For many years we have been told ad nauseam that we must fear the far right. Trump, Orbán, Nigel Farage, Germany’s AfD – these will destroy our so-called liberal democracies and take us back to the 1950s, if not worse, we are told.
In the meantime, the new extreme left is allowed to run riot. Abortion up to birth, a ban on horse racing and a society without prisons and paid work are among their outlandish ideas – ideas it is easy to shake one’s head at, but should we instead take them seriously?
They call themselves The Green Party in the United Kingdom; in Norway it is Rød Ungdom that carries the banner for extreme ideology from the far left. You might perhaps have thought that the youth had been taught what communism led to? Unfortunately, the older generation has failed. Today’s young people on the left believe they have come up with something new and cool when they speak of abolishing property rights, as if this has not been tried before, with disastrous results. In Norway we have Rød Ungdom, with the newly elected leader Alexandra Øhrn Fredwall (19) at the helm. Much nonsense comes from here. Fredwall, who is a trans person (that is, a man), believes that it is acceptable to have an abortion one week (!) before term. He also believes that the housing market should be abolished and replaced by a state one, and that one need not receive wages as an employee. This should not really be surprising, for it is entirely in line with the extreme policy of Rødt and Rød Ungdom. Capitalism is to be dismantled, in accordance with communist ideas.
But do we need to fear these ideas? Are they not merely a very small number of eccentric individuals who believe in this? One may hope so. But look to the United Kingdom, and we may get a foretaste of the currents of thought and ideas among the young.
The Green Party is doing reasonably well. This is probably primarily because Labour, which is traditionally supposed to represent the working class, is performing poorly, also among the young. A few years ago, under Jeremy Corbyn, there was a wave of young left-leaning voters who supported Labour, but the left also does not favour Keir Starmer. “The Greens” do not appeal to the traditional working class either; that is done by Nigel Farage and Reform UK, and Rupert Lowe’s new party. Workers wish to retain the money they earn and are not interested in woke ideas.
Soy latte-drinking and frustrated
The Greens instead appeal to soy latte-drinking, university-educated, frustrated young people who, despite their qualifications, cannot find employment and cannot afford housing. Then it is the System, that is to say capitalism, and the Tories, that are blamed. They do not see the connection between sky-high immigration and housing shortages – nor an economy that stagnates due to high taxes and ever-increasing expenditure in a society that has ceased to be productive. They do not obtain jobs because companies cannot afford to employ them. There are limits to how many purple-haired librarians the public sector can afford as well.
Issues such as banning horse racing on grounds of animal welfare, which can scarcely be described as an important issue, are matters that provoke them. That they live in a society that is in the process of coming apart is of less interest.
In Scotland, The Greens are, if anything, even further to the left. They wish to abolish prisons, because they do not work in any case, is the refrain. The candidate for Edinburgh and East Lothians, Kate Nevens, says she wishes to live in a Scotland without prisons.
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Everything is free?
While the Greens want to live in something resembling anarchy — where drugs are fully liberalized and violent criminals are free to walk among us — they also want everything to be free. Universal basic income is high on their wish list, along with free public transport. The Scottish Greens support Scottish independence, mainly so they can pay reparations to countries once colonized by the Scots.
All of this they call “free” obviously costs money. But for socialists, that’s not a problem — you just fleece the rich. The issue is that Scots already pay more tax than other Britons, and there isn’t much more to squeeze. So where is the money supposed to come from?
“Not my problem,” replied Ross Greer, leader of the Scottish Greens, when asked the question. That’s the level we’re dealing with. These are the people who want to run the country.
We may think Keir Starmer is a disaster — and we’re right. But there’s something even worse waiting around the corner, and the Greens are an increasingly visible reminder of it.
The Greens represent a political current that we also see in Norway. Rød Ungdom (Red Youth) is the clearest standard-bearer of woke ideology, pro-Islam sentiment, and socialism. “Vote Red or Centre,” said the leader of Islam Net, Fahad Qureshi, in 2023.
Recently, Alexandra Fredwall has drawn attention with controversial statements on abortion and property rights. Some of it can be put down to naivety and young age, but are young politicians no longer mentored by the older generation?
The Green Party (MDG) is of course also behind plenty of headless ideas. The proposal for “car-free Sundays” from their Storting representative Frøya Skjold Sjursæther was voted down even within her own party — but we can surely expect more authoritarian proposals from a far-left side that has never placed much value on individual freedom.
A downward spiral.