Why I left the modern Scottish left (and don't worry, I'm not a right-winger nor a Tory nor a Unionist nor a member of the far right)
As Dave Rubin once said directly to camera in an 8-minute-long clip from his show The Rubin Report on 25th January 2017, "The Left is no longer Liberal."
This is what I sadly see happening with the modern day political left in Scotland today. I was once proud to be a part of it throughout my childhood & teenagehood & young adult life but since 2016, I have had to distance myself from them because of their crazy antics.
Having been diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism in 1999 when I was 5 years old and having been through both primary and secondary school classrooms which involve having to be around those that have just as much or more difficulties than yours truly, who wouldn't ever want to be the person that cares about the little guy and gal as well as many other people? Who also wouldn't want to be brought up to value character over backgrounds and identies of any kind rather than experience blatant racism, sectarianism, sexism, homphobia, etc? Having also experienced the bad side of applying for Job Seeker's Allowance benefits in the early 2010s, who wouldn't want to campaign for better reforms in the welfare state, as much as it doesn't always do economic good in the long term? Who also wouldn't want to greatly value the natural environment around us? And finally, who wouldn't want to the voices of our fellow Scots to be heard in Westminster since we have elected MPs that serve us there from a system that supposed to serve us but doesn't always do that? That was what ultimately helped me to shape my liberal values.
I voted for Scottish Independence in 2014 (and would vote that way again if automatic EU membership is not likely) and voted for Brexit in 2016 and just like 2014, I would 100% do so again not just for achieving real freedom from outdated unions (see my previous post on the pledge of allegiance our politicians have to take) but because the insane virtue-signalling, temper-tantrums, identity politics, increased self-imposed victimhood. the increasingly open hatred of freedom & liberty itself as well as, most importantly, the unwillingness to actually listen & talk to anyone that raises concerns about regressive parts of any culture and authoritarian laws & policies have driven me to ultimately make that choice. I could no longer sit back and pretend that existing & new limits on how we speak our minds both in public & private settings, protest, march, express ourselves, defend ourselves from violent criminals, defend our right to privacy, what things we could use on our own property (such as fireworks and wood stoves, even coal fires and barbecues would have to count because they too are on the list to be banned next), what vehicles we can drive and operate based on only the fuel they use, how we can drive about and decide what things we can & cannot put in our bodies (think about the push for mandatory vaccines) were somehow a good thing for society.
I also grew sick & tired of how even the nowadays mainstream (don’t ever call yourselves ‘alternative’ anymore) pro-Independence Movement joined in with wanting to increasingly limit how we speak, think and go about our daily lives. Earlier this year, I got briefly blocked for 1 day by the popular pro-Independence march organisers, All Under One Banner, for not only scolding them publicly about failing to speak out against the free speech destroying Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill proposed by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf, but also defending the TV Presenter Neil Oliver's right to free speech after he publicly condemned the emerging movement to bring down many statues around the UK and rewrite history from a biased narrative, with some supporters cheering on my ban. To bring up even 1 thing about how the European Union would not do us, let alone any other country, good, even adopting the Euro as a new currency, as a balance to helping push for the independence we so cherish, would instantly be met with hostility and false accusations from fellow members of the movement with lines such as “eh, look at Westminster, you’re only trying to bring down the movement!”, "troll", "only Tory Brexiteers tend tae say that" and "at least that Union is better than Westminster".
These are only just some of the sharp assertive responses uttered along with, "that's not what the majority of Scots think", "you're playing into what the Unionists want to do to us", "you're a Russian/Boris bot" and "only a racist/xenophobe/homophobe like ________ would think that way", which only serves to reinforce the often unwritten rules of the collective mentality that has to be obeyed or else there are consequences aplenty. Speaking of consequences, whenever the term 'there is no freedom from consequences' is stated, this is often a signal sent to you to warn you away from uttering any opinion the always unnamed group will deem to be unacceptable or any other buzzword you can think of or else they will go out of their way to engage in smear campaigns to maybe have you distanced or removed from the group (take in what happened to the likes of Jim Sillars (a former deputy leader & SNP MP for South Ayrshire and Glasgow Govan in the 70s, 80s and early 90s), Jim Fairlie (former member of the SNP) and Iain Tough of the Facebook & YouTube channel The Last Jacobite) ruin your reputation in your social circles (e.g. trying to get your family, friends, neighbours and colleagues to either denounce and/or turn against you), lose your career and even have you cut off financially at the most extreme of punishments. It is true that people can (and have the right to) dislike what you say if your words go too far and some punishments can be implemented if you breached the T&Cs of a company you work for but this pack mentality of wanting to mentally destroy anyone that strays away from the pack even mildly, adding on using the authorities to enforce the punishment eventually in the not too far dystopian future, will only serve to exert an era of fear and terror that would make 1940s & 1950s McCarthyism look like a good day trip for Conservative Republicans.
I even noticed that only those who think left-of-centre, socialists and even borderline communists were permitted to publicly state their opinions about independence and almost never does the discussion involve conservative and/or libertarian thinkers. Not a single speaker of those kinds has been interviewed on many of the pro-Indy media outlets like Broadcasting Scotland, IndyLiveRadio and so on (unless I'm proven wrong), let alone speak on a stage at any pro-Indy rally, it really is showing that there is a blatant bias in the whole movement. Anyone got an opinion that they are against NATO and/or the UN with their reasons for thinking that way? Nope! We cannae have them on! Anyone got an opinion that speaks in favour of leaving the free market alone? Nah, cannae have them on either! Anyone that speaks out against Nicola... Ah! NO! Must not have them on! Anyone that speaks out against the narrative on Climate Change? Take up your pitchforks and chase them out! What about those that say humanitarian aid to third world countries does not do their economies good in the long term? Nuclear Bomb explodes with anger In other words, critical thinking is nearly (well, nowadays almost) never allowed in what was once supposed to be a great genuinely inclusive movement.
This brings up how so many within the SNP, Greens and modern-day left no longer prioritise being anti-war and only become that way when it suits them. If Sturgeon ever pushed for the same wars, heck even want a new one against Russia and China, the same people speaking out against right-wingers wanting these wars would back her. If the likes of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, George W. Bush, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and many leaders on the right were pushing the same wars, they would kick up a major fuss about it and rightly so! But when certain leaders on their team like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jo Swinson, Emmanuel Macron (because... Le Pen), Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, Petro Poroshenko and so on, do the same things, they almost always get a free pass because apparently “it’s OK when we do it”, according to the humanitarian interventionists. Pushing their support for what the Big Banks, Big Corporations, Trade Unions (that betrayed the working class) and Establishment politicians from all 3 divides (Holyrood, London and Brussels) support despite these same organisations helping to stop people voting Yes in 2014 should have been another clue.
When 2 politicians, 1 of them a young West of Scotland Green MSP and the other being the still current MP for West Dunbartonshire, revealed themselves as being anti-Free speech crusaders and secret warmongers in 2018, the former I sent an e-Mail to in late 2017 complaining about freedom of speech being taken and the latter I met in person in Dumbarton Library on 29th January 2018 to ask him to speak out against the then-planned Anti-Fake News Unit proposed by the then-Theresa May administration following the terror attacks that occurred the previous year to which he declined, I lost all hope of both parties getting better ever again.
When both Brexit happened and Donald Trump got elected as US President in 2016, I witnessed many of my extended family living down south in England, friends and people I knew from the Vale of Leven Academy, even the mainstream pro-Indy movement, having a meltdown on Facebook like their world had just come to an end. Instead of engaging in debate and discussion to try and understand why people would think & vote differently from them, many on the modern day left, and to an extent some on the right (especially pro-UK Royal Family supporters and Zionists who would defend the state of Israel at all costs, even if their foreign policy isn't good), would instead resort to smear tactics, ad hominems and beg for new laws, even forced policies and lessons in the education system, to make it more difficult for their opponents to think, speak and physically live their lives the way they do, under the disguise of 'we're making things more equal and fair'. Sadly, almost the entire mainstream media, many politicians, mainstream entertainers and increasingly many corporations, charities and lobby groups back them up in their ‘campaigns’ to help them achieve their end goals. This by the way includes lately trying to force every single one of you to wear a muzzle, I mean a face mask literally everywhere you go (not just in indoor areas) because of some (supposed) risk if we don't and some (supposed) hatred by non-face mask wearers towards face mask-wearers as a collective so we have to wear one in order to accommodate them in public everywhere we go. Even though human beings have always survived every pandemic throughout history without having to dramatically change our lives for the worst but don't tell the dumbed down panicked generation that.
What this will only achieve is even more hatred and division in society that the modern day left claims is a real threat right now and eventually a civil war because one side will end up more oppressed than the other and try to assert their authority more in bigger strength when they win. These things, along with the promotion of so-called ‘safe spaces’ and ‘woke’ ideologies which are now spreading beyond college & university campuses into much of our everyday lives, as well as doing anything & everything they possibly can still to this day as of the time of writing to undo the results of what clearly was advertised in 2016 as the biggest turnout for a referendum in the history of the UK, even if it means making a bit more than half the country bitterly hating them as well as many Scots for overturning democracy, ultimately made me stop supporting the SNP & the Greens and anything else on the modern day left for good from 2016 onwards and ultimately push me towards a great mixture of classical liberalism and libertarianism.
As much as there was some hope at last years anti-Copyright Directive demonstration in Glasgow on 24th March 2019 when some pro-Indy supporters wanted to learn about the Directive more and at the AUOB Glasgow march on 4th May 2019 when some pro-Indy supporters were curious about researching who Ron Paul (my lower flag featured him talking about Liberty coming from God, not the government) was, it appears that the time of agreeing to disagree with each other is tragically dead and as mentioned earlier of where it leads to, is a dangerous thing for any civilized society.
Now, I likely will get backlash from many of my fellow Scots, especially those who believe in Independence, for daring to say these things, and so what if many who view and/or like my views happen to be conservative and/or libertarian and/or unionists and/or right-wingers and/or those who are fans of Rangers Football Club (I have no interest in football at all, by the way, I think it’s boring and not interesting), I can only hope there can be a middle ground for everyone, even liberals themselves, to be involved in the big discussion again. Until that happens, expect actions limited only to more hostility from both sides. By the way, don’t get me started on the antics of AntiFa and where the behaviour of groups such as Stand Up To Racism, Black Lives Matter and Hope Not Hate have went in the current trend of society, they do not deserve to be called a liberal cause if their objectives and powers consist of deplatforming, harassing, silencing and/or beating up anyone they disagree with - that's behaviour we will always regard as fascistic. I have a gut feeling deep down that there are many of you out there who perhaps even disagree mildly with what is being pushed on you but are frightened to stand up for real freedom & liberty, let alone say anything, in case they suffer the reprisals of not only being socially ostracized (as earlier described with the term 'there is no freedom from consequences') in any way including getting your family, friends, neighbours and colleagues to turn against you and/or have you banned from speaking in any public or private platform, have you fired from your job or perhaps have your benefits deducted by the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP - I can see that one happening soon), lest the 'duty' to protect and serve the collective unconsciously fired into us from birth comes out on top and will always be allowed to at the expense of the individual (not that I am in favour of hyper-individualistic tribalism, mind you, that is also just as much a pain in the backside).
One can only pray that the Peace we greatly seek from freedom itself ultimately emerges. ✌🏻
