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The triangulation of centrists emboldens the far-right

Over the last few days I’ve been thinking back to this Richard Seymour piece about the strange connections between centrists and the far-right:

Against all this, official liberalism has one move, which is to supplement its growth discourse by triangulating the far-right. Just as Biden had sought to neutralise Trump by appropriating parts of his border agenda, Macron’s government has tried to outflank Le Pen by, for example, calling her soft on Islam and fulminating about “Islamo-gauchisme”.  This is a weird symbiosis, in which both the hard-centre and the far-right thrive on cultivating hopelessness and punitive desires: sado-pessimism. It legitimises the far-right, who take the win and demand more

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/07/the-rise-of-disaster-nationalism

There’s a long history of new Labour doing this, with the right flank of Starmer’s coalition now extending well into traditionally Conservative territory. Yes he’s called it “far-right thuggery” but I can’t help but wonder how the electoral landscape might be shaping tactical responses, with regards to for example recalling Parliament or going after Farage. My concern that Starmerism will lead the UK on a similar path to Macronism in France is growing with each passing day.

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