perhaps it’s just a variation on the old proverb: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend’’, but more than ever both left and right seem to be huddling together in smaller, more extreme camps, leaving the vast middle ground untended.

Last week, Laura Southern, another of those far-right activists — big on shouting, light on thinking — was in Australia. There was a brief kerfuffle when it seemed her visa was denied. That was shaping up as a “free speech’’ battle until it emerged the wrong visa had been applied for. Of course, people like Southern should be allowed in the country. That way we can see the stupidity close up.

Southern is a professional agitator. If she were playing ‘anti-bingo’, she’d be calling ‘house’ while others were still looking for their seats. She is anti-Islam, anti-feminist, anti-immigrant. She is “pro-white’’ though, so that’s something. And pro-gun, which is just a fancy way of saying ‘anti-life’.

Protesters disrupted Lauren Southern’s Melbourne event, and nothing could have made her happier. (Pic: Lawrence Pinder)

She feeds on controversy and some in the perpetually outraged left indulged her by protesting at her Melbourne event, leading to the predictable “clashes’’ with police. The sad thing is Southern needed this protest as much as the protesters need her. Not so much a meeting of minds as a meeting of the mindless.

But obviously Southern was warmly welcomed by right-wing politicians and right-wing commentators as a fellow traveller. Just like Milo Yiannopoulos was last year, despite making remarks suggesting sex between “younger boys” and “older men” could be beneficial.

And Tommy Robinson has been by feted by former Labor leader Mark Latham and Australian Conservatives leader Cory Bernardi. Robinson is virulently anti-Islamic and founder of the English Defence League. You don’t hear so much about his multiple identities, his criminal conviction for assaulting a police officer who intervened in a domestic dispute with his partner, his conviction for mortgage fraud, for travelling on a stolen passport.

His most recent jail stint is for contempt of court because he risked collapsing a trial that had suppressions applied to it.

The point being that sections of society are becoming so polarised that purity of ideology has become the new god. If someone like Robinson shares your ideology they are your friend, end of story, and we’ll overlook they are a violent criminal with a penchant for fraud.

It’s an approach that lacks intellect. It lacks common sense. It is pushing the poles of political debate further and further apart.

The losers are all those left standing in the middle ground where politics used to be fought.

Michael McGuire is a senior writer at the Adelaide Advertiser.