BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN

It’s funny how everyone exhibiting political soundness has suddenly become “far right”. Apparently, more than half the country are now “far right”, racist, hard Brexiteers. Those, for example, who express support for the populist Italian Government’s logical stance on immigration are supporting a “far right” regime. Meanwhile even the term populist is being redefined as fascist, racist and “far right”, which makes one scratch one’s head as to how the likes of communist Syriza in Greece were described by commentators across the board as populist just a few years back.

It’s as if those really bitter and unpleasant ones – the Corbynite Marxists, the sore #FBPE referendum losers and the worst of the Rainbow Reich – have taken the left-right linear political spectrum and hoisted it up on the left, sliding all others down to the far right. (Of course, this is a nonsense, as many of the best freedom lovers and most ardent Brexiteers happen to be established permanently on the left, while it’s widely recognised that the left-right linear political spectrum is as passé as Blockbuster Video).

So, what logic possesses those who use the “far-right” smear willy-nilly against opponents? Who knows? The fact is that if you call everyone, including those who don’t hate other races, far right, racist, or whatever else, you don’t smear these people. Instead you make the label far-right lose its meaning and with it you lose your credibility. That’s dumb …. and dangerous.

I mean what would happen if those on the centre right – let’s include the classical liberals and various conservatives – started smearing the Chuka Umunnas as Far Left? Associating Umunna with the NazionalSozialismus of Adolf Hitler and the truly Big State is as ridiculous as giving credence to the Ickeian Reptilians or claiming Cadbury Creme Eggs are the work of the Illuminati. It’s conspiracy theory stuff. Tinfoiler. As if the smearers have started believing that 2+2=8 and donned Jukes Bacofoil balaclavas.

Think for a minute – not that deeply.

What do far-right National Action have in common with centre-right Brexiteers? Nowt. What does white supremacist Ethan Stables have in common with Tory James Cleverly? Nowt. So, Michael Gove is the new (Jo Cox killer) Thomas Mair? No. Point out the similarities between hordes of Anti-Semitic skinheads and Zac Goldsmith … you get the picture.

As a man of the old centre-right I take my hat off to the Paul Joseph Watsons, the Sargons, the Dave Cullens and others who win bigly daily on the front lines of the culture war, with their snappy and amusing content, and those thinkers like the Weinstein brothers, Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson who dominate the Intellectual Dark Web, much to the chagrin of their overwhelmed, conquered opponents who desperately smear them all as “far right”. These speakers exhibit genuine soundness. If only they could spend a tad more time warning their burgeoning audiences that there are sad and dangerous anoraks on the genuine Far Left and the genuine Far Right – as well as bonkers smear-merchant Postmodernists to take the Mickey out of – who their followers should be careful to ostracise and stay well clear of.

“Far right” is becoming the ubiquitous go-to smear of those losing the argument. Pity those losers, like genuine Far Right extremists, who are clearly void of sound.