Enough already with the US-style paranoia, Corbynistas

After a frosty response to a few of my anguished posts after the EU referendum, the last thing I want to do is tell anybody engaged in political discussion to shut up. So yes, I've titled this post "enough already" but that doesn't mean "stop talking".

That disclaimer out of the way, the thing that's pushed me to post this is this story, about the ongoing wrangling over the level of support for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. I noticed a comment on a Facebook post about it which referred to "the MSM". Only by reading the responses - which all seemed to be familiar with the term - did I realise that this means "mainstream media". And suddenly, dismay hits:

1. "Mainstream" is one word. Ugh.
2. The term "mainstream media" is one I associate with the cries of Trump supporters in the US, the headbanging right who exist somewhere in a twilight zone of paranoia and alienation. In this weird world, the vague feeling that "something's not right"--based on something that could be justifiable alienation, could be personal psychopathology, could be political expediency--entitles you to bypass completely all critical analysis, and instead cleave to the conviction that the media are all liars and none should be believed, or that what matters is what you believe to be true...these are the prime ingredients of what is increasingly called 'post-factual politics'.
3. And then you look at the way the Corbyn debate is going--was that a Corbyn rally? Isn't that crowds celebrating Liverpool's last European Cup win? Why is this not on the 10 o'clock news?--and it's just depressing that the tone is so concerned with "how my cause is being represented by the media" and not really on the issues.

I'm a bit fed up of being told that the mainstream media isn't reporting Corbyn rallies. I've been open minded about Corbyn--I was warmer to him than many, I think, at the start of his leadership--but as I grow increasingly cool, I'm totally aware that he has a very large support base and that lots of people are flocking to support him. No, it's not headline news--I don't think it should be--but the news stories are there, the buzz on social media is there, and ultimately: I don't really know what Corbyn thinks, or even what his supporters think, because all I see is "don't believe the lies!"

It seems to me that the left in the UK is losing its attention on facts and debate and opposition, and has instead pitched its tent in that twilight zone of outrage and suspicion that has hosted the US right for so long. Am I suggesting that Corbynistas are as lunatic as Trump supporters? No. I'm worried that a segment of British political thought which is usually a bit less hysterical has decided to go where the right so often makes its home. Theresa May has stamped her authority on her party for the moment, but these are the Tories. It won't last. Eventually the lunacy will start again. And if the left hasn't recovered some sense of purpose, there will be an even smaller proportion of those in British political life who still put moderation, sensibility and rationality above selfish outrage.