[Fintan O’Toole] Il movimento di estrema destra irlandese emergerà dal “breakfast roll-atariat”

>Even without Duffy’s history of inflammatory online statements (such as [his attitude to the environmental activist Greta Thunberg](https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/04/11/how-the-fuel-protests-brought-the-country-to-a-standstill/):  “I couldn’t care less if she got raped or beaten and I make no apologies for saying that”), anyone with a stim of wit would know where these revolts of the disaffected middling business class always go: to the far right.

>Geoghegan’s rhetoric is that of endless grievance: “the people of Ireland are sick and tired of being bullied and robbed for years and it ends today”. This is the infinite self-pity that fills the tanks of all contemporary and historical far-right movements.

>“Bullied” means having to abide by laws made by people we freely elect. “Robbed” means paying taxes to sustain a decent society. But in this hysteria, democracy is intolerable oppression and the duty to pay for the common good is theft.

>It was astonishingly naive of the Government not to have anticipated some kind of large-scale revolt. And even more naive for some of those on the left of Irish politics to embrace the blockade as a harbinger of progressive change. Did nobody pay the slightest attention to what has happened even in the last few years in Europe,  from the gilets jaunes in France to [the BoerBurgerBeweging in the Netherlands](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/people/2023/07/15/who-is-the-half-irish-woman-leading-a-farmers-party-that-has-rocked-politics-in-the-netherlands/)?

Very droll

But to be honest this is exactly the type of sneering, class disdain that fuels far right urges.

This is disgustingly condescending.

The insistence of so many in the media that all of this is a far right operation to take down the West shows how wildly out of touch they are with the ordinary people on the street.

This nonsense narrative only emboldens and gives prominence to the nasty actors it is ostensibly against in the first place.

*is emerging

Bang on the money here from O Toole. These are an unelected bunch of knuckledraggers (not all) but the whole country is feeling the pain, not just these clowns. Are we standing on the sidelines actually delighted that this cohort manage to blackmail the Govt into giving THEM 750 million??? , what about everyone else that needs a helping hand? There are more deserving than this shower who cant block roads that need assisstance.

As a fan of both puns and portmanteaus, I say no sir, you’ve gone too far. You’ve overstretched the medium

This is a terrible take. Change is needed but by the Left refusing to participate all that will happen is the centrists will see the Right and Far Right are the ones actually doing something about it and become more tolerant of racism/sexism/etc. in exchange for the feeling that there is actual action and progress towards their economic needs.

A starving man doesn’t have the luxury to care about politics but if you refuse to help him because he accepted help from a racist then how can you expect him to see you as good and the racist as bad?

>‘breakfast roll-atariat’

Fucking seriously?!?

Is Fintan actually trying to patronise and belittle people to a point where he might as well be recruiting for the National Party? Like what the fuck!

Problem is leftists in Ireland are middle class, snobby and performative. We don’t actually care for the plight of the working man because when we talk to him we have nothing in common with him. What leftists do care about is gender and race equality, LGBT etc. This is also a just cause but it’s not the cause of these protesters because it doesn’t effect them.

This split happens in every country. I’m not about to say oh we need to do x to accomodate xeno/homophobes and women haters. But the reality is the left in Ireland is fighting for issues a class above the supposed proletariat leftism previously fought. We are all the victims of the billionaire racist patriarchy but have been successfully divided from one another in discourse.

What’s the answer? I don’t know.

It’s incredibly obvious who in this sub is just repeating American talking points.

Has anyone seen your man James Conway. He was shouting like a man possessed in the blockade.

Everyone I don’t like is far-right

It wouldn’t be an issue if the government showed any leadership and didn’t create this sort of vacuum where bad actors could step in to act as a saviour to disaffected and frustrated people. Far right sentiment grows where there is a lack of vision and leadership. This government has a habit of throwing up its hands at every major issue and saying nothing can be done, be that housing, cost of living, hospital waiting lists, and so on. It’s going on for years, if not decades. It’s obvious that the protests are sort of bigger than the fuel crisis at this point and it has tapped into a general discontent about the way in which the country is being run. There’s no good reason this country cannot function better than it currently does, but we are constantly hobbled by career politicians telling everyone that they should be happy with the status quo, that nothing can ever improve, and don’t you dare even ask. I’m not shocked at all that the far right have exploited that, it’s very easy to do so when you have a government that are seemingly wilfully incapable of rising to the occasion. 

I obviously think that people are foolish to fall in line with some slimy grifter offering them a quick fix and these individuals have extremely bad intentions for the country, but I do also think so much of the blame is on the government who have displayed a chronic absence of vision and leadership at every turn. They have facilitated this. Doesn’t help that so many of the figures in prominent positions in government are not in politics for any of the right reasons, and have no real opinions or ideas beyond running the country like a business. 

He’s an arsehole, but he’s not wrong. While, fortunately, they’ve yet to find a central figure to unite behind (a Trump/Farage type), it’s too lucrative a grift for the position not to get filled, We’ve seen a number of heads stuck over the parapet over the past week or so and, fortunately, so far, all have been quite easily dismissed by skeletons in their front garden rather than buried in the closet.

The most worrying part is the lack of talent in the ranks of our conventional politicians. We need a few Bernie Sanders types who can relate to the struggles of the man on the street but who has an understanding of politics, common sense and the integrity to not be on the grift himself (he really isn’t actually all that left wing by our standards, he’d be far more Labour/SDs than PBP).

We need someone with Michael Healey Rae’s ability to connect to these people, Paschal Donoghue’s head for economics and Michael D Higgin’s integrity. Sadly, there don’t seem to be many of that type around…

We should never allow a vacuum to be created when people or businesses have a legitimate grievance with our government. The right wingers are a symptom not a cause. 

So condescending but we know the audience he’s pandering to and what they think of everyone outside of their echo chamber

These individuals are deeply dissatisfied with the status quo, and despite wanting an election they will refuse to support traditional political parties.

They distrust the government and the media (and eventually the electoral process, wait for it). Because they distrust mainstream news, they rely on alternative information that creates a closed loop, constantly reinforcing their own perspective on how the world works.

​They reject the idea that social groups are equal, preferring to see people in terms of superiority and inferiority.

Some research indicates that people with far right views tend to process information more slowly and have a harder time holding multiple ideas in their mind at once.

​Joining a far right movement offers them a sense of order and community in a complicated world. By viewing themselves as part of a “chosen” or elite group, they get a massive boost to their self-esteem, which helps them hide or cope with the frustrations and failures in their own personal lives.