Why is the overall tone of GD so right wing?

[FoxEye]

People say that not accepting migrants is right wing.

I'm not convinced, I think it's just the blindingly obvious decision that everyone should understand regardless of your usual choice of wing.

I'm glad somebody said that.

I consider myself to be left-leaning, and believe unrestrained capitalism is a terrible way to run any country. Big business rules this country and I find that sickening, along with the growing wealth gap.

So fairly left wing. But I still don't agree with un-costed, un-planned immigration on economic grounds. Or any migration which has the potential to disrupt our social cohesion.

And I think the people waving placards along the lines of "Cameron, let them all in!" or "One world, one people!" are complete idiots.

 

[phonemonkey]

Seats are irrelevant in this argument as the forum has no boundaries.
The Conservatives had 2 million more votes than their nearest challenger and something like 9 million more than the next, it stands to reason that an open forum would have a majority of 'right wing' supporters.

It doesn't matter how far ahead in the popular vote they were compared to their nearest rival. The fact remains that almost 66% of votes voted for someone else. 13% of voters chose UKIP but they were clear winners on the election poll on this forum.

This forum does not reflect the political leanings of the country as a whole. Stop pretending it does.

 

[chief barker]

Just look at how many Daily Mail links are posted every single day, without fail, on here. Y'know, that well known bastion of fair, balanced reporting. I think that says enough about the political demographics of this forum than anything else.

Indeed. There was a link to the DM on the previous page posted by a leftie accusing the right wing of being thick.

 

[Rroff]

I'm glad somebody said that.

I consider myself to be left-leaning, and believe unrestrained capitalism is a terrible way to run any country. Big business rules this country and I find that sickening, along with the growing wealth gap.

So fairly left wing. But I still don't agree with un-costed, un-planned immigration on economic grounds. Or any migration which has the potential to disrupt our social cohesion.

And I think the people waving placards along the lines of "Cameron, let them all in!" or "One world, one people!" are complete idiots.

Think I'm in a fairly similar boat - the short term emotionally charged response to the immigration issue with the stark lack of any long term strategic vision frightens me - even with only a rudimentary understanding of the bigger, longer scale issues of it.

I don't think a lot of people realise that things have changed dramatically and are continuing to change rapidly from the refugee issues of the past.

 

[kitch9]

Not everyone IS entitled to an opinion, and I wish people would stop telling people this.

Everyone is entitled to an informed opinion, something based in reality. People love to use "it's my opinion" to say what ever utter crap they want.

Also, I've noticed a correlation, the more extreme their right wing opinions tend to be, the worse their English skills are.

You could be a professor of politics and everything that you say would still be only an opinion, such is the subject.

Saying that, I notice a propensity for lefties to throw insults around in fits of sanctimonious unintelligent debate.

 

[Nutella33]

About 37% of people voted Conservative in the GE but the OCuk 'who are you going to vote for' polls saw numbers far higher than that.

This forum is definitely more right-wing than the general population, possibly because it's 99.9% male.

Gender isn't the seperating value, but age and economic variation

 

[gandhi]

I don't think the left/right wing thing applies.

People say that not accepting migrants is right wing.

I'm not convinced, I think it's just the blindingly obvious decision that everyone should understand regardless of your usual choice of wing.

I'm not entirely convinced. Thatcherite and Tory thinking in general favours the individual. Socialist thinking is exactly that, the wealthy should help look after the weak and vulnerable in their time of need. The blinding obvious decision is that we should be helping other human beings. (btw, I'm a humanist - not left or right wing)

Seats are irrelevant in this argument as the forum has no boundaries.
The Conservatives had 2 million more votes than their nearest challenger and something like 9 million more than the next, it stands to reason that an open forum would have a majority of 'right wing' supporters.

They are irrelevant, but that's the first past the post argument vs pr. More people didn't vote for a tory gvmnt than did, so how is that democratic?

The problem isn't the lack of acceptance of immigrants, it's what these people say after they have a sperge about immigrants, it shows that their issue isn't actually with new people coming in from other countries, but that they don't like people who are different.

Most of the people around here who whinge about immigrants use what they see and hear as a means to moan, and it tends to revolve around brown people talking in their brown languages. Then some sperge about how it's England so they should speak English.

What you've described there is racism.

I earn £13k and live 150 miles from London, so I can only be slightly right wing

My main gripe is with religion, due to first-hand experience at my previous employers. Also, religion or freedom of/from religion is a choice that you can make (unless it's children being indoctrinated / brainwashed).

On the other hand, age, race, country of origin, disability and gender are choices that you can't make at birth. You are born that way. E.g. I was born with very weak vision and hearing which is still the case now at a 37. As a result of this, I'm not road legal and genetics prevent me from having kids. Again, a choice that I didn't make at birth.

I'm genuinely sorry you've been dealt a bad hand. What was the issue with employers/religion?

I think you have misunderstood my post.
More people voted for the Conservatives than any other single party.

They did, but more people voted for other parties than conservatives. It's just not very democratic to my mind. PR vs FPTP is another thread though.

 

[kitch9]

The problem isn't the lack of acceptance of immigrants, it's what these people say after they have a sperge about immigrants, it shows that their issue isn't actually with new people coming in from other countries, but that they don't like people who are different.

Most of the people around here who whinge about immigrants use what they see and hear as a means to moan, and it tends to revolve around brown people talking in their brown languages. Then some sperge about how it's England so they should speak English.

Could one explain how anyone can successfully integrate into a society without the means to at least communicate?

 

[spoffle]

You could be a professor of politics and everything that you say would still be only an opinion, such is the subject.

Saying that, I notice a propensity for lefties to throw insults around in fits of sanctimonious unintelligent debate.

You seem to be under the impression I'm saying they're not opinions.

Informed opinions are valid opinions.

I'm not sure what you're saying about the lefts and how it applies to me though. That sort of behavior is common with people who think they are intelligence, but their intelligence is borrowed.

 

[Zethor]

I've asked this question before and an older member told me the forum possibly had connections to far right groups which probably attracted quite a few members with extreme views, some of whome are still active. Once the ring wing views core was created, it continued to exist even after improvals in moderation, change of ownership etc.

 

[spoffle]

Could one explain how anyone can successfully integrate into a society without the means to at least communicate?

Why are you making the assumption that because someone isn't speaking English, they can't?

 

[JohnnyG]

Just look at how many Daily Mail links are posted every single day, without fail, on here. Y'know, that well known bastion of fair, balanced reporting. I think that says enough about the political demographics of this forum than anything else.

If you're not careful someone's going to ask you to back up that statement about the amount of daily DM links, then you're in trouble.
It's pretty inaccurate by the way, although many from the 'Left' will swear it's the case.
This forum has a fair reflection of our current society, although the farther away from centre a member's views are the more they think this place is different.

 

[spoffle]

I've asked this question before and an older member told me the forum possibly had connections to far right groups which probably attracted quite a few members with extreme views, some of whome are still active. Once the ring wing views core was created, it continued to exist even after improvals in moderation, change of ownership etc.

Well, the previous owner of OcUK was openly racist and there were a number of openly racist members on the forums who were active supporters and contributors to places like Storm Front (a white supremacist forum).

 

[gandhi]

Just look at how many Daily Mail links are posted every single day, without fail, on here. Y'know, that well known bastion of fair, balanced reporting. I think that says enough about the political demographics of this forum than anything else.

This is the thing that concerns me. People willing to be spoon fed and told what their opinions should be.

 

[gandhi]

Lets see, over my life I have been left wing, right wing, left wing again. Now I don't really care.
I find it amusing how many people get led by the nose by the media though...

Exactly this.

 

[spoffle]

If you're not careful someone's going to ask you to back up that statement about the amount of daily DM links, then you're in trouble.
It's pretty inaccurate by the way, although many from the 'Left' will swear it's the case.
This forum has a fair reflection of our current society, although the farther away from centre a member's views are the more they think this place is different.

I find it's just a case of the people with the crass views are the ones who want to shove them in your face and shout about them a lot.

In a crowd of people, you're gonna hear the nut job shouting madness if the rest of the crowd aren't saying anything.

 

[kitch9]

Why are you making the assumption that because someone isn't speaking English, they can't?

Is that the best answer you could come up with?

 

[Boycey0211]

All in all I think it just shows how impressionable the general public really is by purpose of the media.

People post clearly doctored images/links/articles and purport them to be fact in probably most threads on here regardless of the topic.

Whatever is in the journalists eye this week will generally have the spin put on it and you can see peoples views either slide left or right depending on whatever the papers have said.

Also, a trend thats increasing which I ******* despise is quoting youtube vids as solid evidence for an argument, it makes no sense and is in most cases completely one sided if you take only that video into account, it isnt 'reporting', its winding people up.

End of the day people are speaking up because they feel threatened by something. Luckily 99% of people never do anything about that despite the stuff that gets bandied about on here.

 

[Nutella33]

They are irrelevant, but that's the first past the post argument vs pr. More people didn't vote for a tory gvmnt than did, so how is that democratic

PR would have still given you a Tory government, one with a strong ukip factor and a much smaller SNP section

 

[The Geezer]

I would say the demographic are those who grew up during the Thatcher era or are offspring of parents who were, it was the time where you could get wealthy with little effort if you were in the right sectors. The same era where the haves continued to climb the ladder whilst pulling it up behind them.

That mentality would have been instilled into a lot of folk from that period which is now manifesting itself as they are now employed.

The nation has become more conservative post the last financial crisis as they want to protect what is theirs and bugger anyone else who even thinks about sharing.