Say ‘far-right extremism’ and most people will think of fascism. Perhaps Hitler, Nazis and swastikas. Or closer to home, it’s Enoch Powell and his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. Or the National Front of the 1970s. Far less likely to spring to mind are feminists defending women’s rights. Or concerned parents who object to the sexualisation of children and to libraries hosting drag queens.
Incredibly, both of these groups feature in a new report from campaign group Hope Not Hate. State of Hate 2023: Rhetoric, Racism and Resentment is promoted as ‘the most comprehensive and analytical guide to the state of far-right extremism in Britain today’. Comprehensive is one word for it. The report details everything and everyone the report’s authors dislike, from GB News presenters to gender-critical feminist Kellie-Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker). This is less a piece of research and more a very long temper tantrum.
Hope Not Hate highlights protests against Drag Queen Story Hour events as an example of ‘far-right agitation’. The report disingenuously describes these drag events as simply ‘storytelling sessions for children at public libraries’. It then labels as problematic those who ask why men with fake boobs and fishnet stockings are so keen to read to young children. ‘The far right sees trans rights as a fundamental challenge to their belief in traditional gender roles and family structures’, Hope Not Hate tells us. It’s never spelled out quite what is far right about not wanting to sexualise children or defending traditional family structures. If you cry ‘far right’, no further explanation is needed, it seems.
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