Conspiracy theories and Delusional Thinking- taking on the Far Right and the Centre

Now if you are a casual reader of world affairs and politics, you could be forgiven for thinking that delusional or conspiratorial thinking only occur at the extremes of the political spectrum. There must be at least a dozen right-wing political conspiracies of the last couple of decades, from 9/11 trutherism to the birther movement, which believed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. The most famous conspiracies of the digital-age are pumped out by INFO-WARS, and its frantic host Alex Jones, and any passing glance at this grim cul-de-sac of online life would seem to support the idea that conspiracy theories are the niche of far-right online celebrities, often with their own financial interest in promoting paranoia and disillusionment, being the attempted cult-leaders and snake-oil salesmen for a millennial crowd.

Conspiracy theories have been defined in a recent psychology paper by Douglas, Sutton and Cichocka (2017) as 'explanations for important events that involve secret plots by powerful and malevolent groups’. They have made a comeback bigger than Britney, with the full Americas, Europe, Middle-East and Pacific tour booked up for those peddling shoddy, barely-evidenced and discredited beliefs with more than a tinge of paranoia to them- books to sell, panel show invitations. The association with the Right is so strong that even mentioning conspiracy theories causes my revolutionary hand to involuntary move for the anti-Semite freeze-ray on my Social Justice Warrior utility belt.

But conspiratorial and delusional thinking also occur at the very centre of the political spectrum, from people who are not anti-Semites or from those whose only interaction with fellow humans comes through their Internet Service Provider. We have started to have conspiracies focused on an insurgent and bullish hard-left of hard-nuts in the UK, mostly capitulated by respectable newspaper editors and metropolitan, supposedly ‘liberal' politicians. These conspiracies mirror those peddled by the likes of Alex Jones in some ways- a lack of evidence, very questionable sources, the the McCarthy ‘red scare’ tactic, believing far left agents are taking over institutions and setting these up to cement their power and intimidate other groups- however are reported by a social group whose social position, presentation and demeanour gives them much more credibility and access to the central nervous system of public life.

I do not write this to shame the Centrists and newspaper editors in question or to embarrass them. Even stigmatising paranoid beliefs is unhelpful in my opinion because it is associated with a range of mental health issues (although you can absolutely have paranoid beliefs without an underlying psychiatric condition). I am mostly writing this because so often the centre is portrayed as sensible, grown-up, aspirational, pragmatic, efficient - which would be fine, if slightly irksome if they were wrong about almost anything, but when they are so wrong about politics and create figments to bash Leftist ideas with the potential to save lives with, then that is something which we need to talk about. I am speaking about paranoia or delusions not as an individual affliction, but as the social cognitions and emotions of a group of people who find themselves, after the after party of Leftist victory, but cannot accept the changes which have taken place and whose personal brand is suddenly out of step with what is trendy, trending and relevant.

Entryism - a haunting by an abstract, militant left

The first example of this occurred last year, with the Labour party’s ‘Entryism’ conspiracy. This occurred in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and tensions amongst centrist Labour party members about Jeremy Corbyn’s Leftwing leadership of the party had never been higher. The theory was that Jezz was really a Brexiteer/Euro-Sceptic, who led a half-hearted campaign to stay-in the European Union, contributing to mixed messages from Labour and a very close loss for the campaign to remain in the EU, the preference of the Labour Party. Over 170 Labour MPs triggered a vote of no confidence against Jeremy Corbyn, challenging his leadership of the party, despite Corbyn winning a landslide victory only the year before and expanding the membership of the Party. As a leadership contest got going, there was panic that this would be a colossal embarrassment for the 'centrists for ousting’ wing, and stories started to surface about far-left groups infiltrating the Labour Party to rig the contest and ensure that the absolute ledge Jez came out on top!

As Jez refused to step aside gracefully, the National Executive Committee of the Party made a ruling that 130,000 members who had joined the Labour party in the previous six months should not be eligible to vote in the leadership election, spurred on by the fear of entryism and this was later upheld by the the High Court [1]. To get a sense of that perspective, that would be equivalent to the entire Conservative party membership being excluded from the leadership vote. For this degree of voter suppression to be proportionate the entire SNP grassroots would have to be Labour Party members or everyone in the Green Party of England and Wales would also have to register their partner and oldest child as members of the Labour Party to increase the voting block for Corbyn. This is a huge overreaction, to what adds up to a few dozen proven cases of being dual-membership with a competing organisation.

Of course, even while excluding new members and suspending other members for bizarre reasons, such as sweary Facebook posts about rock bands [2], the Labour party ended up with the result their machinations had hoped to supress. Jeremy Corbyn won a landslide victory over the centrist candidate Owen Smith, even with Labour Party members being fully aware of Jeremy having little support among his parliamentary colleagues, he won 61% of the vote.

PLP Heads will Roll= (very critical centrist MPs might not get re-elected)

Roughly a year and a half later, we have the matching conspiracy couture, the same line, the same models. Momentum, the grassroots campaign of 31,000 members which came out of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, and focus on democratic transformation and participation, according to The Sunday Times, are in possession of a list of 50 Labour party MPs ripe for ousting. The front page Times article sited no source for this claim, although it does make Momentum seem scary, so why not? [3} Of course selection of MPs is the choice of Labour party constituency branches and if Momentum did have a concerted campaign against Labour’s Centrist wing, that would be an issue for them but there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case.

This is the twisty-turny world of Centrism, electoral success and appealing to voters are said to be the most important issues. The major caveat is that this only applies at the National or Council Level, so and internal and constituency party votes (which are in themselves, only a minimal measure of democracy) can be suppressed and if need be, undermined at the first opportunity. Many of the Labour Centre cursed the Miliband era reforms of the Labour Leadership Election Process, removing the requirement of Parliamentary and High Level backing of the Leader and moving to a more egalitarian weighting of voting in which all members count. For people who talk so much about electability to be arguing against the principle of one-person-one-vote, lets just advise them to run that by the Optics Department before going to print…

Now I don’t doubt that some of the Labour centre are people who genuinely care about the fate of the world, the impact of leaving the EU on their citizen’s livelihoods. However these tactics: after dinner commiserations and revenge plotted with media editors against the ascendent left are pretty tacky, self-defeating and out of touch with the changing mood of their constituents. It also reveals the true authoritarians within the party to be the Moderates, who grasp power and privileges that their positions have afforded them, rather than embracing a more pluralistic, participatory and democratic vision of their party.

Macron- Saviour of Polite Society ?

The latest iteration of the Centrist absurdity came last weekend, as Emmanuel Macron visited the UK. The think pieces appear, centrist Twitter gushes positivity and a fandom of the polished and beautiful French President come out of their offices in full corporate cosplay, ready to wave-glow sticks at the Third-Way reunion tour. According to commentators like Chris Deerin at The Herald [5], a classy, diplomatic and mature politics is just what we need in this age of partisanship and division. However, the very dangerous issue with this is that Macron’s politics, at least those celebrated by the Centre and Centre-Left in the UK, are very much about style over substance, presentation over policy, respectability over survivability for human life and a genuine commitment to the quality of life of ordinary French citizens. Macron seems lovely in the recent interview with Andrew Marr, he speaks about Brexit in a way that isn’t dismissive, presents himself as the good angel on the shoulder of both Donald Trump and the Government of China, but we have had comforting words from professional and polished politicians before, from people even more charismatic than Macron. Barack Obama was the master of the relatable, good guy charm, but if he had devoted as much time on a serious challenge to the capital class, a push for universal healthcare or ensuring affordable higher education provision for his citizens, the world would be in a much better state.

Now, what Macron represents, is a form of politics that attempts to blend issues of the traditional left (environmental responsibility, social liberalism on LGBTIQ issues, some social provision) with those of the traditional rivals and class enemies on the right (deregulation and corporate influence). In the UK this has been tried before, with politicians like Tony Blair bragging about restricting union organising [4], while generally improving many public services that had been defunded by Tories and increasing the rights of minorities. The problem is that this does not work, because workers wages do not increase at the same level of their bosses when Unions lose their power and people are aware that they are losing out, especially in times of economic crisis and centrist, third-way politicians have been happy to provide any number of scapegoats from immigrants to ASBOs to benefit claimants in order to maintain their Centrist coalition of media billionaires and middle class voters, even at the expense of their most vulnerable constituents [4a]. Every route through the centre, including third-way politics, leads to a rise of the far right, an appetite and taste for restricting the freedoms of the most marginalised, and even genuine hatred and intolerance to those who are considered expendable by capitalism. This is because genuine class consciousness is seen as extreme, discounted and bashed at each opportunity, giving the impression that leftist and far right beliefs are morally equivalent.

Now, Emmanuel Macron, who might as well have a superhero cape, is making the case for a more transparent and democratic European Union in order to save Europe [6]. The problem is that his domestic agenda is deeply inconsistent with that- especially the labour reforms that he has championed in France [7]. One major one involves a move from Sector based Labour discussions to Individual Firms having different wage, conditions and structures in place. Another change allows companies to more easily dismiss workers based on their profitability rate in France, when in the past dismissals have been overturned by Courts if companies were in good economic health in Global terms. Another issues is the removal of limits which are enshrined in National Law about the use of Short Term contracts of duration and how many times that they can be renewed. In essence, this whole programme, aimed at creating a flexible and 'modernised' French labour market. Such a discourse treats the French union movement like any other interest group, which needs to be monitored and kept in check. However, such a perspective is blind to the trade union movement being the best shot we at some form of collective decision making and democracy at work, the main route for people to increasing their share of the value their labour manifests and having some backing in many issues, from discrimination to harassment. The vision that Macron has for the French economy seems not that different from what we have in the UK, of low unemployment based on an insecure, hollowed out world of work, where fake self-employment, zero hours contracts, in-work benefits, food bank reliance and part-time work are the norm- all in the name of finding a middle ground between billionaire executives and shareholders and the labouring classes.

(There we go, a criticism of Macron that isn’t just me being salty and jealous about his looks- seriously, almost every centrist columnist gushes about his looks, it is kind of bizarre).

With all this in mind, it is very hard to see why anyone in the UK would be excited about Macron, what could he bring to Europe that is going to be revolutionary and transformative? It seems like fan-boying over a suave and intelligent guy, as the reaction to Macron seems way out of alignment with the social utility and validity of his approach.

So here is a call for criticism and skepticism, of the Right and Alt Right, but also of those who call themselves rational, ‘what works’ over ideology, the Centrist politicians. The Middle ground of the Centre may seem like the safe political terrain for those trying to become more informed about the world around them, as the most sensible starting point, where you will not alienate anyone and can claim to be defending liberal values if your inquiry is challenged. Don’t trust the shouty people on the edges talking about powerful actors, trust your intuition, common sense and what life under capitalism has taught you about most successes and failures being about individual responsibility. However, even if you don’t think that Centrists are delusional, they are at least offering a lukewarm definition of freedom and equality. How can their defence of these values be taken seriously when they let people that we all know hoard wealth and power, the capitalist class, be shielded from criticism and unchallenged?

A Social Justice based way forward

Now, here is where I go all triggered Snowflake, because as someone who is concerned about Social Justice and tries to looks into the history of these ideas, I will call people out on any political position that is not unashamedly Leftist. We need to be wary of this pitch from the centre, as so often the claim to be defenders of democracy does not stretch to their political parties or the majority of workplaces. A levelled political playing field, a fair hearing and absence of ideology can actually be a terrible regression, especially when it allows White Nationalists and Eugenicists to be seen as the equivalents of Marxists, Intersectional Feminists, Anti-Globalisation campaigners and Environmentalists (which will now by known as Coalition Awesome). The Middle Ground has been the terrain of style over substance, of respectability politics, of the denial of structural oppressions and violence and of viewing politics as the management of competing interest groups, devoid of values or ideas. Until the Centre can come up with a new reason for existence and political strategy (at which point they may not even be in the Centre), I won't cheer for Macron.

[1] -Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current directions in psychological science, 26(6), 538-542.

[1a]- Article in The Guardian by Jessica Elgot about Labour Enrtyism High Court Decision- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/12/corbyns-team-incensed-as-new-members-denied-labour-vote-again

[2]- Article in The Guardian by Anushka Asthana about Labour Party suspensions - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/28/corbyn-accuses-labour-officials-of-suspending-party-members-without-explanation

[3} Article in The Times about Corbyn allies planning to deselect Labour MPs- https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-allies-plot-to-oust-50-labour-mps-87bkrv7l7

[4]- Interview with Tony Blair at time of 1997 Labour Landslide election when he speaks about union organising- https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1997/apr/27/election2001.uk1

[4a]- The Establishment: and how they get away with it, (2014) by Owen Jones, has fantastic information about the issues with the ‘third way’ and folly of the Blair-Brown Labour party in Government

[5] Chris Deerin at The Herald- Macron should be the template for 21st-century political discourse- http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15889989.Chris_Deerin__Macron_should_be_the_template_for_21st_century_political_discourse/

[6] Andrew Marr on BBC News interviewing Emmanuel Macron- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_aLROw98NA

[7] Article in Politico about Macron’s Labour Reforms- https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-labor-reform-5-key-points/