I’m guessing you know what friend-zoned means. Or clickbait. When we lack a word that succinctly describes a concept we can’t quite describe, it’s called hypocognition. When we find that new word or phrase something clicks. It helps us express our thoughts. There is power in naming something.
I would like to coin the phrase ‘fake crusader’. The fake crusader is someone who shouts angrily at an injustice for just long enough to get attention and feel self-righteous. Despite having no track record of actually doing anything about it.
Far-right ‘fake crusaders’ don’t actually give a sh*t about women and children
“We’re shouting at this hotel to protect our women and children” is classic fake crusader behaviour. On one level it makes sense. All decent folk are appalled by sex crimes. Presumably these crusaders will now also stop listening to the radio, given how many former radio presenters are convicted sex criminals.
If you’re so keen on calling out sex offenders, why did you not protest outside cathedrals when Justin Welby resigned last year? The Church of England covered up brutal sexual, physical, and mental abuse against more than 120 boys and young men. If you only call out Black and brown sex offenders and remain silent about white ones, protecting women and children isn’t your cause. Racism is.
There’s a psychological process known as projection. A defence mechanism where a person unconsciously attributes their own unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or behaviours to others. It is well documented that 41% of far-right rioters were reported to the police for domestic violence against women and children.
So yes, do condemn grooming gangs from minoritised populations. But don’t claim they do it because they are minoritised. I mean, come on, you can’t get more British than an Archbishop of Canterbury whose mother was Winston Churchill’s secretary. Except perhaps for Prince Andrew.
Any large group of people will contain saints and sinners. It seems humans are human, regardless of ethnicity or creed.
The ‘fake crusaders’ in parliament
You see fake crusaders on other issues too. Labour MPs and mayors courting headlines about how awful child poverty is. The same MPs that then voted to keep the two-child benefit cap once they were in power. Or those who performatively labelled lifelong anti-racists as antisemitic for calling out the Nakba, despite never having lifted a finger to stop the far-right when they were denying the Shoah.
Social media is replete with posts saying, “Why are we helping foreigners when we have homeless people here?” from angry people who have never donated a penny to homeless charities. It’s much easier to shout at other people than to muster the moral courage to fix the problem.
That applies to governments too. Terrorism is heinous. But if you change the law so you can arrest peaceful protesters as terrorists, while you supply arms to war criminals, you are a fake crusader.
Smokescreen for the real culprits
Some fake crusaders are at another level of denial. I was asked on social media, “would you house a refugee?” by someone thinking it was a killer argument. My answer was, no, I wouldn’t. Nor do I plan to run into a burning building and carry people out. I leave it to trained professionals with the correct equipment, and I pay my taxes so they can do it on my behalf. That’s how the division of labour works.
The genuine crusaders are the professionals and volunteers rolling up their sleeves and feeding, healing and housing those in need. Running the foodbanks, the rape crisis centres, the rehabilitation centres. They’re underpaid, undervalued and underappreciated by successive austerity governments. The fake crusaders are a smokescreen hiding the real culprits – the mega rich skimming off everyone else’s hard work. If they want to do something good, stop shouting at people worse off than you are, and donate £20 to your local charity.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.