I am horrified by my past

Devilboii

Member
Hi, I am new to this. Never really considered reaching out to a group or forum with people with similar experiences.

My life I can only really described as being cultlike and stylised in a very strange way. The subject of Satanism played a large part in my ‘bunk’, despite myself and my family being hardcore Atheistic. I held many of these beliefs until a couple of years ago when I managed to get out.

I have believed in conspiracy theories since I can actually remember. I even remember having a conversation with my dad when I was maybe 5 years old, he told me that the government was evil and want to do bad things to me and my family. Occasionally if a particularly horrible news story would come on my dad would explain sometimes in excruciating detail what happened in these stories, even when I was much too young to understand things like murder or paedophillia. Around this time both my parents were very much on the 9/11 conspiracy theory, I got my first taste of the living meme Alex Jones when I was 8 or 9. Occasionally they would mention weird cults, worship of devils and demons and human sacrifice, kinda a weird thing to think about when you’re at an age where you can barely get your head around death in Film. Sometimes they would be really weird about films and say they heard “messages“ that were being sent to “elites”, I remember they really tried to discourage me from watching The Simpsons because of the “messages“, we also didn’t have a TV and I wasn’t allowed to play video games at time because of the “subliminal messaging” that they believed would make me want to join the army or become violent. At this time my parents were nuts, but they were going To get a lot worse. Keep in mind, I was an only child so I had no sibling to get an outside view from.

When I was about 10 my parents and me went to live in the countryside, my dad had been talking a lot about Global Warming and how it was a hoax. He had quit cigarettes recently, so he decided he was an expert and wrote a book, which, of course linked conspiracies with smoking. Because he had written this book he decided he was an Author now and he began writing a book on Global Warming called C02 The Debate Is Not Over. The book was a terrible alternative explanation to Global Warming or Climate Change, full of contradictions and Ad-Hominems, basically if you didn’t agree with him, you were either an idiot or a liar. He spammed this book on multiple forums, attacking everyone who dared to criticise him or the books contents. Despite this book’s flawed contents I believed he was right, at the time he was my hero and I believed every word, I even stood up in the middle of a class about global warming at school and explained everyone in that class why they were wrong and they had been lied to by the shadow government when I was 12. I went back into home education shortly after this.

For the following years, my world beliefs, or my imposed beliefs consisted of: 9/11 being an inside job, a satanic shadow government were controlling all of us who worshipped an owl god which was somehow related to a jewish deity and sacrifices children to it, world war 2 never happened, the moon landing was filmed by Stanley Kubrik and there was clues to it in all of his movies, all entertainment was directly connected to the secret shadow government and they put messages in everything, I believed there were government assassins looking into my window with snipers at night, chem trails, population control, everyone is a “gatekeeper” even the people who agree with you and too many more to name.

As the years went on and I got older, went to university and made friends I experienced something very foreign to me, people who were smarter than me challenging my views. This began to open my mind to alternative possibilities. Maybe I was wrong, maybe I had been lied too. I eventually went back up my ass and stopped listening to other people’s views, I just stopped talking about it when I was with my friends. At home my dad was becoming more unhinged, as I was becoming an adult he seemed to be more comfortable being physically abusive to me, this made me obviously want to distance myself from him and his views, but this was a slow process. It started with the anti-semetic stuff he would say, I became very uncomfortable with his generalisation of such a large group of people and his rhetoric stopped making sense to me, then I realised many of his quotes that he would rely on to prove his point were either miss quoted or accredited to the wrong person. During the first lockdown he was obviously on all the conspiracies, from “it was manufactured“ to “it’s not real and doctors are killing people”, he even came up with a couple of funny ones he managed to relate to covid such as “the commies are turning the paint grey”, still a mystery to me that one. I also educated myself on vaccines and in doing so disregarded my previous anti-vax opinions.

The last big thing for me was Satanism. My dad had mentioned a video called Frazzle.drp, he talked about it as if he had seen it, but when I asked he said he hadnt. The video is supposedly meant to be Hilary Clinton and her Campaign vice chair in 2016 killing a child and wearing it’s face. This genuinely scared me so much I can’t even explain, but as all my other previous conspiracy views were crumbling with every new piece of information I found, i decided i needed to see if it was real, so like a genius I went looking for it. Instead of finding a horrific video of satanic proportions, instead found a very sad and seemingly quite racist smear-campaign, I found an article debunking the content and the claims about it, the content being a grainy video of what looked to be someone wearing a Halloween mask, and a picture from an Indian Restaurant called hush, which had been edited into a sepia tone. Considering Huma Abedin is from Indian and Pakistani descent and the image in question was supposed to be of her, this comes across as very racist to me. After seeing this, the most scary thing that I could possibly have imagined, and found out it was a load of bunk, I think I must have just internally given up and stopped believing in it, it was so exhausting believing this and such a waste of time and emotion.

Shortly after this my dad overstepped yet another personal boundary and I ended up moving out. I miss him and my mum in a lot of ways, but I don’t feel I really knew who they really were. Their entire existence is made up of conspiracy theories. I genuinely don’t remember a day when they didn’t talk about it. I’m currently in therapy for what they put my through and it has left me with a Lot of anxiety, depression, ocd and led me to having very severe suicidal thoughts. I am doing much better compared to how I was around 5 years ago when I was deep in it, but this stuff leaves a mark and I don’t know if it will ever really go.

Thanks if you got this far. I know this is sadly not rare, and I really want to help people with this, escaping the rabbit hole really helped to put a lot of my past in context, and it has inspired me to try to help people too, I’m currently making a video on the Satanic Panic, I hope it can possibly demystify one of the many topics that has haunted me for so long.

Thanks again for reading and I’m excited to be part of this.
 
Congratulations on getting out of the rabbit hole!

Reading this, I'm horrified by your parents, who made your life much more difficult than it should have been. It's a huge achievement to gain independence from them! Obviously nobody is ever wholly independent of their past, but each day is now adding a better past to your future.
 
Glad to hear you've pulled yourself out of that mire.

I wonder if the "turning the paint grey" thing is related to an anti-eco idea of no longer being able to use "proper" detergents that make things properly white. Thanks for including that brief moment of levity in an otherwise quite harrowing tale.
 
Glad you made it out with your hide intact. I consider myself lucky that my own father was more busy and distant but his abuse did get taken out on Mom at times. Now since I've told him that I do not want to hear any of it any longer we get along much better, but also that I do not have to see him much in person. We talk on the phone a few times a year and that is it.

I've also been able to get the rest of my family to tone it down too (as they are followers of the other conman and cultist Trump and his ilk).

I'm glad that you've found someone to talk to to work through all this. Learning how to let go of the anger is hard - sometimes you don't even know that you've got it and that you're always waiting for things to go wrong, blow up or crumble. It may take a few years but don't give up.
 
Bro this article is written for exmormons but it tried to break down why conspiracists exist and how they are made. It’s three essays this guys has done with some in depth research, the last essay was just released a week ago. From what I can tell from a psychological standpoint, he’s spot on and has done his homework.

https://tokensandsigns.org/conspiracist-enculturation/

It may shine some light on why your dad is the way he is. I’ve only read the first essay but there’s a wealth of knowledge to be gained if you’re interested in figuring out what makes your dad tick.
 
Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
Richard Dawkins
 
Last edited:
Thank you all for your comments, it’s really encouraging to have the support from rational people and to hear I’m not alone with this experience.
 
Glad to hear you've pulled yourself out of that mire.

I wonder if the "turning the paint grey" thing is related to an anti-eco idea of no longer being able to use "proper" detergents that make things properly white. Thanks for including that brief moment of levity in an otherwise quite harrowing tale.
Haha, unfortunately nothing quite so interesting as that. Apparently he went shopping for paint and couldn’t find the colour he wanted so he said the commies wanted to make all the paint grey because they don’t like colour. When I heard him say it I asked him if he was joking, but he wansnt and it turned into another argument.

Haha, yeah it is one of the more humorous parts of the whole ordeal. There were a considerable amount of entertaining theories he used to come out with, but they weren’t quite so funny after arguing with them for an hour.
 
It sounds as if your father suffers from delusional disorder. You've described three delusional themes:

  • Persecutory: Belief that someone or something will, or intends to, cause harm to oneself or their loved one(s).
  • Referential: Belief that cues (comments, gestures, etc.) are directed at themselves.
  • Grandiose: Exaggerated belief in one’s own abilities, talents, power, identity, etc.

And perhaps:
  • Nihilistic: Belief that a significant tragedy or catastrophe is going to occur.
 
Last edited:
Haha, unfortunately nothing quite so interesting as that. Apparently he went shopping for paint and couldn’t find the colour he wanted so he said the commies wanted to make all the paint grey because they don’t like colour. When I heard him say it I asked him if he was joking, but he wansnt and it turned into another argument.
I think you are confusing your memory stories. We didnt call Democrats or big businesses "commies" until more recently. And griege and the dirtying of mainstream color palettes happened much longer ago.

(PS. as a Republican with decor taste, i was thrilled when greige came out and more thrilled i didnt have to dirty up every color i bought in order to make the rooms i painted look proper; but the color pallets changed again like 20 years ago to again bring in more vibrant colors. Based on your assumed age the only other possibility is your dad was looking at a line of historical colors, in which case ...why were you arguing with him? You should have just brought him some color swatches from Home Depot or Walmart paints. )
 
I think you are confusing your memory stories. We didnt call Democrats or big businesses "commies" until more recently. And griege and the dirtying of mainstream color palettes happened much longer ago.

(PS. as a Republican with decor taste, i was thrilled when greige came out and more thrilled i didnt have to dirty up every color i bought in order to make the rooms i painted look proper; but the color pallets changed again like 20 years ago to again bring in more vibrant colors. Based on your assumed age the only other possibility is your dad was looking at a line of historical colors, in which case ...why were you arguing with him? You should have just brought him some color swatches from Home Depot or Walmart paints. )
I think there may be some mild confusion here. For starters I’m in England, secondly I’m in my mid 20s so it makes sense that the word “commies” would be used considering the Event happened less than 2 years ago.

To be completely honest with you I’m not really sure what your angle is. The reason I added it into the story is it was quite funny given how horrible my experiences were, not for something to be the focal point. I can’t really explain in a logical way why arguments happened with my dad, just that they would, I didn’t really have a lot of choice in the matter. I wasn’t expecting to have to go to the nearest paint shop and find loads of swatches to prove him wrong, it was just a situation of he said it, it sounds ridiculous, I made a joke, he got angry because if he said it, it was true, and if I tried to reason with him even in the calmest way I could attempt it would eventually escalate to violence or threatened violence.
 
i'm just trying to give you a tip on how to debunk cleanly. and that was the only really simple, fast debunk example you gave.
I mean to be fair, at the time I genuinely didn’t think it needed debunking. I thought he was joking, hence why I made the joke. It was actually a bit sad because I thought he was finally doing a bit of self reflection and taking the piss out of himself, then he doubled down on it.

I’ve had conversations with people who are conspiracy minded since cutting contact, and still my dad is one of the most irrational and unreasonable people I’ve ever tried to have a debate with. You can’t debunk what he says because it’s not a debate to him, he sees it like a blood sport, so you end up arguing in circles and giving up because it’s so emotionally draining.
 
I mean to be fair, at the time I genuinely didn’t think it needed debunking. I thought he was joking, hence why I made the joke. It was actually a bit sad because I thought he was finally doing a bit of self reflection and taking the piss out of himself, then he doubled down on it.

I’ve had conversations with people who are conspiracy minded since cutting contact, and still my dad is one of the most irrational and unreasonable people I’ve ever tried to have a debate with. You can’t debunk what he says because it’s not a debate to him, he sees it like a blood sport, so you end up arguing in circles and giving up because it’s so emotionally draining.

i would say that instead of arguing at length and feeling worn out and frustrated just find a few things you can ask rather pointed questions to him and leave it at that and try to find other things to talk about that are not quite so draining. also if you can just get him to stop talking about things that cause you the most trouble so you can have less confrontational times together. see if you can find things to do together where you are not talking and face to face as much, like fishing or going to a car show or ...
 
You can’t debunk what he says because it’s not a debate to him, he sees it like a blood sport, so you end up arguing in circles and giving up because it’s so emotionally draining.
Conspiracy theorists aren't looking for truth, they already know it. You may recognize this from your own past. It took a personal, emotional shake-up for your own world-view to change. Likely it won't be any different for your father.

It's hard to get out of the "cult" because of what it provides for people.
 
i would say that instead of arguing at length and feeling worn out and frustrated just find a few things you can ask rather pointed questions to him and leave it at that and try to find other things to talk about that are not quite so draining. also if you can just get him to stop talking about things that cause you the most trouble so you can have less confrontational times together. see if you can find things to do together where you are not talking and face to face as much, like fishing or going to a car show or ...
I was actually in contact with him until quite recently. When I initially moved out 2 years ago, I got back in contact with him in the summer to see if we could repair something, but the issue I found was he cannot be happy that I’m happy without him, he spent most of the time telling me how sad he was that things weren‘t the same as they used to be, when the previous situation was I wasn’t allowed to get a job so I was completely financially dependent on him and I felt like a hostage. When I did get back in contact things were okay for a while, then he started talking about his theories again, and when I mildly challenged him he started calling me an idiot. I tried to come to a compromise with him after this and we stayed in contact but most recently he lied to me about my grandmother getting covid. So I’ve realised that he values his conspiracy theories more than the people he should be caring about, to me that’s not someone I want to have in my life. So i’ve made the decision to cut ties as much as possible.
 
So I’ve realised that he values his conspiracy theories more than the people he should be caring about, to me that’s not someone I want to have in my life. So i’ve made the decision to cut ties as much as possible.
This has a ring of familiarity to me as I know someone who doesn't necessarily behave exactly like your dad does but does seem to prioritise getting as many people as possible to share his conspiratorial beliefs without truely taking into consideration the emotional toll it has on the people around him.

I've been out of contact with my friend since about late 2020 because he was making me feel suicidal; the problem with me is while I'm capable of looking up more rational explanations for anything conspiracy theorists throws at me the initial shock is still enough to cause the kind of damage that can take months to heal.

The worst part is the fact that if he let go of his conspiratorial beliefs he could be a genuine force for good in the world, but to him it's like breathing; he just has to share his beliefs even if they cause either more harm than good, or only cause more harm. Sadly this isn't really his fault as there are more complicated psychological issues at play that I don't really understand, and while I'd like to help him I'm honestly just too fragile.

Just a quick sidenote: for reasons either relating to my autism or something else I am a bit prone to misreading situations so apologies in advance if I missed the mark at any point.
 
Sadly this isn't really his fault as there are more complicated psychological issues at play that I don't really understand, and while I'd like to help him I'm honestly just too fragile.

You've said it perfectly! This is the case in most situations with "toxic" people, whether they are conspiracy theorists or not.

(P.s. even people not prone to a strong fear/depression reaction from hearing conspiracy theories, have almost zero chance of helping close friends/family with psychological issues...even professional psychiatrists who have no personal relationship dynamic with the patient often can't help much or it takes years )
 
This has a ring of familiarity to me as I know someone who doesn't necessarily behave exactly like your dad does but does seem to prioritise getting as many people as possible to share his conspiratorial beliefs without truely taking into consideration the emotional toll it has on the people around him.

I've been out of contact with my friend since about late 2020 because he was making me feel suicidal; the problem with me is while I'm capable of looking up more rational explanations for anything conspiracy theorists throws at me the initial shock is still enough to cause the kind of damage that can take months to heal.

The worst part is the fact that if he let go of his conspiratorial beliefs he could be a genuine force for good in the world, but to him it's like breathing; he just has to share his beliefs even if they cause either more harm than good, or only cause more harm. Sadly this isn't really his fault as there are more complicated psychological issues at play that I don't really understand, and while I'd like to help him I'm honestly just too fragile.

Just a quick sidenote: for reasons either relating to my autism or something else I am a bit prone to misreading situations so apologies in advance if I missed the mark at any point.
it Does sound very similar. Unfortunately there does seem to be a massive link with psychological issues and conspiracy theories. Many people who I know who are definitely much more balanced in their beliefs use it as a crutch for grieving or other forms of trauma.

I initially thought that somehow I could get through to my dad, I even suggested he had a read of Escaping The Rabbit Hole, just to at least understand an opposing View, even if he still chose to disagree. But looking at the situation I don’t think his issues weren’t just with conspiracy theories or his psychological issues, they were definitely at the core of it, but it just seemed to me that he had made the choice to be a bad person, he just made so many choices that were so damaging to the people around him, I could not justify his behaviour anymore. At the end of the day for my situation i had to just accept that abuse is abuse, even if it’s coming from someone you really care about, and i need to look out for myself.

I’m really sorry to hear about your friend, I can definitely relate a lot of my feelings to that situation. I hope he eventually finds his way out of the rabbit hole and you can heal.
 
Last edited:
thought that somehow I could get through to my dad, I even suggested he had a read of Escaping The Rabbit Hole, just to at least understand an opposing View,
i wonder if Jordan Peterson could help him. a Peterson book. You dad won't rebel because Peterson is loathed by the American lefties**, he doesnt talk about conspiracies per se i dont think, but he talks about what it means to be a man and how men can feel better about themselves in general (more empowered, sense of purpose etc) . and he tells them exactly what steps to do that, and with a nice focus on family and the fathers role.


** i forget if leftwing and right wing is reversed in England which is why i'm using American terms
 
i wonder if Jordan Peterson could help him. a Peterson book. You dad won't rebel because Peterson is loathed by the American lefties**, he doesnt talk about conspiracies per se i dont think, but he talks about what it means to be a man and how men can feel better about themselves in general (more empowered, sense of purpose etc) . and he tells them exactly what steps to do that, and with a nice focus on family and the fathers role.


** i forget if leftwing and right wing is reversed in England which is why i'm using American terms
My dad thought Peterson was in his words a “government stooge” or a “gatekeeper”. Don’t think there’s much hope for that one. I think you seem to be under the impression that my father considers any other opinion outside of his own to be valid.

It’s not reversed. It’s just different. My dad never identified himself specifically with a political role either, his opinion was that left and right wing politics was just another way to “heard the sheep”.
 
I think you seem to be under the impression that my father considers any other opinion outside of his own to be valid.
well the conspiracy theorists opinions are valid to him, no?

anyway, just trying to help. if he doesnt trust Peterson then that tip won't work.
 
My dad never identified himself specifically with a political role either, his opinion was that left and right wing politics was just another way to “heard the sheep”.
that's cool. Commies are typically socialist types. while [right wingers:American] are Nazis. so i was just going by the data you presented. I wont give you anymore help suggestions since they all seem to tick you off.
 
well the conspiracy theorists opinions are valid to him, no?

anyway, just trying to help. if he doesnt trust Peterson then that tip won't work.
it‘s quite hard to explain, but in simple terms. He believes he has been able to see through the veil. He believes he is the holder of the truth, and anyone else is trying to sabotage him, or fool him. I genuinely mean he believes his word is the only word on the matter. So even if he has adopted opinions from other conspiracy theorists, they become his opinions, so no one told him that, he saw it and found out the truth himself. I hope that makes sense.
that's cool. Commies are typically socialist types. while [right wingers:American] are Nazis. so i was just going by the data you presented. I wont give you anymore help suggestions since they all seem to tick you off.
Generally I try not to assume people’s political beliefs as I find often I will agree with someone on something, even if I’m politically opposed to them. it’s easy to make wrong assumptions about someone based on their political beliefs.

I’m not aiming to come across as ticked off either. This is quite a personal topic for me, I’m sharing so that others with similar experiences may feel less isolated (something I can very much relate to). I don’t generally think this about people, but my father is incredibly unreasonable, so in terms of helping him escape the rabbit hole, it’s not going to happen. So this means I need to focus on myself and the people I care about. I also want to help people who have gone through or who are still going through a situation similar to mine.
 
Last edited:
it’s easy to make wrong assumptions about someone based on their political beliefs.
well your dad sounds like a major jerk and toxic person regardless of his political philosophy. so i'm not sure why me pointing out that he sounds like a rightwinger(american) is such an issue. But i wish you well on your healing journey. and sorry again if i accidentally offended you all in any way.
 
My dad thought Peterson was in his words a “government stooge” or a “gatekeeper”. Don’t think there’s much hope for that one. I think you seem to be under the impression that my father considers any other opinion outside of his own to be valid.

It’s not reversed. It’s just different. My dad never identified himself specifically with a political role either, his opinion was that left and right wing politics was just another way to “heard the sheep”.
Blimey, I've now seen Peterson get disliked by rationalists AND conspiracy theorists. Dude's not doing great right now.
 
Our current government is right wing, if that helps at all. An example of a left wing political party in the UK would be The Labour Party.

The left/right distinction was inherited in both the US and the UK from France, but long after its original use In (French) revolutionary times. The French National Assembly in the late C18, somewhat spontaniously had the anti-royalists, progressives after wholesale change, seating themselves on the left, and the royalists, the conservative elite, on the right. This separation was mostly just because individuals of one group didn't want to be surrounded by large numbers of the other, so like oil and water like gravitated towards like, rather than the whole thing being preplanned. The terms were informally adopted at the time, but faded out of use for a generation. However, it came back into use a second time in the early C19, and that time it stuck.

It was only after it was well-established in France that it was picked up by the Brits. However, somewhat confusingly, it didn't bring with it any baggage defining location: the ruling party always sits to the right (of the speaker) in the House of Commons, and the opposition party always sits to the left.

I'm not sure of the exact chronology in the US, but I suspect it was early C20. My understanding is that the US usage carries the location baggage, and the Republicans sit on the Presiding Officer's left, and the Democrats sit on the PO's right in Congress.
 
The left/right distinction was inherited in both the US and the UK from France, but long after its original use In (French) revolutionary times. The French National Assembly in the late C18, somewhat spontaniously had the anti-royalists, progressives after wholesale change, seating themselves on the left, and the royalists, the conservative elite, on the right. This separation was mostly just because individuals of one group didn't want to be surrounded by large numbers of the other, so like oil and water like gravitated towards like, rather than the whole thing being preplanned. The terms were informally adopted at the time, but faded out of use for a generation. However, it came back into use a second time in the early C19, and that time it stuck.

It was only after it was well-established in France that it was picked up by the Brits. However, somewhat confusingly, it didn't bring with it any baggage defining location: the ruling party always sits to the right (of the speaker) in the House of Commons, and the opposition party always sits to the left.

I'm not sure of the exact chronology in the US, but I suspect it was early C20. My understanding is that the US usage carries the location baggage, and the Republicans sit on the Presiding Officer's left, and the Democrats sit on the PO's right in Congress.
To be fair my political knowledge is absolute dog shit and I've never really been able to wrap my head around it, I just know that Labour is often labelled as being left wing and the Conservatives are labelled as right wing, I've never really understood the "why factor" of it all.
 
To be fair my political knowledge is absolute dog shit and I've never really been able to wrap my head around it, I just know that Labour is often labelled as being left wing and the Conservatives are labelled as right wing, I've never really understood the "why factor" of it all.

i consider it more fitting to study as a sociological concept than anything else as in-group and out-group filtering or behaviors.

i then compare and contrast that to the biological levels of how an organism or cell regulates itself. ultimately a group or organism that does not regulate the boundaries would fail or die.

this is also pretty similar to me to think about reasoning too, that if you don't keep your distinctions of what something means clear enough then you can lose meanings and distinctions.
 
Our current government is right wing, if that helps at all. An example of a left wing political party in the UK would be The Labour Party.
hmmm...that sounds about the same. the "current government" means Boris Johnson types? like pro-Brexit?
 
the "current government" means Boris Johnson types? like pro-Brexit?
Pretty much. From what I've heard it was the Conservatives (also referred to as "The Tories" if that's of any help) who had been pushing the idea of leaving the EU for quite a long time.
hmmm...that sounds about the same.
I'm not sure how; Labour and Conservatives are pretty much opposed to each other in a manner not unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, or at least this is how I interpret it. Though interestingly the party colours are reversed; Labour is red and The Conservatives are blue.
 
I'm not sure how; Labour and Conservatives are pretty much opposed to each other in a manner not unlike the Democrats and the Republicans,
yea that's what i meant. the same as the US. i do now recall the Tories since you mentioned that. and "Labor" is like pro union pro-worker? which is comparable to our Left wing.
 
Pretty much. From what I've heard it was the Conservatives (also referred to as "The Tories" if that's of any help) who had been pushing the idea of leaving the EU for quite a long time.

It was the Conservatives (Heath) that got us into the EC originally, a position reinforced by a landslide referendum result that countered Labour's Euroskepticism under WIlson. Only slowly, bit by bit, almost imperceptibly, did the Conservatives give up their Financial Timeses and go all Daily Mail. Evidence of this new undercurrent became very clear in 2013 when they haemorrhaged a lot of seats to UKIP during its ascendancy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_Kingdom_local_elections
This is the lowest figure for the Conservatives since 1982 and the lowest ever figure for the Liberal Democrats. It is also the first time that none of the three main parties in the Commons has scored 30% or more.[8] Rallings & Thrasher separately calculated a projected national vote share of Labour 29%, Conservatives 26%, UKIP 22% and the Liberal Democrats 13%
Content from External Source
All three big parties lost votes to UKIP, but the conservatives lost the most seats because of it. Of course, that meant that the remaining conservatives were generally more pro-EU than before. Or so it was perceived. This was part of the surprise behind the Brexit referendum result, the Conservatives genuinely thought their base was less Brexity than they turned out to be. Being a single-issue party, UKIP fizzled after that, and most returned to their Tory roots.

I'm not sure how; Labour and Conservatives are pretty much opposed to each other
However, New Labour was just old Conservative. If you were to show people Tony B.Liar's policies without the headed notepaper, most people would identify them as being Conservative.

... in a manner not unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, or at least this is how I interpret it. Though interestingly the party colours are reversed; Labour is red and The Conservatives are blue.

The US is the country that "reversed" - however, their parties didn't really have consistent colour coding until Clinton's time.
The colors red and blue are also featured on the United States flag. Traditional political mapmakers, at least throughout the 20th century, had used blue to represent the modern-day Republicans, as well as the earlier Federalist Party. This may have been a holdover from the Civil War, during which the predominantly Republican north was considered "blue".[5] However, at that time, a maker of widely-sold maps accompanied them with blue pencils in order to mark Confederate force movements, while red was for the union.[6]
[...]
The advent of color television in America in the late 1950s and early 1960s prompted television news reporters to rely on color-coded electoral maps, though sources conflict as to the conventions they followed. One source claims that in the elections prior to 2000 every state that voted for Democratic candidates but one had been coded red. It further claims that from 1976 to 2004 in an attempt to avoid favoritism in color-coding the broadcast networks standardized on the convention of alternating every four years between blue and red the color used for the incumbent president's party.[10][13]

According to another source, in 1976, John Chancellor, the anchorman for NBC Nightly News, asked his network's engineers to construct a large illuminated map of the United States. The map was placed in the network's election-night news studio. If Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate that year, won a state, it lit up in red whereas if Gerald Ford, the incumbent Republican president, carried a state, it was in blue.[1] The feature proved to be so popular that, four years later, all three major television networks used colors to designate the states won by the presidential candidates, though not all using the same color scheme. NBC continued its color scheme (blue for Republicans) until 1996.[1] NBC newsman David Brinkley famously referred to the 1980 election map outcome showing Republican Ronald Reagan's 44-state landslide in blue as resembling a "suburban swimming pool".[14]

Since the 1984 election, CBS has used the opposite scheme: blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. ABC used yellow for Republicans and blue for Democrats in 1976, then red for Republicans and blue for Democrats in 1980, 1984, and 1988. In 1980, when John Anderson ran a relatively high-profile campaign as an independent candidate, at least one network provisionally indicated that they would use yellow if he were to win a state. Similarly, at least one network would have used yellow to indicate a state won by Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, though neither of them did claim any states in any of these years.

By 1996, color schemes were relatively mixed, as CNN, CBS, ABC, and The New York Times referred to Democratic states with the color blue and Republican ones as red, while Time and The Washington Post used the opposite scheme.[15][16][17] NBC used the color blue for the incumbent party, which is why blue represented the Democrats in 2000.

In the days following the 2000 election, whose outcome was unclear for some time after election day, major media outlets began conforming to the same color scheme because the electoral map was continually in view, and conformity made for easy and instant viewer comprehension. On election night that year, there was no coordinated effort to code Democratic states blue and Republican states red; the association gradually emerged. Partly as a result of this eventual and near-universal color-coding, the terms "red states" and "blue states" entered popular use in the weeks following the 2000 presidential election. After the results were final with the Republican George W. Bush winning, journalists stuck with the color scheme, as The Atlantic's December 2001 cover story by David Brooks entitled, "One Nation, Slightly Divisible", illustrated.[18]
Content from External Source
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states

The irony of the phrase "Better dead than red" being coined, and robotically parrotted so much, by Republicans I find quite hilarious (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_red_than_dead )
 
@deirdre Honestly I would ask @FatPhil about anything relating to UK politics as he seems a fair bit more clued in than me. I'm honestly just parroting what I've heard other people saying.

This is also part of the reason why I initially never intended to vote in any upcoming elections once I reached the legal age (I would've reached 18 on October 23rd 2011)...but then it occurred to me that I can't exactly make things much worse even if I do vote for "the wrong party" (whichever one that may be) so I joined the electorate with the Dr Pepper mentality (What's the worst that could happen?). I also went with the intention of not letting anyone know who I voted for, but sadly my friends have learnt that I have a rubbish poker face and can just say "just so long as you didn't vote for (insert party name here)" and catch me out in an instant (if I don't react, they'll know I didn't vote for that party, but if I do react they'll know I did, and since I can't really control my reaction they can pretty much trick me into giving away who I voted for...I call it the L.A Noire strategy).
 
@deirdre Honestly I would ask @FatPhil about anything relating to UK politics as he seems a fair bit more clued in than me. I'm honestly just parroting what I've heard other people saying.
: ) yea but i can understand what you are talking about. I cant tell if Phil is saying above that you are right or wrong. I think i have heard Tories ar right wing... so i think you are right ie correct.
 
Back
Top