The Courtroom of Attraction has upheld the sentence handed all the way down to Stephen Yaxley Lennon, higher referred to as Tommy Robinson. In a courtroom far faraway from the social media echo chambers the place Robinson constructed his model, his authorized counsel made an impassioned plea: that he had skilled an “evident decline in his psychological well being,” that he suffers from ADHD and PTSD, and that he struggles to “regulate his feelings.”
With out wishing to be unkind, these are exactly the arguments that figures on the far proper routinely ridicule as “woke” when utilized to others, notably asylum seekers, refugees, and different minority teams. When an unaccompanied baby from a battle zone is discovered to be traumatised, when an LGBTQ+ prisoner is discovered to be experiencing poor psychological well being, or when a protestor cites neurodivergence of their defence, the right-wing commentariat dismisses these claims with derision. “Excuses,” they cry. “Snowflake tradition.” “Wokeness gone mad.”
Suella Braverman described the UK’s asylum system as damaged as a result of it’s too mushy, even calling the arrival of asylum seekers fleeing warfare and persecution an “invasion,” fully disregarding their psychological well being trauma. Or take the 2024 summer time riots. A latest report discovered that asylum seekers have been so terrified they didn’t dare depart their properties. But as a substitute of concern for his or her welfare, far-right influencers and even mainstream figures like Matthew Goodwin complained that calling such teams “far-right” was an elite try to silence atypical individuals.
Certainly, on his personal X account, Yaxley-Lennon regularly derides leftism, feminism and Islam, as ‘psychological well being points’.
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But when it’s one in all their very own within the dock, the language adjustments. All of a sudden trauma issues. All of a sudden ADHD is actual and related. All of a sudden empathy isn’t just acceptable however vital.
So, do they not see the irony? Or do they not care?
The reply, in lots of circumstances, is each. Some genuinely fail to attach the dots. However many do see the hypocrisy and press on regardless, as a result of the purpose was by no means precept, it was energy. These arguments will not be wielded to guard the weak, however to protect a hierarchy: who deserves compassion and who doesn’t; who’s seen as a human being and who’s seen as a menace.
That is the actual hazard of selective empathy. It turns human rights into conditional privileges. It turns vulnerability right into a partisan speaking level. And it corrodes the general public’s understanding of justice, encouraging the concept that psychological well being or trauma are solely actual when skilled by the politically palatable.
Let me be clear: Yaxley-Lennon ought to completely be afforded his authorized rights. He ought to have entry to psychological well being care, and the justice system ought to recognise his neurodivergence as an element. However that should be true not only for him, however for everybody, particularly those that are by no means given a platform, by no means given the advantage of the doubt, and by no means make the headlines.
As a result of if we solely consider in trauma when it fits our politics, then we don’t actually consider in it in any respect.
The problem for us all is to maintain making the case for common dignity. Meaning defending rights even for these we disagree with. But it surely additionally means holding a mirror as much as those that solely uncover their compassion when the defendant wears the suitable flag or shares the suitable Fb put up.
Human rights will not be a weak spot. They’re a power. And so they’re meaningless if not for everybody.
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