Is the Left Creating the New Right?

I just watched a documentary on Europe’s Identitarian movement made by Australia’s SBS Dateline, which was very interesting. The Identitarians are a nationalist movement against mass immigration. The left tars them as neo-nazis, but they claim that they are not.

The coverage in the documentary fairly balanced. A telling moment is when an antifacist who is being interviewed is asked if there should be any controls on immigration, and answers with an outright no. Meanwhile, the so called Nazi, when asked the same question, says that there should be controlled immigration, and that Syrian refugees should be taken care of in Turkey, Jordan, and in safe areas of Syria itself.

What I find interesting is that, by shouting racist at such people, the left seems to be pushing more and more people away from the center to join those on the right. Here are a sample of the comments on the video. I’ve chosen the more rational ones. There are others which are much more extreme; if you want to read them, go to the video:

• Right wing? Really?! What about all the regular people who basically just oppose this destructive left wing agenda?
• I am all for this movement, but I would never identify myself as right wing. I’m a centrist. Luck be with you, from America

• This is great. Why shouldn’t they protect their homelands .

• If patriotism is considered racist , then I am a racist and proud of it.

• Change the title to ‘Anyone Who Disagrees With Me Is Hitler – The Documentary’

• They don’t seem like supremacist but just because they disagree with leftist narrative they get tagged as extreme right wing. Good for Indentitarians, left is pushing people to their side.

• White folks have every right to fight for their race and heritage!  Why is it that every White person who stands up for his race and culture is called a racist, while those non-Whites who stand up for their own race are considered noble.  These young people are noble and good to fight for their own, and to throw down those whom they see as a threat to their race and culture.  God bless them!

• It’s not about race; it’s about culture.

• Rhetoric, hate speech–how about facts? These are very intelligent, organized, civilized and courageous young people.
• This group looks like future for Europe. God bless these guys! Hope they destroy all invaders

• That’s right, save your culture. The hell with the EU’s multi-culturalism plan. Don’t be scared of the name calling fight for your countries.

•  I gotta admit, that burqa stunt was pretty cool
• Everyone cares about the survival of their own culture, race, and heritage. Doesn’t mean they think other races/cultures are lesser.

• Personally, I see this man as a patriot, and I don’t care what anyone else thinks!

• Get stronger, save Europe.

• So where do we apply!?

The crazy thing is that, though personally I don’t hold these views, by even commenting on them, I’ll probably be criticized for doing so. But look at those comments! There was not a single comment on the video (on the first screen) decrying the identitarians. Most of the commenters I’ve quoted seem like they could hold fairly centrist views, unlike the more extreme commenters on the video.

The single reply attacking a commenter is incredibly weak:

• You think god only likes white people or something?

I say incredibly weak because nowhere in the video or any of the comments did anyone say anything like this. You can’t counter right wing populism with leftist rhetoric. Facts are required.