Far-right riots and Islamophobic attacks spread to more cities overnight Sunday, days after deadly stabbings in Southport were falsely attributed to Muslims
You really have to hand it to the UK government for having probably the worst possible messaging tactics on this.
Yes, the guy was not himself an immigrant. That was indeed misinformation. But to keep framing it like, "Ackshually he was a true blooded Brit born to Rwandan immigrant parents Checkmate misinformation bigots!!!" isn't the correct messaging strategy to use here.
The government/media seem to be entirely incapable of following that statement through to its conclusion in the minds of the anti-immigrant right. They will just take that to mean: "Well then obviously these immigrants are all incapable of assimilation into UK society, and they have to go regardless what generation migrant they are! "
It would have been much better to actually address the material conditions that led to this kid being radicalized / falling through the cracks of the mental healthcare system / etc. It sounds like they have not ascertained the motive for the killings, so I'm making guesses, but you can take my meaning.
But also, what if he had been a Muslim immigrant? That obviously wouldn't justify anything that had happened. And so the race, religion and nationality of the attacker are entirely irrelevant.
I wonder why the government is having a difficult time signalling to its population that collective punishment is unacceptable...
Yeah, exactly. They're letting racist chuds control the entire discourse/narrative, so they are stuck playing defense. Their only rhetorical tools are deflecting and deboonking. It's a failing strategy. It's incredible libs have not learned this by now.