I don’t fit into the Loose Women demographic. I’m at work when it is on and when I’m not I select what I want to catch up with online, which is usually EastEnders or whatever I can find on Netflix. It’s one of the many shows which usually sits outside of my bubble. So if I hadn’t seen a link shared by a friend on Facebook to Nigel Farage’s appearance on the show, I might have forgotten that the former Ukip leader still has a very responsive and sympathetic audience in this country.
Farage was warmly welcomed by the studio audience this week when he appeared to discuss, among other things, Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban. When Saira Khan, one of the Loose Women panelists, asked him how he would feel if a far-right extremist attacked a Muslim because of how they interpreted something he said, Farage responded by saying, “I could throw that back at you … how would you feel if people, if Muslims listening to an extremist preacher planted a bomb on a London tube?” I wondered if Farage had fully thought out that response, after all he did replace his role in the scenario with that of an “extremist preacher”. But the audience didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they applauded him once again.
The video of Farage’s Loose Women appearance has been shared by a pro-Brexit Facebook account and pretty much every single comment beneath it seems to be in defence of Farage and against Khan, who is variously described as a “gobby” and “aggressive” Muslim. Several people even suggest that ITV should get rid of Khan, the only woman of colour on the panel show, instead of engaging with the challenges she raised to Farage.
Bubbles come into existence when we act on the impulses that we have to move away from people who don’t agree with us. It often feels like a logical thing to do. On Facebook I have unfriended people I went to school with who have become increasingly intolerant of refugees, immigrants and Muslims. Removing these people from my space is a form of self-preservation, but in doing so perhaps I am adding to the problem.
It’s not like I live in a hole surrounded only by people who agree with me. I have family members who have canvassed for Ukip and have posted pictures of themselves with Nigel Farage. When they come over for tea they complain about immigrants, as if my mother isn’t married to one. In the past I’ve been reluctant to push too hard against their ideas. Recently however, I’ve felt more of a responsibility to have uncomfortable conversations with them and challenge their views. I wonder whether they’ll feel like they can tell people that they have Muslim family and use their relation to us to prove that they’re not living in a bubble of their own.
None of us want to admit that we live in a bubble. But the truth is that there is no way your lived experience can straddle that of every social class, ethnicity or gender and the limitations of your experience are the walls of your bubble. Having a black friend or a Muslim in-law does not mean that you don’t live in a bubble, and we should all think a bit harder about where our blind spots are.
It’s not just people on the left or right who live in different bubbles. Even as I spoke to some friends and colleagues who share my progressive values this week, I felt like we had been living in parallel worlds. Of course, I felt outraged at Trump’s executive order, but I also knew that this hadn’t come completely out of the blue, unlike others who were in a state of total shock.
Riz Ahmed wrote about being typecast as a terrorist at the airport last year, before Trump had even won the election, and #FlyingWhileMuslim has been the go-to hashtag for Muslims facing issues while travelling for a while. Although I guess that if you have never gone through border control with a Muslim name, you won’t have been programmed to see passport checks as anything more than a mild inconvenience. It’s an issue outside of your experience and you probably didn’t see it coming.
With divisions between different groups according to class, race, religion and gender widening in the current climate, it sometimes feels like it’s impossible to build bridges. How can any conversation I have with anyone affect what they think if their ideas are reinforced by reading Breitbart and the Daily Mail every day? Similarly, how can I understand their concerns if I’m so quick to avoid engaging with them?
The truth is that it’s hard. Emotions run high around these issues and make for uncomfortable conversations. That said, it’s essential that we don’t just retreat into spaces where our ideas are reinforced. That’s why no-platforming controversial speakers or censoring ideas that we find unsavoury is unhelpful. In the short-term, going on a protest may be a good way of making your voice heard, but we need to change the way we engage with the issues that concern us most. There are still plenty of people out there who voted for Trump because they wanted him to deliver on the promises he made and others applauding Farage for his role in Brexit.
We have to start listening to what is going on beyond our comfort zone, moving into new spaces, asking more questions and speaking up more. That’s the only way we can make the bubble burst.
