Emboldened by the unexpected – if much feared – victory of Donald Trump in the United States’ presidential election the inhabitants of the ultra-conservative fringe in Ireland have thrown aside all pretence of rationality and embraced their inner Breitbart. The aged doyen of the country’s wannabe alt-right, Ian O’Doherty, writing in the Sunday Independent:
“…Trump was attractive because he represents a repudiation of the nonsense that has been slowly strangling the West.
…He won’t be a president worried about microaggressions, or listening to the views of patently insane people just because they come from a fashionably protected group.
He also represents a glorious two fingers to everyone who has become sick of being called a racist or a bigot or a homophobe…
Trump’s victory was a two fingers to the politically correct.
It was a brutal rejection of the nonsense narrative which says Muslims who kill Americans are somehow victims. It took the ludicrous Green agenda and threw it out. It was a return, on some level, to a time when people weren’t afraid to speak their own mind without some self-elected language cop shouting at you. Who knows, we may even see Trump kicking the UN out of New York.”
And if that rambling nonsense isn’t a definition of ultracon insanity I don’t know what is. But hold on, here comes wee Niamh Horan to impress – or appal – us with her best am-dram Ann Coulter impression:
“The silent majority finally came out last week.
Every single group which the mainstream media, social-justice warriors and political elite claimed Trump hated carried him to victory.
They rejected the suffocating political correctness in favour of tangible change: jobs, financial security and rebuilding the American economy.
As someone who listened to the controversial Trump tapes and wondered if I was wrong not to feel deeply offended, it was refreshing to see Trump’s comments put in perspective.
Yes, they were shocking and I don’t condone what he said – but I could see it for what it was: meaningless banter between two men, showing off behind closed doors.
When Enda Kenny is finished dusting off the harp to welcome Trump back, it would be worth his while asking Trump for a few pointers.
We would do well to have someone like him on our team.”
Well, we sort of do have someone like Trump, though not so much on our national team as in a breakaway domestic league. Step forward Ian Paisley Jr of the DUP with proof in the Newsletter that though he may be gone the shadow of Big Ian is a long one indeed.
“Ian Paisley Jr has revealed that he has met Donald Trump in nine of the last ten years since attempting to persuade the tycoon to invest in Northern Ireland a decade ago.
The North Antrim MP hailed Mr Trump’s success as a “revolutionary change”. He told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “This is about the little guy biting back and he bit back with a vengeance.”
“I first met Donald Trump, along with my father, in 2006 and I’ve kept that relationship going. I’ve met him every year bar one since then; I’ve had his family in Northern Ireland twice; my family have been with his family in the US on at least one occasion…””
Donald Trump, an American Paisleyite. Now that makes sense!
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
My reading of Trump is that he goes with the main chance so republican-nationalists are ok if they deliver profits not prophets. Didn’t the Irish Times tell us we could never have a right wing populist here?
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Interesting you show Trump with Paisly but fail to mention Trump was one of the first Americans to meet Gerry Adams in the 90s. Oh well not a surprise.
Say what you will about Ian Doherty i don’t see what he said as “rambling nonsense.” Nonsense is safe spaces,micro agressions,people who say they are anti racist the go on a rant about how evil white people are,and other such politically correct claptrap.
You seem slow to realise there is no more left or right. That paradigm is shattered. Trump is far more leftist than Hillary. Why do you think the gop establishment and brit tories hate him? If he is so racist and anti immigrant why did 30 % of latinos vote for him? If he is so right wing why did a quarter of Bernie Sanders suporters vote for him?
Your judgement is off there,Seamy. Of course you believe Martin McGuinness is a republican so that is to be expected.
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Spot on, I don’t see anything rambling, nonsensical or insane in what Ian O Doherty wrote. Indeed, I think the use of such language by ASF and his ilk is exactly the type of hysterically dismissive and self righteously bullying attitude that O Doherty is talking about.
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I couldn’t bully O’Doherty even if I tried! 😉 I seriously doubt I have ever, or will ever, impinge on his consciousness. A tiny if self-opinionated website is of little import in the grand media scheme of things
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Ah now, I did deal with that before. Well, I am a progressive republican so you’re not gonna find much Trump sympathy here, I’m afraid. Hey, at least I don’t hide my SJW light under a bushel. ASF is what it is, a leftie liberal blog 🙂
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Trump is very progressive and socially liberal. I have been trying to tell you that. He just doesn’t believe in political correctness.
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Maybe so. However, explain the appointment of Steve Bannon in a majordomo role for the president-elect, in competition with Reince Priebus? That individual is undoubtedly regressive and illiberal. You can give Trump the benefit of the doubt, based upon his pre-2008 history of New York Democratic opinion, but at a certain point you have to wonder…
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There is a witch hunt against Stephen Bannon. I admit to not being an expert on him but i don’t believe the accusations against him especially when they are coming from the same people who call Milo Yiannopolous homophobic. Progressives are like the boy who cried wolf. They yell racism and sexism so often nobody pays them any mind anymore.
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Milo Yiannopolous is a pursuer of fame and adulation, an agent provocateur seeking wealth and influence. I doubt he believes half the stuff he tweets or writes (not that he writes too much, leaving it to his posse of underpaid interns). Bannon on the other hand is a far right political activist, not a gilded poseur. He is a true believer.
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I believe Milo believes what he writes. He gets enough death threats for it. Even if he doesn’t he still has a point.
The latest accusation is Bannon is an anti semite. Any proof of that?
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I’m always wary of the anti-Semite accusation. It has become so common in antagonistic political discourse as to be useless. It’s regularly hurled at Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party associates in the UK without a shred of real evidence. However, Bannon certainly allowed Breitbart to vocalise opinions and articles that veered close to the anti-Jewish or Jew-baiting line. They were pretty unpleasant if not explicitly anti-Jewish.
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Because Breitbart no more a hate or supremacy website than yours is, or Jezebel. And because they backed Trump when most other outlets were smearing him daily on a hysterical level. Because it is now okay to be a white nationalist and a racist and a misogynist because the labels have lost all meaning, so easilly have they been thrown around in the past 4 years. It reminds me of when under Bush all dissenters were labeled “unpatriotic”, now they are labeled regressive.
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Ah c’mon, Breitbart is clearly on the far right of American media discourse, beyond even Fox News or One America News Network.
I do agree that some labels are too easy to use when one is in the middle of a self-righteous rhetorical rant. I’m occasionally guilty of that myself and I’ve been rightly called on it. More restraint should be exercised by those in positions of influence. Breitbart, though, is no small website or blog. It is a medium sized media company with a significant number of employees and considerable reach. It should know better. It does know better. It doesn’t care because the obnoxious views it promotes reflects those of many of its staff.
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I will agree in the sense of it is much larger and to be honest yes their sensationalism and lack of ethics are what I find fault with. I simply think that is the level to which a lot of “journalism” has stooped to, ie: click-bait. It may be bigoted, I’m just making the point that the tone is very similar to its opposition, namely Gawker outlets (possibly in the former) and both play the same game of using race and gender to generate controversy. It’s just not surprising to me that Trump would promote elements from Breitbart, in the same way its not surprising Twitter took Zoe Quin and Anita Saarkesian on their trust and safety council. These people cosy up to power and are rewarded later on. I’m wrong if I seem to lump a site like this in there though, to be fair. I too hear non-stop talk about Milo Yiannopolous being an extremist who wants to harm minorities everywhere, whose simple voice being heard is almost an act of terrorism. Even if Bannon is a white nationalist and hate-filled individual, it’s hard for me to take the word of those who describe him so in good faith, in other quaters I mean, but I respect you have your views on the matter.
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I read your link. Firstly you reference ClintonNewsNetwork which is totally discredited. Did you see CNN recently interview one of their own cameramen claiming he was a man on the street anti Trump protestor? Hilarious.
But i digest,most of the headlines referenced in the link are by Milo and involved a lot of humour. I notice CNN neglected to mention in one of the Milo articles they cited Milo proclaimed the superiority of homosexuals because of their higher IQ. Maybe George Takei should pay attention?
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I like the Paisley comparison. What I can’t believe is that no one has ever looked at the color of Trump’s hair…you know, orange…
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Good God, what a dumb comment.
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Don’t be racist.
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Is Orange a race?
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It is a joke. Political correctness has destroyed humour.
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Political correctness is the new fascism.
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No, old fascism is the new fascism.
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The left used to fight for free speech. Now they tell people what words to use and what to think.
The left used to confront religious authority. Now they bow before islam the most repressive violent religion of all time.
The left used to overthrow governments. Now they hide in their safe spaces.
The left once marched with blacks in America to fight for racial equality. Now they preach that whites are evil and the cause of all the world’s problems.
The left was once feared and respected even by their opponents. Now they’re a laughingstock.
Expect the new political movement that elected Trump to soon come to Europe.
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You mean the non-politically correct left?
Came and gone about 25 years ago lad.
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Good stuff, it’s fairly clear from these comments that you are piggishly and blindly ignorant of anything that could be considered left. You’re zeroing in on students and middle-class liberal in Europe and N.America. Leftists are literally fighting ISIS in the front-lines in Northern Syria, they’re fighting corrupt governments in Asia, Latin America, and in Africa, they are the first one’s to be killed for fighting for the freedom to express yourself to world over.
The loud, middle-class liberal-left are a laughing stock, so is your ability to put together a coherent political narrative. But these are the days of idiot politics, so you’ll fit snugly into this new world of bitterness and fear.
The eve of the gimmick is upon us, plenty more complete and utter bullshit posting to see online, the rest of us will just go back hard to work.
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So me one leftist group that is confronting islam.
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Charlie Hebdo… wasn’t much solidarity shown there though.
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To some extent even Charlie Hebdo backtracked on their criticism of islam. And most on the left abandoned them or even said they got what they deserved.
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Why should leftist groups be confronting Islam? Any more than confronting Catholicism or Buddhism.
I know leftist Muslims were the main opponents of fundamentalist Muslims for many years. What do you think started the wars in Afghanistan?
I suspect, like your hero, you don’t do subtleties though.
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They confront Catholicism all the time. Pretty much all forms of hegemony. If I go online and criticise lampoon pope and draw him kissing a man or something I will get fanfare from “progressives”. If I draw a picture of Muhammad not so much.
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all forms of hegemony as long as they are Western I should say.
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So you don’t think the left should be confronting the most misogynist religion in the world where women are imprisoned for extra marital sex after being raped as a UK woman is right now in UAE? Imagine if a European country did that. There would be protests in every city on the continent. Muslims do it…silence from the left. I have said before one of the biggest human rights struggles of the 21st cent will be against islam. The right have stolen the clothes of the left and taken up that fight. Which leaves the left looking increasingly ridiculous and hypocritical.
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When a creationst like Mike Pence gets elected he is ridiculed (rightly) and his religion is used against him. Caricatured as a load of bible pushing republicans. When a Muslim man gets elected as mayor of London it is progressive, even if he might believe in many of the things Pence does. Exceptionalism. Double-think. And I absolutely agree with The Pheonix The left have abandoned this fight altogether. And the right will use it to make gains. And who can blame anyone that goes along with them, when the left is so out of touch with people?
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‘Trump is very progressive and socially liberal’. If he his, he ditched his true beliefsAww. So is Bannon, so is Pense, Palin,
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Ian O Doherty always stands up for the oppressed. I well recall his impassioned defence of Lynndie England and her plucky gang of amateur film makers back in 04. Maybe he’s just another bleeding heart , like Kevin Myers , Ruth Dudley Edwards , Eoghan Harris , Niamh Horan , Sarah Carey, Mary Ellen Synon , Breda O Brien and David Quinn. Yes , our media is running alive with lefty liberals 😂
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The Irish media were behind Hilary, do you want to stop pretending there is this group of alt-righters in the establishment. They are globalists and corporate EU shills. A bit of self-criticism is in order from the left if they can indeed claim to hold that title anymore having abandoned working class people and completely seeded soverignty as an issue in most of their popular guises. The media aren’t leftist, they are globalists as I said, but the “left” is calling anyone who disagrees with globalism a racist. A self-interested policy is the natural reaction to elites who have taken power away from ordinary people.
Liberals: So I guess screaming that everyone is Islamophobic, Transphobic, Racist, Hitler, Gross, Creepy, Fascist until they can’t even voice their opinion didn;t work because Brexit ad Trump happened. You know what would be a great idea? To smugly double down on these tactics in future. Yes, that’ll work.
In Trumps forst week in office he has made efforts to calm the situation with Russia, and dismantled TTP and Nafta, two things most people on the left are supposed to be against.
But no, Trump is Hitler. Liberals are democratic. They’ll be marching in support of sharia law should we ever get a republic. And they’ll be dispensed of by actual totalitarians.
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Oh, I have argued before that much of the Irish press establishment is right-libertarian: socially progressive, economically regressive. The small alt-right component is a fringe of that consensus. Albeit, perhaps, growing in numbers.
I agree, Trump is no Hitler. As I have stated elsewhere he is more Silvio Berlusconi than Benito Mussolini. Though that does deny the possibility for an authoritarian slide on his part, albeit curtailed by the US’ constitutional checks and balances.
I have pointed to the opinions of Michael Moore and others in relation to Trump. I’ve also written about Brexit and the disconnect between rulers and ruled that led to the Leave vote.
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Fair enough. The discourse is so charged at the moment that it’s easy to simplify maybe. There may be a few alt-righters in the making in the media, I also think it is a movement which very much threatens the established media however, given some of its origins on places like 4chan, they are in a bit of a frenzy at the moment as they have been shown up in a big way as not having done their job, something both the left and the right would agree on in different ways obviously. They hurt Hilary in bolstering her so much, they created unreasonable fear over Trump (who had plenty of things to critique in a serious way without crying he’s a nazi) and they were wildly optimistic in their predictions. Maybe some of them want to cosy up to the alt-right now in the same way they may have tried to portray themselves as progressive during Obama’s tenure. I’m not sure. There is a paradigm shift though, so I may very much be wrong in discounting our article outright. We’ll see.
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Trump gives legitimacy to right wing bigotry and hate , much in the same way Hitler gave to antisemitism of Germany, it gives the bar room curmudgeon a platform to spout uneducated piffle and bile because it is their ”Democratic” right to do so, regardless of decorum and feelings for others, to paraphrase the late German Nobel novelist Thomas Mann, the Nazi’s threw a grenade of hatred into German society in order to destroy all sense of decency.
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And the Weimar republic allowed them to. But it is not the same. If the left shuts down rational criticism, it is THEY who legitimize the right .
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