Conservatives now criticising Charlottesville Nazis fuelled white extremism in the first place

Oh my. Just listen to those powerful voices in the UK and US deploring Donald Trump's seeming support for white supremacists, racists, and fascists.

They include Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker in the House of Representatives, the Bush father and son ex-presidents, business people and big funders who have sucked up to the president, army chiefs, and all those Tories, Theresa May, Sam Gyimah, Sajid Javid, Ruth Davidson.

Not so fast, ladies and gentlemen. The cleansing chorus of disapproval sounds deceitful and sanctimonious.

It's just too, too easy to express abhorrence of the real bad thugs who hold torches, carry weapons, brazenly hate and attack Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims and other diverse peoples. Who would be on the side of such uncivilized brutes? Most of their mums would slam doors in their ugly faces.

Why, even Mr Farage, our own miniature Trump, tweeted with quaint shock: "Cannot believe we're seeing Nazi salutes in 21st Century America." The phoney political prophet had some smart responses to that tweet. Here are some choice examples:

"I can. You know why? Because I understand that nationalists that build their campaigns on fear of foreigners incite racial hatred. Because I know that when a politician plays to prejudice to further their agenda, they give fuel to Nazis."

"You and Trump spread hate and fear, demonise minorities, claim false patriotism, then take no responsibility for your actions...act like a f***ing human being for a change and take a bloody look at yourself."

Can't put it better myself. But yet, a part of me feels we anti-racists are going for the wrong person by mocking or rebutting the Ukip antihero. Farage enjoys liberal onslaughts and uses them to build his populist base. Coming out against Trump is also a waste of effort and somewhat disingenuous.

The whole world knows he is committed to the Breitbart white power agenda. You'd have to be really credulous to be surprised by his performance at the press conference and his contempt for the people who went out to confront the neo-Nazis. Monstering fascists, Farage, and Trump only exculpates all those other politicians, hacks, and public figures who have poisoned the earth in both the UK and US and increasingly around Europe.

I am more incensed by May, Gove, and Macron visibly chumming up to Trump than by the rotten American leader. We are in the hands of such appeasers and moral charlatans.

They distance themselves from Trump, for now, but their words, deeds and policies, have made racism so normative that millions of citizens think they have the right and duty to be unabashedly hostile to migrants, refugees, minorities, British people of colour, and those of various faiths and ethnicities.

Paul Ryan, for example, wholeheartedly supported Trump's Muslim travel ban. The two George Bushes never cared for the civil rights legislation and have said nothing, nothing, on the deaths of black men and women caused by trigger-happy cops. Some Republicans want to outlaw the movement Black Lives Matter.

Tories here have done their bit too, to create populist nationalism, punish asylum seekers, and weaken institutions and laws that previously promoted and guaranteed race and ethnic equality.

Politicians above who fired off anti-Nazi tweets voted to keep out 3,000 Syrian children, against equalities and human rights legislation, for hard anti-immigration laws, military action, and so on.

Javid's father came to this country with £1 in his pocket, yet the son does not defend migrants and instead become part of their demonisation. Gyimah, a black man, says he never thought about race till he entered politics even though when he went to school, "there were only a couple of us who were coloured".

Both Javid and Gyimah spent time in the City and are clueless about how many minorities struggle today. Theresa May is one of the toughest anti-immigrant politicians in her party. As the left-wing columnist Owen Jones wrote in the Guardian: "They pour petrol and then wonder why it burns. Fascism is on the rise in the west and it is emboldened and legitimised by 'mainstream' politicians and newspapers."

Racism once again burns our skins like it used to in the seventies and eighties and the most integrated of us are made to feel we can never belong. Furthermore, since Brexit, we who are demonised are expected to 'understand' white rage and bigotry. Their difficult lives and lack of hope are apparently caused by those who are not 'true Brits'.

Western politicians now do understand the connections between discourse, values, and violence when it comes to Isis and Islamofascism. A road is travelled from low-level antipathy to radicalisation and finally terrorism. One thing leads to another.

That is what happens with fascism and neo-Nazism too. The right-wingers who recoiled from the jackboots in Charlottesville now need to examine their own contributions to our volatile, dangerously divided modern world, and the emergence of white extremism.