Political differences can destroy friendships. This is seen most acutely in civil wars and other schisms. The classic description of the English Civil War is of setting father against son, brother against brother. In Tudor times, the choice of which Bible to use caused intergenerational conflicts. Irish Home Rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries caused a similar rift in English society, when politicians started to associate in clubs and societies only with those who took the same stance.
So the Labour MP Laura Pidcock’s refusal to associate with Conservatives, stating that ‘whatever type they are, I have absolutely no intention of being friends with any of them’ is nothing new. It is actually quite old.
But do Corbynistas like Pidcock actually have any friends? They don’t. Instead, what they have are fellow travellers. It is ironic that socialism is actually not all that social. People who follow Pidcock’s unpleasant style of socialism are openly hostile to all those who disagree with them to any degree. This is the narcissism of small differences, but also large ones to boot.
This is also a culture of fear. Around socialists, people have to careful what they say, lest they be publicly denounced and ostracised. The irresistible rise of Jeremy Corbyn has been accompanied by threats and intimidation against those who differ from a certain party line, or who happen to be Jewish. Curiously, none of the victims in Labour has taken a strong stand against this criminal culture, apart from publicly begging the party leader to make it stop. No Corbynista has gone to jail for making a rape threat against a woman Labour MP. Debate is impossible in this permanent atmosphere of open hostility. Loyalty to the Labour party is seen as more important than human decency and bringing the bullies and thugs to justice. Socialists of all hues seem to think that the rule of law is an optional extra.
What Pidcock said was not new, nor was it much of a surprise. It merely validated the disgusting nature of socialism, where someone’s opinions are more important than their character and behaviour, and have to be examined and evaluated at all times. It is truly a predatory culture of the friendless, where association is based on enforceable agreement but, curiously, not on comradeship.
As Laura Perrins has already written here, being friends with a Corbynista is a waste of time. In truth, they have no friends and cannot make any. Instead, what they have are conditional associations backed by force.
