We are living in deeply turbulent times. The situation on the front lines of the hybrid war—now in full swing—is chaotic and constantly shifting. Political parties are abandoning values they’ve championed for decades. Terms like “left” and “right” have lost their original meaning. Certainties are crumbling, and one must exert enormous effort just to stay vaguely oriented in today’s landscape.
Social media is increasingly flooded with posts generated by artificial intelligence—indistinguishable from reality. Among politicians, we’re witnessing an accelerating erosion of moral integrity. Lies have become the norm. The ends justify the means. If one wants to stay informed and maintain a realistic view of the world, it takes ever more critical thinking and ever more time spent verifying news and information.
Recently, I found myself repeatedly subjected to a kind of moral integrity test, all within a short span of time. The first came during the internal leadership election of the Green Party of England and Wales, of which I had been a member for several years. The traditional liberal leadership was challenged by Zack Polanski and his supporters, who advocate for “eco-populism,” place far greater emphasis on social policy, call for reckless nationalization, and even push for the UK to leave NATO. The new leadership claims that only a populist style of politics can halt the terrifying rise of the far-right Reform UK. While they may have a point, this style simply doesn’t resonate with me. On the contrary—it repulses me to the core.
On September 2nd, the results were announced: Polanski was declared the winner, and I immediately cancelled my membership. I was resolute. I’d had a full month to sort through my thoughts and weigh the pros and cons. The reasons to leave clearly outweighed those to stay.
The next test came less than two weeks later. Self-proclaimed führer Tommy Robinson called a nationwide protest in London against the Labour government, migrants, Palestinians, and essentially anything that even faintly smelled of progressivism. The protest was held under the banner “Unite the Kingdom.” A counter-demonstration was organized by Stand Up to Racism, supported by a wide spectrum of individuals, political parties, and groups. Some of them—like the Communist Party of Britain or the Revolutionary Communist Party—are just as repulsive to me as Robinson’s cohort of brain-dead thugs. But the need to stand up to populism and the growing fascist tendencies in British society ultimately prevailed, and so I went.
I kept my distance from the red flags with hammer and sickle, and as always at these events, headed straight for the black flags of the anarchists and Antifa. The mix of participants was truly diverse—from the aforementioned groups to LGBTQ initiatives, trade unions, Jewish and Palestinian organizations, and ordinary people who simply care about the direction Britain is heading.
What surprised me most, however, was who wasn’t there: the political parties that love to position themselves against fascism and racism in their manifestos. No banners from the major parties I used to see at Stand Up to Racism events. Labour has always been a party of salon leftists, but the absence of Green Party representatives genuinely shocked me—and confirmed that leaving was the right decision.
