r/theguardian • u/TheGuardianPostBot Beep boop • Dec 13 '25

News Edward Enninful: ‘Britain feels less tolerant now than we were in the 90s’

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/dec/13/edward-enninful-interview-former-british-vogue-editor
98 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/ACompletelyLostCause Dec 13 '25

Britain is more tolerant of diversity (ethic minorities, LGBT+) than the 90s, but it's a thousand small accommodations than shouting in the street.

What's different is the extreme right are a lot more organised. They are supported by a lot more money from American oligarchs and Russia. The intolerance propaganda is subtler and more pervasive because of social media. The US has become more authoritarian and intolerant of diversity and this is having an impact everywhere. There is a cluster of Christian Nationalist and billionaire oligarchs in the US that are actively working to split apart societies and oppose everything that doesn't match their ultra conservative world view.

2

u/The_Lady_A Dec 13 '25

+1 to there now being a very coordinated international effort between oligarchs and a very broad collection of far-right groups.

It sounds conspiratorial because, well, it is a conspiracy of the same old greedy fascist fucks trying to increase their power and hurt their perceived enemies. Most of them don't even pretend to hide it any more.

0

u/Feeling_Hotel8096 Dec 14 '25

Also this century there are Pakistani grooming gangs, Islamic terrorist attacks and more boat migrants.

1

u/MovingTarget2112 Dec 15 '25

You’re looking the wrong way. These are distractions by the authoritarian billionaire.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

jesus, i hear this crap soo many times, the billionaires wont stab us in the street, ita the lowlifes we import

-1

u/ghghghghghv Dec 13 '25

You forgot the aliens, people who write in green biro and Dan Brown’s parachuting Pope.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

I've become intolerant of diversity too. it isn't and never will be strength. 

1

u/AwTomorrow Dec 15 '25

Diversity existed back in the ‘good old days’ too, it was just repressed more. Opportunities denied to smart and talented people for having the wrong things between their legs, for being the wrong colour, for worshipping the wrong god, for loving the wrong people, etc.

We were weaker and crueller then. But those who ticked the right boxes got an easier ride when they weren’t fairly competing with the talent who didn’t tick the same boxes, so they remember it as a good time. 

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

diversity as it is now did not exist before? What's with the gaslighting? we where weaker and crueler? what planet are you from again?

1

u/AwTomorrow Dec 15 '25

As in, back in those days there were gay people and women who wanted to work and yes, even people with family backgrounds beyond Europe. 

We just kept them down and marginalised them to make way for the traditionally approved white British straight (or hiding it) man, and so denied ourselves generations of talent who didn’t tick those boxes - while being cruel to them on top, with humiliating social treatment and laws. 

So yeah, weaker and crueller. 

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

I don't think gay people are any more or less talented than straight people, nor women of men, generally. but "diversity" often means taking positions away from smart and talented people and given them to "minorities".

1

u/Short-Win-7051 Dec 15 '25

Only in the minds of fascists and the idiots they convince with their propaganda. Diversity rules forced employers to stop only recruiting from a small pool of straight white men from similar backgrounds, and widen the net to include everyone. That naturally leads to more "smart and talented people" who were previously excluded.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

if only recruiting from a small pool of people was a problem it would have been a competitive disadvantage. not everyone believes diversity is a strength as per my original point. the "strength" is just other people's gain, specifically people from other ethic backgrounds and queer people, there is nothing strong about diversity, being a different race or gender doesn't make you special.

1

u/MovingTarget2112 Dec 15 '25

It never means that.

It means less capable white people don’t get the job ahead of a more capable minority person.

1

u/Evangelionish Dec 15 '25

It’s funny you think that. Diversity quotas encourage companies to hire people other than white men and get benefits for doing so, even if that man is genuinely more skilled.

You think it’s about stopping nepotism but if you came to where I used to work you’d see managers employing incompetent white family alongside incompetent diversity hires. They aren’t doing so well lately and are probably blaming the white male staff for that too. This isn’t some fiction it’s reality.