Blogging Against fascism

There are a number of blogging websites with a UK political bent displaying a "Stop the fascist BNP" logo, including the site belonging to Tom Watson MP which, despite his politics, is a good read.

I despise racism in all its guises and it makes me squirm whenever the BNP get headlines, especially when it is because Councillors have been elected. But I hate censorship and have argued for a long time that when people try to stop the BNP being heard all you do is harden the feelings of the perpetrators of their racist drivel, give them a legitimate message about censorship and lose an opportunity to expose the truth behind what they say.

So when I first saw this logo I thought it was another attempt at blocking their message. So I followed the link, it goes to a page entitled "blogging against fascism". I am pleased to say that it did not turn out as I thought. Their message is about stopping the BNP, but through the ballot box, and I wholeheartedly applaud that. My only criticism is the use of the word "fascism." There is an element of fascism in the BNP message, but people see the use of the word as fighting extremism with extremism and I don't think that helps. Thankfully the link has a number of buttons that relate to stopping just the BNP - so I shall use one of them - when I work out how.

We defeat racism by winning the argument. Expose the BNP for what they are. Don't censor the message, it helps them. I recommend you follow the link at the top of this blog and take a read for yourself.