Could becoming a fascist be the answer to my liberal woes?

If you can't beat Trump and friends, perhaps it's better to join them...

- Hanif Kureishi

I f I could raise my arms, I’d be doing a Nazi salute right now. If I could walk, I’d be goose-stepping. Since a good deal of the world seems weary of liberalism — and, to a certain extent, democracy — and is hating progressive climate

policies, LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, it might be time to rethink my position.

After all, it’s painful to wake up every day to the news and discover what fresh hell the increasing number of Right-wing governments are serving up. So instead of complaining, resisting, or crying, I’ve decided to adopt a new attitude.

Here in west London, in this tiny corner of Europe, we are embattled and under siege. This liberal enclave is being attacked from all sides. It comes as a shock: we’ve always taken it for granted that our values — freedom, democracy, equality, inclusion, diversity and the rest — would be attractive to most people since they would likely benefit them and their families.

So why not? I decided during Donald Trump’s inauguration to buy a Maga hat and start loving him; and then, for that matter, all the other monstrous dictators and crazy ideologues. Trump may be a convicted felon, racist, liar and scumbag of the highest order, but that hasn’t stopped millions of Americans from voting for him, or even adoring him.

But my exceptionalism and visceral hatred of Trump must be shortening my life. After all, many youthful radicals — including some of my friends like Christopher Hitchens — moved effortlessly from the Left to the Right in their later years. Now I, by sheer force of will, if not weakness, am about to do the same.

Farewell to the pearl-clutching pinkos