Trump isn’t the only one who fears the violent masses

On Monday, US Republican presidential candidate and gaffe-prone billionaire Donald Trump called for all Muslim immigrants to be banned from entering the US. Speaking in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings, Trump’s mad plan was aimed at tackling the threat of terrorism.

It is sad that a presidential candidate in the US, a country of immigrants, is so scared of outsiders. And, in the wake of his controversial comments, Trump has rightly been criticised for his fear-laden, intolerant outlook. But for all the Twitter grandstanding, Trump’s critics are more like The Donald than they would care to admit.

In the wake of Trump’s comments, a petition was started calling for him to be banned from the UK for ‘stirring up religious and racial hatred’. The petition has already received over 250,000 signatures, and has been backed by some MPs.

As pointed out numerous times on spiked, it is now common for so-called liberals to respond to every Islamist terror attack by fearmongering about an Islamophobic backlash from, though they rarely come out and say it, the white working classes. The fear that Trump, if he was allowed into Britain, would ‘stir up hatred’ is shot through with this prejudice.

While Trump thinks all Muslims are potential terrorists, these petitioners think the gruff lower orders are a lynch-mob-in-waiting. In the end, they fear the same thing: the irrationality, the unconscious prejudice and the volatility of the masses. Think about that before you jump on the Trump-bashing bandwagon.

Guy Pierce is a writer and researcher based in London.