Extremist Political Speech

Fianna Fáil ("FF"), from 1932 until now Ireland's semi-permanent party of government, and the dominant partner in the current governing coalition, appears to be moribund.

The latest Red C opinion poll shows its support at 13%. In a real election last week in Donegal South-West, it secured a share closer to twice as high, but that was in a constituency in which it previously could safely rely on 50% or so.With a General Election coming in the Spring, this is ominous for the party.

I am not sorry to see this development, for which I have hoped most of my adult life. Unfortunately, it has taken a set of circumstances with truly appalling consequences for nearly all citizens to bring it about. However, one could not say that it has been undeserved: FF have been the authors of their own demise (and Brian Cowen has lived down to my worries about his suitability for the top job).

All that said, I have been taken aback by some of the extreme language used by some commentators to describe the party and those who vote for it. A certain "snootiness" about FF and its popular appeal has always been noticeable among the "chatterati" and Garret FitzGerald's reference (even though his intended meaning was something different) to "flawed pedigree" caused great offence precisely because it appeared to make explicit a theme whose expression was normally suppressed. At its most virulent, this "snootiness" was similar to the blind prejudice commonly expressed against all members of the Irish "travelling community".

The present crisis, and the fact that Fianna Fáil, the party (correctly, in my view) held responsible for it, not only still cling to office (partly by refusing to hold by-elections) but continue to attract *any support at all* has provoked the expression of some very strong sentiment.

Here's a sample:

If Ireland suffered a nuclear winter, two certain survivors would be: 1 Cockroaches, and 2 Fianna Fail.

FF are the cockroaches of politics.

...we’d be allowed to use a reasonable amount of violence to rid our property of political cockroaches.

people are listing their personal plans (move,study etc). Mine involves the FF cabinet & an angle grinder

Fianna Fail have once again, crippled this country.. Patriotism to the parish pump is all they understand... You are a cancer on this country

Fianna Fail are a cancer. Good analogy

[L]ying is in their genes

Fianna Fail Scum, FFS for short

Do you have a final solution for the FF problem?

How do we stop Fianna Fáil ever getting into power again and making sure the architects of this nations downfall face justice...To be 100% sure of success, we'd need to exterminate the 25% of our population that makes up Ireland's cretin belt, plus their numerous offspring (Irish cretins tend to breed like rabbits).

As for the rest of your wibbling gombeen bolloxology, I look forward to the day when all you FFers are rounded up and deported to Antarctica.

Yer a fool, a liar, a national traitor and a thief, like all your despicable kind. FFers are scum - boorish blustering lying arrogant-but-clueless scum.

The absolute dregs of humanity, subhuman untermensch, a poisonous cancer on the Irish nation

Of course, this is not a representative sample of the anti-FF sentiment being expressed in the national conversation. Most would be more moderate in tone, similar to that in my opening paragraphs above. However, extremist language has a potential to provoke extreme action, and many otherwise sensible people are now to be heard on the broadcast media, and to be read elsewhere, favouring what sounds like the overthrow of the Government through street protests. Some even seemed - and still seem - to believe that a street mob is a valid and reliable expression of true democratic will.

If that were so, much expense could be spared on those troublesome exercises known as elections. No, once power is achieved other than in the ballot-boxes, there is no longer democracy.

Attacks on democracy in the Irish media, however, are nothing new. Though never explicit, they were a daily occurrence during the Lisbon Treaty campaigns. Bryan Caplan notwithstanding, I am a passionate democrat. Unlike others, I do not dislike democracy simply because it delivers results that "experts" deem wrong.

What is more disturbing about the tenor of the stuff quoted above, as I am sure some readers will have noticed, is the resemblance to hate speech recorded in 1930s Germany ("untermenschen", "Final Solution") and pre-genocide Rwanda ("cockroaches"). Of course, the contexts are not at all comparable and I don't expect death-camps for Fianna Fáilers to spring up, anti-FF murder-gangs to wander the land, or anything of the kind.

Nevertheless, I found it remarkable enough to say on Twitter last week:

Some of the anti-Fianna Fáil sentiment being expressed here & on other media is reminiscent of the worst kind of anti-semitism

As most know, messages on Twitter are limited to 140 characters, and so "anti-semitism" had to do the work of a longer phrase such as "anti-semitic hate speech", but it seems to me that, to any bona fide reader, the meaning was clear from the context. I wasn't reminded of the gas chambers even by the nastiest of the messages hostile to Fianna Fail, and I wasn't equating one to the other. Furthermore, by starting with the phrase "some of", I thought that I was as clear as I could be that I was not of the ridiculous view that any criticism of Fianna Fáil was to be deprecated. Anyone who paid attention to where I stood on political issues, or who knew my political history, would know that to be absurd.

The reaction from many to my tweet was hostile. I learned of the true colours of some whose virtues I had previously held in higher esteem. No doubt, lessons were learned on both sides. Enough said on that.

I also learned other things, like the depths to which anti-semitic propaganda sinks in the Levant, even today. Nothing said in Irish arguments, I hope, will ever be redolent of such pure poison.