Reading ‘Lord Of The Rings’ And ‘1984’ Could Lead To Right-Wing Extremism, Gov’t Report Warns
Edit: Someone from the UK govt downvoted me :D
>Fox News Digital could not verify the extent of the list of books, movies and shows flagged under the government program and the Home Office could not verify the existence of the list.
As of now, Murray's claims are the only thing any other outlet has cited as "proof"; can you provide something a bit more substantial before possibly spreading FUD?
[1]https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-counterterrorism-program-fl...
> 3.46 While the products related to Islamist terrorism focus on the most serious material relating to violent Islamist ideology, mostly Islamic State and al-Qa’ida, much of the material covering Extreme Right-Wing falls well below the threshold for even non-violent extremism.
> 3.47 This material tends to deal with broader themes and often covers content that relates to narratives on social media. These products not only covered non-violent far right extremism, but also examples of centre-right debate, populism, and controversial or distasteful forms of right-leaning commentary and intolerance. Some of this material falls well short of the extremism threshold altogether.
> 3.48 I saw one RICU analysis product from 2020 on Right-Wing terrorist and extremist activity online which referenced books by mainstream British conservative commentators as “key cultural nationalist ideological texts”. The same document listed “key texts” for white nationalists as including historic works of the Western philosophic and literary canon.
Emphasis mine.
So it is certain that some mainstream books were considered signifiers of right-wing extremism by Prevent's Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU), but I haven't seen any official publication of exactly what the list contained.
[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-revie...
The more I read about this, the more it feels like far-right circles are seizing on your highlighted point and adding their own "details" (eg, Murray naming specific books), or spin, to push a narrative that supports them.
2. This is a common pattern in left wing propaganda I have seen play out. Example:
Propagandist: “Plain bellied sneetches are bad"
Mary, the plain bellied sneetch: Am I bad?
Propagandist: Lol, show me where I mentioned "Mary" is bad. Plain bellied sneetches are always eager to jump to conclusions! lol.