What politicians say matter a lot. Jean-Paul Sartre has rightly said, "Words are loaded pistols." A case in point are the increased hate crimes in the United Kingdom and the United States now and in Nepal in the wake of the Madhesh Movement.
Xenophobic and Europhobic words of British leaders inspired the nearly 50 percent rise in hate crimes in Britain. Several British leaders campaigned for Britain 's exit -- Brexit -- from the European Union deploying bigotry, xenophobia and Europhobia -- Britain for British people, British jobs for British workers, illegal immigrants go home, immigrants are a burden on British schools and hospitals, and the like --for the referendum held in June this year. The majority opted for Brexit validating the …show more content…
Narrow nationalism good and broad nationalism bad. Immigrants are bad, their money that flows to us is good. "They" are taking our jobs and economic opportunities. And so on. The natural outcome of such political rhetoric could not be anything but "We" hating and hurting "Them."
Naturally, such bigotry is always accompanied by misinformation and ignorance, which makes it even more toxic. For instance, in Britain, despite the warnings by experts otherwise, the pro-leave politicians said Britain outside the EU was going to be richer and stronger. Since Prime Minister Teresa May took the time to indicate whether she was going to pull Britain out of the single market, there was no major impact of the Brexit vote other than a huge plunge in the value of the British pound. The pro-leave politicians gloated that they were right and the experts wrong.
But the tide has turned proving the experts right, as soon as May indicated in the Tory annual conference at the end of September that she was going to invoke in the next few months Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows two years for the exit process to complete. Now the British pound has tumbled down to the lowest level in three decades, at one point hitting $1.14. Some people have suggested that the US dollar and the British pound could be at par sometime in
Xenophobic and Europhobic words of British leaders inspired the nearly 50 percent rise in hate crimes in Britain. Several British leaders campaigned for Britain 's exit -- Brexit -- from the European Union deploying bigotry, xenophobia and Europhobia -- Britain for British people, British jobs for British workers, illegal immigrants go home, immigrants are a burden on British schools and hospitals, and the like --for the referendum held in June this year. The majority opted for Brexit validating the …show more content…
Narrow nationalism good and broad nationalism bad. Immigrants are bad, their money that flows to us is good. "They" are taking our jobs and economic opportunities. And so on. The natural outcome of such political rhetoric could not be anything but "We" hating and hurting "Them."
Naturally, such bigotry is always accompanied by misinformation and ignorance, which makes it even more toxic. For instance, in Britain, despite the warnings by experts otherwise, the pro-leave politicians said Britain outside the EU was going to be richer and stronger. Since Prime Minister Teresa May took the time to indicate whether she was going to pull Britain out of the single market, there was no major impact of the Brexit vote other than a huge plunge in the value of the British pound. The pro-leave politicians gloated that they were right and the experts wrong.
But the tide has turned proving the experts right, as soon as May indicated in the Tory annual conference at the end of September that she was going to invoke in the next few months Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows two years for the exit process to complete. Now the British pound has tumbled down to the lowest level in three decades, at one point hitting $1.14. Some people have suggested that the US dollar and the British pound could be at par sometime in