Now that this blog has reverted to a barely noticed part of my oeuvre I feel as though we can be a little more intimate. It's like, it's just us, we can forget about that general rationale I have and just talk like friends; can't we?
Anyone who's been here for a while will know I have touched on the idea that we're stuck in a matrix and it's malfunctioning. That statement suggests the belief that the film The Matrix was simply a post-modern computer generated joke inserted into our collected 'realities' to put us off the nagging feeling that our lives have always felt a little like The Truman Show but from a reverse perspective turned in on itself.
I wouldn't be the first (stoned or straight) person to suggest, philosophically, that reality is YOU. Or YOU. Or even YOU!!! It could also be me. It could be a fantastically elaborate computer program that we kid ourselves would be too complicated to achieve with our feeble human brains, but that might be because our feeble human brains have been coded that way?
It could be that this blog entry is a kind of failsafe mechanism. It's created in the minds of people as a way of preventing them from questioning their existence, or I'm writing it that way to make me realise that I might be the only person that exists and that might not even be as a human. In reality, just someone going into or playing with some interstellar computer-generated interpretation of what early 21st century mankind was like, even if it existed and wasn't just the imagination of a considerably more powerful ... God or programmer.
Wooo.
I don't think it matters any more about whether you're a conservative and I'm a socialist or if someone is a liberal and someone else is a nationalist - the world is quite bonkers.
I actually haven't been impressed by the majority of puppets running the world since I started taking an interest in politics - late 1970s - but now I'm, you know, just over 3 years away from being 60 - For fuck's sake - I kind of think I do have a functioning brain; it probably doesn't agree with the way many of my friends think, but I like to think that while I'm not an expert, I've done enough to actually weigh up both sides of an argument - as an example and nothing more I think I understood Brexit better than some of my friends. However, this isn't about that - I simply and am putting across the argument that I think I'm well-versed enough to be regarded as an adult. I hope you will agree.
In that case... I think I've either gone mad and my mind is generating - paradoxically - what I started this by talking about; or it's some kind of madness and I'm really strapped to a gurney, frothing at the mouth and screaming at invisible monsters climbing through the ceiling at me and this is my way of blocking out my imminent demise.
I think I've done enough to convince you - who might not even be there - that I'm of sound mind; yes? In that case, have you noticed how utterly fucking mad existence has become? Don't you think there's a hint of some nightmarish version of The West Wing and House of Cards about all of this? Like we're trapped in a thriller that started really well but then started jumping the shark so often that ridiculous is now normal and it's a badge of honour to become the most ridiculous without really noticing it?
Imagine the thriller 24 and then apply that premise to reality. We're in season 2018 and the only people watching are 150 die-hard fans, family members of the cast and the Keifer Sutherland role is now you.
Yes. YOU! [points finger in a convincing Uncle Sam kind of way]
That, above, that's what reality feels like to a lot of people. We're told we're destroying the planet faster than we could ever have imagined and the largest nations shrug and continue to spew poison into the atmosphere. We have people arguing for the building of nuclear power stations because harnessing nature's free gifts is ugly or unprofitable. The USA has become this weird place overrun by idiots with guns overseen by a giant orange man-baby; France presided over by the cowardly face of neoliberalism; Poland becoming all of the things it despised about others; Hungary wanting both more power and isolation; the Philippines being run by a murderer, Australia on its, what? 7th PM in as many years? Brazil electing the political equivalent of a military coup and the UK being run by 650 MPs tasked with the job of trying to sort out not just the mess David Cameron caused but the problems generations of MPs are to blame for - the continuous drip-fed indoctrination of people with beliefs that are not real or achievable. The allowance of the propagation of cognitive dissonance and then the feeding of it will be the downfall of this society. From the outside looking in, this reality must look utterly bewildering, if it hadn't been happening there as well.
What I see, almost every day, is spoiled babies shitting and stamping in it because they're not getting their own way. The vast majority who won't even get a facsimile of what they want are going to be as angry but won't have a pantomime to ham it up to; these people - the rational ones - need to look at themselves and find the ability and the desire to do something.
Every so often mankind wakes up.
However, pretty much everything (apart from the truly bizarre) I've talked about in these blogs over the last 3 years has come true. This doesn't bode well for mankind even if it is really just me and the computer game has got stuck in nihilist mode...
The Politics of ...
Thursday, 13 December 2018
Sunday, 2 December 2018
A Racially-Motivated Message
I was in Ayr earlier this year. Ayr's like Scotland's Bournemouth and was, without doubt, the most cosmopolitan place I've been to since I've lived in Scotland. While I was sitting in the sunshine, outside Poundland, I saw a group of young women - schoolgirls on holiday - all wearing hijabs. It was the first proper Muslims I'd seen in over a year. No one up here seems bothered by it and the fact all the girls sounded Scottish, you wouldn't have known any difference if you'd had your eyes closed.
Interestingly, about twenty minutes earlier, when we were wondering up to Primark, we saw two nuns - not your usual soberly dressed women, looking like nurses with headgear, but two full-on penguins. More extravagant and with just as little flesh on display. Yes, they're women of God. The girls in hijabs were probably devout followers of Allah. We have preconceptions of Muslims. Boris Johnson displayed that in August with a column about not allowing Muslims to wear what they want to wear.
I'd never defend Johnson. The man is a conniving and devious politician and disguises his ambition with buffoonery. However, reading his column you had to acknowledge that his 'offensive' remarks have probably been made worse by the solitary fact he wrote them. There was elements of casual racism, but largely he was trying to make a jokey point about a sensitive issue.
He failed. But... did he really? He's become more of a champion to the new far-right than he was before that column (and his slagging off of his former boss) and, at the time, we had people uttering the words 'freedom of speech' and so they should, because it is only right. Like it is only right that any speech can be challenged, in a constructive way, using the same freedom of speech rules. Racists and bigots need to be challenged, rather than banning them. That just inflames and makes a mockery of the 'freedom of speech' ideal.
What Johnson has probably achieved is help drive the wedge between xenophobic/racist Brits and normal people deeper. I mean, when you read about Pakistani rape gangs in Yorkshire and ISIS terrorists and radicalised British wannabe martyrs, how can those who will never be happy until all non-British people are gone ever be appeased? How are Muslims ever going to feel accepted when in some places they must have begun to feel like Negroes in 1950s USA? For every newspaper or twat US President claiming we have Muslim enclaves in our cities, we have genuinely scared people avoiding the streets for fear of reprisals because of their culture.
Now we discover that the UK has an incredible racial bias that extends to pretty much anyone who isn't white, heterosexual and, above all, English. Brexit has allowed English people to believe they're on the verge of a new Empire, one that finally kicks Johnny Foreigner squarely in the testes. History suggests when you start to alienate certain groups of people it isn't long before your cohorts are alienating others. We live in a 'Kingdom' that demonises pretty much anyone who isn't British and employed; but as The Guardian newspaper has found, even if you are British and employed, it depends on how 'British' you are.
A percentage of Brits are of Asian, African or West Indian origins. In fact, a number are also of European heritage, but are not as well accepted because they have a foreign - too foreign - sounding name. Farage is okay, but Davidovich or Simkiewicz isn't.
Let's be clear about something; I had a Chinese landlord once who thought Indians were 'dirty bastards'. I knew a man from Pakistan who thought Arabs (Iranians specifically) were allowing the world to destroy itself because they want to rule everything. I've met a man from England who believes in Brexit so hard that any dissenting voice is a liar and I've seen evidence (whether real or Russian bot) on social media platforms of such vile callousness towards people 'not like us' that it's added a new dimension to the "I'm all right, Jack" mentality. An attitude I'd always attached to dyed-in-the-wool Tory voters who believed that homelessness was a left wing conspiracy and that anyone on welfare/benefits was a scrounger or out to make something from the state. The human race is inherently xenophobic - I'd call them racist, but it's simply a fear and loathing of something that you can't relate to.
Michael Gove (or Pob as we like to think of him) pretty much declared there would be violence and national unrest if his Brexit doesn't happen and while that is just the Hard Brexit supporters' own Project Fear, in this world of intolerance he's probably not a hundred miles from the truth. But hey, in the USA BAME citizens feel like their rights and position has been eroded more in the last 2 years than it has since Rosa Parks told a white boy to find his own seat on the bus.
I look at BAME Tory politicians and wonder how long before they start to feel like a token gesture to tempt the delusional blacks and Asians to continue voting for them - 'You're all right, it's those black and Asian kids the Nazigraph is talking about' will be a variation of the excuse given to them.
Living in this part of Scotland you see a lot of casual racism, which you oddly don't see when someone is getting a takeaway from the Chinese or Indian restaurants, and, to be fair, I've not heard any overt nastiness from anyone up here towards anyone culturally different, but that's not to say it doesn't exist. There are enough Scottish Tories with bizarre ideas about a lot of things and there's considerably more Brextremists who've moved up from England, despite the fact that Scotland voted by a big margin to stay in the EU (and has been largely ignored by England since). These are the kind of people who'll always look for someone else to blame and once the country no longer has any Europeans to blame, they'll pick on the black, brown and yellow foreigners, while beginning to cast an eye of suspicion at Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders - because, you know, they might look and sound like us but they've probably stolen jobs, hospital beds and the last place on the twice weekly bus service which was hacked and slashed by the Tory controlled council and nothing to do with a 'foreign' tax payer and contributor...
What we need to realise is white people can't possibly understand what it's like to be black or Asian; the same as they can't really understand what it's like vice versa. Heterosexual people might think they can relate to homosexuals, but we can't really understand what is going on inside their 'souls' even if we can put our minds into that space. I'd like to think rational people - the kind of people who would rather help than hurt - really struggle to understand how a fellow human being can be purposefully vile and nasty to someone less fortunate (and equally, I can almost understand how 30-year-old neo-fascists can believe the Holocaust was just some Jewish propaganda and couldn't have possibly really happened... that is until the first people start being shipped into camps, like Muslims in parts of China).
The thing is it's pretty much the difference between someone with left politics and someone with right.
History is there to be learnt from and if we can't learn from it then we don't really have any right to be here. Without humans there would still be many similar traits in the animals; war, love, compassion, hatred, fear ... that's because, we're still just animals too. Devious, nasty and cruel ones, but we still shit, like having sex and beating the fuck out of people who are weaker or not like us. Not everyone is and many people who vote Tory, or feel their have little or no prejudices, probably aren't. The thing is it's easier to hate than it is to embrace and hold and until a large percentage - the majority of the population of the world - understand and practice this, just about everyone is screwed.
What part of the Bible or the Quran which tells us to 'love our neighbour' also tells us to kill them if they don't agree 100% with us? Because, that's all I've really got. I don't have a solution (apart from the war I've been forecasting for the last three years). When 50% of the planet suffers from different degrees of cognitive dissonance, you ain't got a hope of living in a peaceful non-prejudice world; so you turn your back and let the worst parts of human nature run rampant among the people supposedly running the world. And because you know you're just one person, you know you can't do much about it and if you think like that it's already too late...
Interestingly, about twenty minutes earlier, when we were wondering up to Primark, we saw two nuns - not your usual soberly dressed women, looking like nurses with headgear, but two full-on penguins. More extravagant and with just as little flesh on display. Yes, they're women of God. The girls in hijabs were probably devout followers of Allah. We have preconceptions of Muslims. Boris Johnson displayed that in August with a column about not allowing Muslims to wear what they want to wear.
I'd never defend Johnson. The man is a conniving and devious politician and disguises his ambition with buffoonery. However, reading his column you had to acknowledge that his 'offensive' remarks have probably been made worse by the solitary fact he wrote them. There was elements of casual racism, but largely he was trying to make a jokey point about a sensitive issue.
He failed. But... did he really? He's become more of a champion to the new far-right than he was before that column (and his slagging off of his former boss) and, at the time, we had people uttering the words 'freedom of speech' and so they should, because it is only right. Like it is only right that any speech can be challenged, in a constructive way, using the same freedom of speech rules. Racists and bigots need to be challenged, rather than banning them. That just inflames and makes a mockery of the 'freedom of speech' ideal.
What Johnson has probably achieved is help drive the wedge between xenophobic/racist Brits and normal people deeper. I mean, when you read about Pakistani rape gangs in Yorkshire and ISIS terrorists and radicalised British wannabe martyrs, how can those who will never be happy until all non-British people are gone ever be appeased? How are Muslims ever going to feel accepted when in some places they must have begun to feel like Negroes in 1950s USA? For every newspaper or twat US President claiming we have Muslim enclaves in our cities, we have genuinely scared people avoiding the streets for fear of reprisals because of their culture.
Now we discover that the UK has an incredible racial bias that extends to pretty much anyone who isn't white, heterosexual and, above all, English. Brexit has allowed English people to believe they're on the verge of a new Empire, one that finally kicks Johnny Foreigner squarely in the testes. History suggests when you start to alienate certain groups of people it isn't long before your cohorts are alienating others. We live in a 'Kingdom' that demonises pretty much anyone who isn't British and employed; but as The Guardian newspaper has found, even if you are British and employed, it depends on how 'British' you are.
A percentage of Brits are of Asian, African or West Indian origins. In fact, a number are also of European heritage, but are not as well accepted because they have a foreign - too foreign - sounding name. Farage is okay, but Davidovich or Simkiewicz isn't.
Let's be clear about something; I had a Chinese landlord once who thought Indians were 'dirty bastards'. I knew a man from Pakistan who thought Arabs (Iranians specifically) were allowing the world to destroy itself because they want to rule everything. I've met a man from England who believes in Brexit so hard that any dissenting voice is a liar and I've seen evidence (whether real or Russian bot) on social media platforms of such vile callousness towards people 'not like us' that it's added a new dimension to the "I'm all right, Jack" mentality. An attitude I'd always attached to dyed-in-the-wool Tory voters who believed that homelessness was a left wing conspiracy and that anyone on welfare/benefits was a scrounger or out to make something from the state. The human race is inherently xenophobic - I'd call them racist, but it's simply a fear and loathing of something that you can't relate to.
Michael Gove (or Pob as we like to think of him) pretty much declared there would be violence and national unrest if his Brexit doesn't happen and while that is just the Hard Brexit supporters' own Project Fear, in this world of intolerance he's probably not a hundred miles from the truth. But hey, in the USA BAME citizens feel like their rights and position has been eroded more in the last 2 years than it has since Rosa Parks told a white boy to find his own seat on the bus.
I look at BAME Tory politicians and wonder how long before they start to feel like a token gesture to tempt the delusional blacks and Asians to continue voting for them - 'You're all right, it's those black and Asian kids the Nazigraph is talking about' will be a variation of the excuse given to them.
Living in this part of Scotland you see a lot of casual racism, which you oddly don't see when someone is getting a takeaway from the Chinese or Indian restaurants, and, to be fair, I've not heard any overt nastiness from anyone up here towards anyone culturally different, but that's not to say it doesn't exist. There are enough Scottish Tories with bizarre ideas about a lot of things and there's considerably more Brextremists who've moved up from England, despite the fact that Scotland voted by a big margin to stay in the EU (and has been largely ignored by England since). These are the kind of people who'll always look for someone else to blame and once the country no longer has any Europeans to blame, they'll pick on the black, brown and yellow foreigners, while beginning to cast an eye of suspicion at Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders - because, you know, they might look and sound like us but they've probably stolen jobs, hospital beds and the last place on the twice weekly bus service which was hacked and slashed by the Tory controlled council and nothing to do with a 'foreign' tax payer and contributor...
What we need to realise is white people can't possibly understand what it's like to be black or Asian; the same as they can't really understand what it's like vice versa. Heterosexual people might think they can relate to homosexuals, but we can't really understand what is going on inside their 'souls' even if we can put our minds into that space. I'd like to think rational people - the kind of people who would rather help than hurt - really struggle to understand how a fellow human being can be purposefully vile and nasty to someone less fortunate (and equally, I can almost understand how 30-year-old neo-fascists can believe the Holocaust was just some Jewish propaganda and couldn't have possibly really happened... that is until the first people start being shipped into camps, like Muslims in parts of China).
The thing is it's pretty much the difference between someone with left politics and someone with right.
History is there to be learnt from and if we can't learn from it then we don't really have any right to be here. Without humans there would still be many similar traits in the animals; war, love, compassion, hatred, fear ... that's because, we're still just animals too. Devious, nasty and cruel ones, but we still shit, like having sex and beating the fuck out of people who are weaker or not like us. Not everyone is and many people who vote Tory, or feel their have little or no prejudices, probably aren't. The thing is it's easier to hate than it is to embrace and hold and until a large percentage - the majority of the population of the world - understand and practice this, just about everyone is screwed.
What part of the Bible or the Quran which tells us to 'love our neighbour' also tells us to kill them if they don't agree 100% with us? Because, that's all I've really got. I don't have a solution (apart from the war I've been forecasting for the last three years). When 50% of the planet suffers from different degrees of cognitive dissonance, you ain't got a hope of living in a peaceful non-prejudice world; so you turn your back and let the worst parts of human nature run rampant among the people supposedly running the world. And because you know you're just one person, you know you can't do much about it and if you think like that it's already too late...
Wednesday, 14 November 2018
The Big (non) Issue
I find myself in a strange situation. A personal dichotomy. With the Brexit negotiations having reached a tipping point and the next week fundamentally the most important for this kingdom since before I was born, there is now almost a clamour for a second vote - a new referendum.
That bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I'd campaign for remain again and I'd be praying to a god I don't believe in that Remain wins by 70%+ and would allow whoever was in power to attempt to appease the 30% with truth and positivity. Except, you know, that isn't going to happen. If there was a vote next week, even after months of incompetence, even if Remain won, it would not be decisive. It would be even more divisive.
This kingdom is so badly split on ideological ways that blood means nothing and grudges have been established that run deeper than we can ever imagine. I have said this before, but it means more now than ever before. We need to follow the will of the people from 2016 and leave the EU. We need to allow the country to sink or swim, prosper or fail on its own two feet. The only way we can repair any damage is to suffer it, that way the country might begin to heal and the people might start forgiving each other. Alternatively, if the country prospers and we see massive regeneration, creation of jobs and wealth, then Remainers will be happy and hope that Leavers don't waste too much time rubbing our noses in it - most of us want what's best, y'ken?
The problem is the country is so divided and it will become even more and that would be bad for everybody. The best resolution would be a compromise Brexit that suits the balance of the vote. 48% of the people - a little under half - didn't want to leave, regardless of who won or who lost their fears need to be considered, even if they have to compromise on a little over half of what the Leavers want. That's democracy at its most basis; liberalism is the perfect democracy - do things by compromise for the benefit of the people; if it benefits some more than others, ensure that those scales are eventually balanced.
We were promised a prosperous, progressive and fantastic future; if that doesn't happen then we have to pay for it. If the people who promised us this can't deliver we should, at the very least, ensure they can't be involved in politics again. Whatever happens, we need to think about democracy - not scrapping it, but making it a compulsory subject and scrapping career politicians in favour of fixed term MPs - answerable to rules - and drawn from all walks of society to ensure all of society benefits and feels part of the process.
A second referendum that delivers anything but a more resounding Leave vote could tear Britain apart and leave a place that most people wouldn't want to remain in.
That bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I'd campaign for remain again and I'd be praying to a god I don't believe in that Remain wins by 70%+ and would allow whoever was in power to attempt to appease the 30% with truth and positivity. Except, you know, that isn't going to happen. If there was a vote next week, even after months of incompetence, even if Remain won, it would not be decisive. It would be even more divisive.
This kingdom is so badly split on ideological ways that blood means nothing and grudges have been established that run deeper than we can ever imagine. I have said this before, but it means more now than ever before. We need to follow the will of the people from 2016 and leave the EU. We need to allow the country to sink or swim, prosper or fail on its own two feet. The only way we can repair any damage is to suffer it, that way the country might begin to heal and the people might start forgiving each other. Alternatively, if the country prospers and we see massive regeneration, creation of jobs and wealth, then Remainers will be happy and hope that Leavers don't waste too much time rubbing our noses in it - most of us want what's best, y'ken?
The problem is the country is so divided and it will become even more and that would be bad for everybody. The best resolution would be a compromise Brexit that suits the balance of the vote. 48% of the people - a little under half - didn't want to leave, regardless of who won or who lost their fears need to be considered, even if they have to compromise on a little over half of what the Leavers want. That's democracy at its most basis; liberalism is the perfect democracy - do things by compromise for the benefit of the people; if it benefits some more than others, ensure that those scales are eventually balanced.
We were promised a prosperous, progressive and fantastic future; if that doesn't happen then we have to pay for it. If the people who promised us this can't deliver we should, at the very least, ensure they can't be involved in politics again. Whatever happens, we need to think about democracy - not scrapping it, but making it a compulsory subject and scrapping career politicians in favour of fixed term MPs - answerable to rules - and drawn from all walks of society to ensure all of society benefits and feels part of the process.
A second referendum that delivers anything but a more resounding Leave vote could tear Britain apart and leave a place that most people wouldn't want to remain in.
Sunday, 11 November 2018
Belief
I have been known to bang on about education and having at least half a dozen friends who are school teachers (past and present) I am aware I could well be treading on tender feet when I say the standard of education in this country seems to have waned. However, I probably have considerably more friends who believe something that is wrong or isn't a fact.
I think we've stopped educating our children, we just teach them about things and even that isn't strictly true. The number of young people I've met who have no general knowledge is frightening; however, even more frightening is their dependence on Google or internet search engines. "Why learn something when you can Google it?" Said a guy who regularly attends my pub quiz, but never engages in it because using the internet isn't allowed. The stranger thing is this guy - 26 years of age - cannot understand how using the internet to get answers is cheating, despite it being a quiz designed to test a person's general knowledge rather than his ability to Google. What makes it worse is his underlying annoyance - not at his lack of knowledge but at the rule that prevents him from cheating his way to 1st prize.
The advent of the internet has meant the rise of personal belief... We saw it during the Brexit campaign; the dismissal of experts' opinions when we have specifically NOT asked for them. The growth in opinions based not on fact but on something that feels right. The vilification of individuals by association. If you believe it, it must be true.
It's interesting that broadcaster and journalist James O'Brien has chosen to relate a story from his radio show, in his latest book, about the Brexiteer who called his show stating we're now in charge of our own laws, our own rules and free of the bureaucratic EU at last. When asked to name ONE solitary thing - EU law - that has changed his life, the caller was unable to answer; but he believed it was the best way forward for the country to be free from laws and rules he didn't even know or could give no example of...
The thing is we're actually in a world where the truth is just as quickly available as a belief. As matey-boy from the pub quiz quite rightly says - without a hint of irony - who's to say what Google says is the truth or just a lie with a lot of hits, pushing it to the top of that particular algorithms pile?
"Immigration has brought this country to its knees" or variations on a theme has been pretty much the most common statement issued by Leave voters for the last three years. They either ignore the fact or simply don't know that Britain has been one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, since history began. We also have a really shit record of treating foreigners badly, yet they still want to come here because we were the first land of opportunity and like it or not people want to be part of what they believe to be a better world (plus, contrary to some beliefs racism exists just about everywhere - mankind is strangely social yet xenophobic).
The thing is, if you spent five minutes investigating whether immigration has brought the country to its knees, you'd discover that what we're doing is blaming the EU migrants solely for a problem that is a governmental problem and nothing to do with where someone comes from. For starters - migrants, immigrants, foreigners - whatever you want to call them - are not the problem here; they're a symptom. If governments continue to strip mine the public sector of its funding to give the already rich people more incentive to get richer, then you're not going to have more schools, hospitals, houses, bus routes, trains etc etc etc, so you get a strain on the existing services and when the government cuts the funding even further people are quick to blame the immigrants and never blame the culprit. And when they're told this, they put their heads in the metaphoric sand and go la-la-la-la-la-la.
The problems begin when people believe something to be wrong. People, because they're human, hate being proved wrong, especially when they've left school. They don't like a belief or an ideology being challenged and we have governments all over the world who would rather obscure the truth and build their empires on blame rather than investment. Look at it this way, if you're reading this and you think there are too many foreigners in this country and you truly believe that - regardless of where you got your information - I could give you irrefutable proof that your belief is not correct in any way, but because you believe it to be right, you're not going to want to believe me and even if I could make you understand the error of your way, because it is a belief and as soon as I'm gone you'll go back to blaming whatever you were wrong about; because it feels right.
For the last 25 years, I've listened to Liverpool fans wishing their team was as good as it was when they were winning everything. "We just have to believe, lads" was the cry from so many of their fans. I was never aware that winning trophies was all about the belief of the fans. By that logic, Man City and Chelsea fans have seen a massive investment in the belief system of the fans rather than buying the best players in the world. Man City are the best team in the country because their reasonable fan base BELIEVES more than you, who supports some mid-table team of unbelievers...
"Brexit will work if all you remoaners would just believe in it!" You must have heard this? Jacob Rees-Mogg famously accused all those who voted remain of not believing in the country enough. What the fuck have we got politicians for if running the country and being successful is simply about believing? Why are we negotiating with Brussels? Why isn't Theresa May just going on TV every day with a five minute message to remind all the people of the country to believe a bit harder?
The sticking point is the fact that once upon a time, probably before the internet, if you said something stupid down the pub, three or four of your mates would put you straight and if you respected others opinions you'd accept you were wrong. If you were arsey enough you might pop into the library the next day and check to make sure you were wrong, but usually people accepted the word of someone more knowledgeable than them. In fact, back in the day most conversations were more black and white than now because matey boy down the pub's mate who believes that there's a terrorist on every corner has become friends with 50 other weirdos who also think all Muslims are bomb-carrying mad bastards worshipping a false idol. The belief is reinforced. Suddenly you have a right-wing enclave on Facebook...
Let me leave this one here: there has been a 7% rise in membership of the Flat Earth Society in the last five years...
Don't get me wrong, people believing misinformation has been going for years, long before the internet came along and linked all the like-minded nutters together; and you need to realise that some conspiracy theories have legs - this is the genius of misinformation; you can hide truths inside lies and vice versa. The difference between a bunch of people thinking the royal family are lizards with human skin or that benefits scroungers are 95% responsible for the creation of food banks is pretty wide, but the fact they both believe bullshit is just as scary. Tell the people via the Daily Mail that the country is overrun with foreigners and normal middle class - average - people will believe it. People believe the newspapers when the newspapers say something they can get behind. Too many foreigners - Yeah! We mistreat the poor - Left wing rubbish! See, it's that easy.
You might stroke your chin and think, 'That sounds feasible...' It's how fascism spreads; you either ignore it but don't say anything or you think because five others have shared it that it must be true and suddenly you have a belief...
A few years ago, sitting in my old back garden making the most of a rare spell of hot summer weather, I was acutely aware that the weather forecasters had all said it was going to end and the next day would be shit. However, my old next door neighbour was in his garden talking to his neighbour on the other side and I heard, "Oh yeah, Barry down the pub says this weather is in for the rest of the summer." And my neighbour took Barry completely at his word. What he thought of Barry the following day when Northampton was treated to monsoon-like weather without the heat, I wasn't privy to, but at that moment in time he believed his mate Barry more than anyone on the TV. If you'd asked him how he came to that conclusion his answer would probably have been, "Well, the weatherman often gets it wrong, but my mate Barry is rarely wrong." This is probably because Barry often says things my old neighbour agreed with.
Recently, I heard someone express utter disbelief that we had Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus fighting alongside British troops in WW2. The person honestly believed it was like a football match - the English versus the Germans. The fact that the majority of the English football team in 2018 has multicultural roots seems immaterial (and overkill).
Are you aware that all the way through the referendum campaign you had fishermen complaining how the EU has stopped them from being successful and yet Grimsby, on realising that it was actually the EU that kept so many of them in work wanted their port to be exempt from leaving? This is a fact, whether you want to believe it or not, it actually happened.
The EU's fishing policy was implemented to protect fish stocks as well a prevent countries like us from simply strip mining anyone's sea because we're British. If you think it's wrong that we can't go wherever we want and fish, but others aren't allowed to come into our waters then you need to switch off now, because you won't want to believe the truth that for many years our fishermen wanted one rule for us and many rules for others, all based on the simple fact that we are British.
Our UK fisheries policy was pretty much echoed by a Japanese fishing minister in 2002 when asked by a journalist what happens when the Blue-Finned Tuna is fished to extinction. His answer was simply, "We'll eat something else." Except, the British like cod and if we have none in our waters, we believe we can go anywhere else and fish for it. If you can't see what is wrong with that I'm amazed you've lasted this long here.
Brexit politicians BELIEVE we're going to be okay, regardless of all those pesky hurdles created by countries that are less important than us; Remainer politicians BELIEVE based on evidence rather than hope that we're in for a very bumpy ride at best and this has heralded a new breed of ignoramus; the person who don't care what damage is done to the country or the people that live here because in the future, even if its after they've died, everything will be like it was when England ruled the world. Trust me, these people exist and they appear to be growing.
Belief has always divided people, whether its belief in a concept, a person or a thing, but now we have a new belief, the belief of lies that suit the way we feel. It's easier to believe something that isn't true especially if it's an easy target that can't defend itself. Governments have programmed us to blame everything but them and as a result people now believe only in what makes them feel better and if that means blaming something or someone for the woes of the world then it's bloody Abdul's fault we've got no buses or hospitals or social services.
Those bleeding single mums are to blame. I reckon we'd be better off if we banned transsexuals. I don't like this and I don't like that and I think and feel like my belief system is being violated by facts... Stop yourself for a second and think 'How can people be swept up by this utter bullshit?' and you know how Hitler came to power, or how Brazil has just elected a right wing dictator, or that people still think the Tories are far better at running the country, purely based on enough Tories in high places telling you often enough. Old Goebbels, he was a smart bloke for a Nazi...
I think we've stopped educating our children, we just teach them about things and even that isn't strictly true. The number of young people I've met who have no general knowledge is frightening; however, even more frightening is their dependence on Google or internet search engines. "Why learn something when you can Google it?" Said a guy who regularly attends my pub quiz, but never engages in it because using the internet isn't allowed. The stranger thing is this guy - 26 years of age - cannot understand how using the internet to get answers is cheating, despite it being a quiz designed to test a person's general knowledge rather than his ability to Google. What makes it worse is his underlying annoyance - not at his lack of knowledge but at the rule that prevents him from cheating his way to 1st prize.
The advent of the internet has meant the rise of personal belief... We saw it during the Brexit campaign; the dismissal of experts' opinions when we have specifically NOT asked for them. The growth in opinions based not on fact but on something that feels right. The vilification of individuals by association. If you believe it, it must be true.
It's interesting that broadcaster and journalist James O'Brien has chosen to relate a story from his radio show, in his latest book, about the Brexiteer who called his show stating we're now in charge of our own laws, our own rules and free of the bureaucratic EU at last. When asked to name ONE solitary thing - EU law - that has changed his life, the caller was unable to answer; but he believed it was the best way forward for the country to be free from laws and rules he didn't even know or could give no example of...
The thing is we're actually in a world where the truth is just as quickly available as a belief. As matey-boy from the pub quiz quite rightly says - without a hint of irony - who's to say what Google says is the truth or just a lie with a lot of hits, pushing it to the top of that particular algorithms pile?
"Immigration has brought this country to its knees" or variations on a theme has been pretty much the most common statement issued by Leave voters for the last three years. They either ignore the fact or simply don't know that Britain has been one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, since history began. We also have a really shit record of treating foreigners badly, yet they still want to come here because we were the first land of opportunity and like it or not people want to be part of what they believe to be a better world (plus, contrary to some beliefs racism exists just about everywhere - mankind is strangely social yet xenophobic).
The thing is, if you spent five minutes investigating whether immigration has brought the country to its knees, you'd discover that what we're doing is blaming the EU migrants solely for a problem that is a governmental problem and nothing to do with where someone comes from. For starters - migrants, immigrants, foreigners - whatever you want to call them - are not the problem here; they're a symptom. If governments continue to strip mine the public sector of its funding to give the already rich people more incentive to get richer, then you're not going to have more schools, hospitals, houses, bus routes, trains etc etc etc, so you get a strain on the existing services and when the government cuts the funding even further people are quick to blame the immigrants and never blame the culprit. And when they're told this, they put their heads in the metaphoric sand and go la-la-la-la-la-la.
The problems begin when people believe something to be wrong. People, because they're human, hate being proved wrong, especially when they've left school. They don't like a belief or an ideology being challenged and we have governments all over the world who would rather obscure the truth and build their empires on blame rather than investment. Look at it this way, if you're reading this and you think there are too many foreigners in this country and you truly believe that - regardless of where you got your information - I could give you irrefutable proof that your belief is not correct in any way, but because you believe it to be right, you're not going to want to believe me and even if I could make you understand the error of your way, because it is a belief and as soon as I'm gone you'll go back to blaming whatever you were wrong about; because it feels right.
For the last 25 years, I've listened to Liverpool fans wishing their team was as good as it was when they were winning everything. "We just have to believe, lads" was the cry from so many of their fans. I was never aware that winning trophies was all about the belief of the fans. By that logic, Man City and Chelsea fans have seen a massive investment in the belief system of the fans rather than buying the best players in the world. Man City are the best team in the country because their reasonable fan base BELIEVES more than you, who supports some mid-table team of unbelievers...
"Brexit will work if all you remoaners would just believe in it!" You must have heard this? Jacob Rees-Mogg famously accused all those who voted remain of not believing in the country enough. What the fuck have we got politicians for if running the country and being successful is simply about believing? Why are we negotiating with Brussels? Why isn't Theresa May just going on TV every day with a five minute message to remind all the people of the country to believe a bit harder?
The sticking point is the fact that once upon a time, probably before the internet, if you said something stupid down the pub, three or four of your mates would put you straight and if you respected others opinions you'd accept you were wrong. If you were arsey enough you might pop into the library the next day and check to make sure you were wrong, but usually people accepted the word of someone more knowledgeable than them. In fact, back in the day most conversations were more black and white than now because matey boy down the pub's mate who believes that there's a terrorist on every corner has become friends with 50 other weirdos who also think all Muslims are bomb-carrying mad bastards worshipping a false idol. The belief is reinforced. Suddenly you have a right-wing enclave on Facebook...
Let me leave this one here: there has been a 7% rise in membership of the Flat Earth Society in the last five years...
Don't get me wrong, people believing misinformation has been going for years, long before the internet came along and linked all the like-minded nutters together; and you need to realise that some conspiracy theories have legs - this is the genius of misinformation; you can hide truths inside lies and vice versa. The difference between a bunch of people thinking the royal family are lizards with human skin or that benefits scroungers are 95% responsible for the creation of food banks is pretty wide, but the fact they both believe bullshit is just as scary. Tell the people via the Daily Mail that the country is overrun with foreigners and normal middle class - average - people will believe it. People believe the newspapers when the newspapers say something they can get behind. Too many foreigners - Yeah! We mistreat the poor - Left wing rubbish! See, it's that easy.
You might stroke your chin and think, 'That sounds feasible...' It's how fascism spreads; you either ignore it but don't say anything or you think because five others have shared it that it must be true and suddenly you have a belief...
A few years ago, sitting in my old back garden making the most of a rare spell of hot summer weather, I was acutely aware that the weather forecasters had all said it was going to end and the next day would be shit. However, my old next door neighbour was in his garden talking to his neighbour on the other side and I heard, "Oh yeah, Barry down the pub says this weather is in for the rest of the summer." And my neighbour took Barry completely at his word. What he thought of Barry the following day when Northampton was treated to monsoon-like weather without the heat, I wasn't privy to, but at that moment in time he believed his mate Barry more than anyone on the TV. If you'd asked him how he came to that conclusion his answer would probably have been, "Well, the weatherman often gets it wrong, but my mate Barry is rarely wrong." This is probably because Barry often says things my old neighbour agreed with.
Recently, I heard someone express utter disbelief that we had Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus fighting alongside British troops in WW2. The person honestly believed it was like a football match - the English versus the Germans. The fact that the majority of the English football team in 2018 has multicultural roots seems immaterial (and overkill).
Are you aware that all the way through the referendum campaign you had fishermen complaining how the EU has stopped them from being successful and yet Grimsby, on realising that it was actually the EU that kept so many of them in work wanted their port to be exempt from leaving? This is a fact, whether you want to believe it or not, it actually happened.
The EU's fishing policy was implemented to protect fish stocks as well a prevent countries like us from simply strip mining anyone's sea because we're British. If you think it's wrong that we can't go wherever we want and fish, but others aren't allowed to come into our waters then you need to switch off now, because you won't want to believe the truth that for many years our fishermen wanted one rule for us and many rules for others, all based on the simple fact that we are British.
Our UK fisheries policy was pretty much echoed by a Japanese fishing minister in 2002 when asked by a journalist what happens when the Blue-Finned Tuna is fished to extinction. His answer was simply, "We'll eat something else." Except, the British like cod and if we have none in our waters, we believe we can go anywhere else and fish for it. If you can't see what is wrong with that I'm amazed you've lasted this long here.
Brexit politicians BELIEVE we're going to be okay, regardless of all those pesky hurdles created by countries that are less important than us; Remainer politicians BELIEVE based on evidence rather than hope that we're in for a very bumpy ride at best and this has heralded a new breed of ignoramus; the person who don't care what damage is done to the country or the people that live here because in the future, even if its after they've died, everything will be like it was when England ruled the world. Trust me, these people exist and they appear to be growing.
Belief has always divided people, whether its belief in a concept, a person or a thing, but now we have a new belief, the belief of lies that suit the way we feel. It's easier to believe something that isn't true especially if it's an easy target that can't defend itself. Governments have programmed us to blame everything but them and as a result people now believe only in what makes them feel better and if that means blaming something or someone for the woes of the world then it's bloody Abdul's fault we've got no buses or hospitals or social services.
Those bleeding single mums are to blame. I reckon we'd be better off if we banned transsexuals. I don't like this and I don't like that and I think and feel like my belief system is being violated by facts... Stop yourself for a second and think 'How can people be swept up by this utter bullshit?' and you know how Hitler came to power, or how Brazil has just elected a right wing dictator, or that people still think the Tories are far better at running the country, purely based on enough Tories in high places telling you often enough. Old Goebbels, he was a smart bloke for a Nazi...
Friday, 20 July 2018
Brexit: The Flip Side
Imagine, just for a bit, that I weighed up all the arguments; ignored both the 'Unicorn speak' and 'Project Fear' and came up with the conclusion that Britain would probably be better off outside the European Union, because it would give the country the opportunity to trade all over the world, change the way countries trade with each other and unify the people in the belief that national economics would prove considerably more beneficial, especially over a short-term period, in the current climate. Imagine this (because all the sound bite reasons were either of the country's own making or were not managed well by whatever government was in power - this time they're all to blame).
Right. I voted Leave. The result went my way and I felt like the people of Britain had spoken to the government and said, 'We want change!'
Over two years down the line and how do I feel about the current situation? Do I want a Hard or a Soft Brexit? Do I believe the continuous Project Fear stories suggesting we'll starve to death within a fortnight? Will there be job losses; power outages and less choice in the supermarkets? Was there any change? Do I care?
If I did my research, I will have noted that the 28 countries in the EU have a say in my countries fate, only two of them have bigger economies than mine, so we should be in a good position and if we haven't we should be able to join another trade organisation under our own conditions. There would be an element of arrogance in my position, but you can never understate the importance the UK has in the world. And maybe that might be where level-headed come unstuck. Hasn't the UK's sense of importance been the sticking point in all negotiations? As a conscientious Leaver, I know the UK is a big market and anyone would fancy getting 'some of that', so what's the problem extricating from one and setting up the others, like any business arrangement?
In my assurance that a Leave vote would be good for the UK, did I ever, for a second, consider what the reaction of our mutual trade club might be when one of the biggest members pulls up sticks and goes it alone? Would I have even cared? Would I be concerned that there appears to be some stock in serious rumours that the government has serious concerns about a hard Brexit to the point there's stockpiling notices being prepared? Where are we going to get the 60% of all the food we consume on April 1st, 2019?
My main argument as a Remainer before the referendum was to forget all the hysteria and to look at how leaving the EU would affect YOU and many times I did this by asking how the EU has adversely affected YOU? The weird thing is 95% of the arguments thrown up by Leavers - whether it affected them or not - have been largely disproved and yet, as we know, they, almost to a man, have a stubborn determination not to be shown they might have been conned. Being conned is a sign of weakness and in the 21st century world of social media, weakness is for snowflakes and less-than-real-men.
Whatever way I'd voted, I reckon I'd feel pretty much the way I do at the moment, maybe to different degrees of bemusement. Brexit ministers are queuing up to leave and even some of the real nutjobs who want Brexit at any cost must have realised by now that if the key men in the lie that was Brexit (Leave or Remain) have jumped the listing ship... That must tell you that either Theresa May is either trying to make the best of a bad deal or is in bed with those pesky EU bureaucrats in a deal that keeps us in their free trade union. Or it could be that the likes of Davis and Johnson want as far away from the shambles as possible so they can relaunch their careers on the back of Brexit's failure, in the knowledge that nothing they say or have said will mean a jot in our post-truth world.
This might sound patronising, but it really isn't. If you voted Leave with your heart or because of reasons that didn't affect you, or if you voted Leave for immigration, sovereignty and control, then there's a good chance that you've simply given up being remotely interested in it unless it doesn't happen and those of you trying to follow proceedings can rest assured that those of us who knew exactly what this would eventually involve and still believe we'll be doing grave self-harm to ourselves and future generations, also haven't got a real clue what's going on, apart from outlandish conspiracy theories, or as we like to call them, theories. In 2018 very little is outlandish and you need to expect the unexpected.
If I'd voted Leave, I'd be wondering if it would be easier to get what we want by staying in the EU and showing them how the UK and many other EU countries want fundamental changes to way the United States of Europe is run and how it deals with issues pertaining to sovereign states. The major European powers need to realise that neoliberalism is no longer working; Europe is becoming a simple 4-4-2 formation, while the rest of the world is perfecting their 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 formations and the scary thing is a lot of the rest of the world is now run by terrifying people with unpleasant right wing ideologies.
If I voted Leave, I'd be standing up to my fellow vote Leavers and point out to them that in the first quarter of 2018 as many as 77,000 EU citizens moved to this country and I'd want them to not be satisfied. I'd want them to be frothing at the mouth about too many of them, coming over here, etc etc and then I'd tell them that over 250,000 non-EU citizens moved to this country in the same period and while the rest of the world is a big place, it has always outnumbered Europeans coming to the UK. I'd want them to ask themselves what makes an EU citizen worse than an African, a Philippine, Indians, Pakistanis, South Americans, Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, Australian or Americans? Many of these have freedom of movement because of Commonwealth ties. Are none of them coming to steal your job or put a strain on services? To take it to an extreme - some of you don't like Trump but you'd buy his goods, chlorinated chickens and all.
Vote Leave committed electoral fraud. The PM keeps banging on about the Will of the People based on 52% of the 72% who voted and based on a simple yes or no question we've decided that it has to be an acrimonious divorce, but no one wants to handle it. If nothing else, isn't it time someone from the government put themselves up to answer questions, truthfully. To tell the people what the score is and how bad is it likely to get before it gets better? And if Brexit really is the biggest peacetime threat to the face the UK since the war, then why is it being handled by one political party? Why isn't this being handled by all of them, jointly, in the interests of the kingdom?
Right. I voted Leave. The result went my way and I felt like the people of Britain had spoken to the government and said, 'We want change!'
Over two years down the line and how do I feel about the current situation? Do I want a Hard or a Soft Brexit? Do I believe the continuous Project Fear stories suggesting we'll starve to death within a fortnight? Will there be job losses; power outages and less choice in the supermarkets? Was there any change? Do I care?
If I did my research, I will have noted that the 28 countries in the EU have a say in my countries fate, only two of them have bigger economies than mine, so we should be in a good position and if we haven't we should be able to join another trade organisation under our own conditions. There would be an element of arrogance in my position, but you can never understate the importance the UK has in the world. And maybe that might be where level-headed come unstuck. Hasn't the UK's sense of importance been the sticking point in all negotiations? As a conscientious Leaver, I know the UK is a big market and anyone would fancy getting 'some of that', so what's the problem extricating from one and setting up the others, like any business arrangement?
In my assurance that a Leave vote would be good for the UK, did I ever, for a second, consider what the reaction of our mutual trade club might be when one of the biggest members pulls up sticks and goes it alone? Would I have even cared? Would I be concerned that there appears to be some stock in serious rumours that the government has serious concerns about a hard Brexit to the point there's stockpiling notices being prepared? Where are we going to get the 60% of all the food we consume on April 1st, 2019?
My main argument as a Remainer before the referendum was to forget all the hysteria and to look at how leaving the EU would affect YOU and many times I did this by asking how the EU has adversely affected YOU? The weird thing is 95% of the arguments thrown up by Leavers - whether it affected them or not - have been largely disproved and yet, as we know, they, almost to a man, have a stubborn determination not to be shown they might have been conned. Being conned is a sign of weakness and in the 21st century world of social media, weakness is for snowflakes and less-than-real-men.
Whatever way I'd voted, I reckon I'd feel pretty much the way I do at the moment, maybe to different degrees of bemusement. Brexit ministers are queuing up to leave and even some of the real nutjobs who want Brexit at any cost must have realised by now that if the key men in the lie that was Brexit (Leave or Remain) have jumped the listing ship... That must tell you that either Theresa May is either trying to make the best of a bad deal or is in bed with those pesky EU bureaucrats in a deal that keeps us in their free trade union. Or it could be that the likes of Davis and Johnson want as far away from the shambles as possible so they can relaunch their careers on the back of Brexit's failure, in the knowledge that nothing they say or have said will mean a jot in our post-truth world.
This might sound patronising, but it really isn't. If you voted Leave with your heart or because of reasons that didn't affect you, or if you voted Leave for immigration, sovereignty and control, then there's a good chance that you've simply given up being remotely interested in it unless it doesn't happen and those of you trying to follow proceedings can rest assured that those of us who knew exactly what this would eventually involve and still believe we'll be doing grave self-harm to ourselves and future generations, also haven't got a real clue what's going on, apart from outlandish conspiracy theories, or as we like to call them, theories. In 2018 very little is outlandish and you need to expect the unexpected.
If I'd voted Leave, I'd be wondering if it would be easier to get what we want by staying in the EU and showing them how the UK and many other EU countries want fundamental changes to way the United States of Europe is run and how it deals with issues pertaining to sovereign states. The major European powers need to realise that neoliberalism is no longer working; Europe is becoming a simple 4-4-2 formation, while the rest of the world is perfecting their 4-3-3 or 3-5-2 formations and the scary thing is a lot of the rest of the world is now run by terrifying people with unpleasant right wing ideologies.
If I voted Leave, I'd be standing up to my fellow vote Leavers and point out to them that in the first quarter of 2018 as many as 77,000 EU citizens moved to this country and I'd want them to not be satisfied. I'd want them to be frothing at the mouth about too many of them, coming over here, etc etc and then I'd tell them that over 250,000 non-EU citizens moved to this country in the same period and while the rest of the world is a big place, it has always outnumbered Europeans coming to the UK. I'd want them to ask themselves what makes an EU citizen worse than an African, a Philippine, Indians, Pakistanis, South Americans, Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, Australian or Americans? Many of these have freedom of movement because of Commonwealth ties. Are none of them coming to steal your job or put a strain on services? To take it to an extreme - some of you don't like Trump but you'd buy his goods, chlorinated chickens and all.
Vote Leave committed electoral fraud. The PM keeps banging on about the Will of the People based on 52% of the 72% who voted and based on a simple yes or no question we've decided that it has to be an acrimonious divorce, but no one wants to handle it. If nothing else, isn't it time someone from the government put themselves up to answer questions, truthfully. To tell the people what the score is and how bad is it likely to get before it gets better? And if Brexit really is the biggest peacetime threat to the face the UK since the war, then why is it being handled by one political party? Why isn't this being handled by all of them, jointly, in the interests of the kingdom?
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Eyeless in Gaza
A couple of things: around a year ago or so I wrote on this blog that the world seemed to be - and I paraphrase - gearing up for war; it seemed the only logical thing considering the sudden destabilisation of much of the planet. The other thing is I'm about to veer dangerously close to a subject that I'm going to now generalise (because to specify would be to over run this blog by a couple of million words)...
The antisemitism row embroiled within the Labour Party is largely a manufactured 'scandal' organised by Tory supporting and right wing interested parties, large rich sections of Jewish society (who fear for their gains from a increase in socialism in Europe and the USA) and a media that is now led more by the opinion of some of the public rather than public opinion. I am aware that this is what you would expect any 'leftie' to say, but, please, allow me to sum up quickly. The Labour members who are being called antisemitic - specifically - are all outspoken critics of the Netanyahu government, or critics of politicians with links, either through birth, marriage or business concerns to said government, in some way, many clear and others vague. In the true sense of the word, no one targeted has been disrespectful to Israel, the majority of Jewish people or Jews in general; but they supporters of Palestine and have been fierce opponents of that extremely right-wing government; so right-wing that the irony is lost in the slaughter.
Obviously Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic or supports antisemitism because he refuses to shout at these people and expel them from Labour. This is obviously some communist plot or plan by Corbyn et al to do something [unspecified] when it's simply a case of a) the Labour Party gives relatively short shrift to the mainstream media and b) he won't do what they ask because he knows that this is about opposition to Israel's government and their relentless attempted genocide of Palestinians, who, of course, have no claim to their land because it really belongs to the Israeli people and if they have to wipe a nation from the face of the planet to do it...
And remember who has all the money; who own the Rothschilds and Halliburtons of this world and... of God, as soon as you suggest that Jews aren't as spotless, clean and white as a Muslim is dirty, dangerous and brown you get accused of being anti-Jewish, antisemitic - a word they appropriated that somehow means so much more and worse than 'racism'.
Let's examine something else for a second or two. Donald Trump makes a campaign promise to restore Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by placing the US embassy there; he wins and decides to do that, despite everyone and his brother suggesting it was a bad idea. Donald Trump decides to bomb Syria because of a chemical attack that tugs at his heart strings and changes his campaign pledge that he would withdraw from getting too deeply involved in foreign conflicts; his campaign was about making America Great Again by rebuilding it from the inside - the promises of Roosevelt and the delivery of Nixon. Donald Trump also tells Iran that their deal is off, fulfilling another promise to decommission every enactment Obama had a hand in which pissed off the grand masters of the GOP - the true American moneyed - oil. Let's also not forget that by having the protection of the USA, Israel at the moment are riding roughshod over all of the conventions brought in directly because of the decimation of their race in WW2.
Why?
War.
We had the fake war, now it's time for the real one.
The fake war was of course North Korea. It has been Trump's plaything for the last 18 months and, ironically, he's even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Republicans when it probably should go to the two Korean leaders; one for being so accommodating and the other for being so clever. Whether Trump has a hand in that is doubtful because North Korea have needed salvation far greater than nuclear weapons and Kim knows this, despite looking like a tinpot Mao. Kim was educated all over the world; he benefited from North Korea's Soviet ideology where he was considerably more equal than others. He speaks fluent English, almost as a first language and he is well versed in everything from economics to Oscar winning films. He's not stupid despite impressions to the contrary. He is the leader of the Mouse That Roared and he will oversee his own 'cultural revolution' and transform North Korea into a burgeoning China-like People's Republic. No one dies; the Korean people will be ecstatic for years and arguably the most potentially unstable (Ha!) region of the world is at peace.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East...
During the pretend 'cold war' escalations in the early 1980s, I always said that WW3 would start in the Middle East and one way or the other Israel would be at the centre of it, so therefore we had nothing to worry about. I think the Russians are more dangerous now, but I'm not wholly sure who should be frightened of them. Did you know that a number of European newspapers and none particularly 'left wing' reported that the chemical attacks in Syria never happened and that the subsequent air strikes were on long abandoned warehouses and storage facilities - they reported either outright or suggested that it was all some kind of ruse. None of this is ever reported in the UK media the way Corbyn refusing to condemn members of Labour for speaking out against Israel or defending the Palestinians is. For some reason the world is turning a blind eye to something horrible in Gaza (and Yemen) while trying to scare the world into believing that handing control of politics to people who might be decent, honest and hardworking for them is somehow evil.
Why would Donald Trump want a war in the Middle East? Well, Money, Oil, Power, Halliburton, 'democracy' 'freedom' and 'solving a problem'. People are not an issue, what is under and over the ground carrying billions of dollars is. Oh and if you think naively enough to shout GREEN at me and electric cars, wind power etc etc, I will say this: Do you think oil is going to get cheaper as its availability dwindles? It might have 200 years left but that's long enough for rich family dynasties.
The antisemitism row embroiled within the Labour Party is largely a manufactured 'scandal' organised by Tory supporting and right wing interested parties, large rich sections of Jewish society (who fear for their gains from a increase in socialism in Europe and the USA) and a media that is now led more by the opinion of some of the public rather than public opinion. I am aware that this is what you would expect any 'leftie' to say, but, please, allow me to sum up quickly. The Labour members who are being called antisemitic - specifically - are all outspoken critics of the Netanyahu government, or critics of politicians with links, either through birth, marriage or business concerns to said government, in some way, many clear and others vague. In the true sense of the word, no one targeted has been disrespectful to Israel, the majority of Jewish people or Jews in general; but they supporters of Palestine and have been fierce opponents of that extremely right-wing government; so right-wing that the irony is lost in the slaughter.
Obviously Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic or supports antisemitism because he refuses to shout at these people and expel them from Labour. This is obviously some communist plot or plan by Corbyn et al to do something [unspecified] when it's simply a case of a) the Labour Party gives relatively short shrift to the mainstream media and b) he won't do what they ask because he knows that this is about opposition to Israel's government and their relentless attempted genocide of Palestinians, who, of course, have no claim to their land because it really belongs to the Israeli people and if they have to wipe a nation from the face of the planet to do it...
And remember who has all the money; who own the Rothschilds and Halliburtons of this world and... of God, as soon as you suggest that Jews aren't as spotless, clean and white as a Muslim is dirty, dangerous and brown you get accused of being anti-Jewish, antisemitic - a word they appropriated that somehow means so much more and worse than 'racism'.
Let's examine something else for a second or two. Donald Trump makes a campaign promise to restore Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by placing the US embassy there; he wins and decides to do that, despite everyone and his brother suggesting it was a bad idea. Donald Trump decides to bomb Syria because of a chemical attack that tugs at his heart strings and changes his campaign pledge that he would withdraw from getting too deeply involved in foreign conflicts; his campaign was about making America Great Again by rebuilding it from the inside - the promises of Roosevelt and the delivery of Nixon. Donald Trump also tells Iran that their deal is off, fulfilling another promise to decommission every enactment Obama had a hand in which pissed off the grand masters of the GOP - the true American moneyed - oil. Let's also not forget that by having the protection of the USA, Israel at the moment are riding roughshod over all of the conventions brought in directly because of the decimation of their race in WW2.
Why?
War.
We had the fake war, now it's time for the real one.
The fake war was of course North Korea. It has been Trump's plaything for the last 18 months and, ironically, he's even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Republicans when it probably should go to the two Korean leaders; one for being so accommodating and the other for being so clever. Whether Trump has a hand in that is doubtful because North Korea have needed salvation far greater than nuclear weapons and Kim knows this, despite looking like a tinpot Mao. Kim was educated all over the world; he benefited from North Korea's Soviet ideology where he was considerably more equal than others. He speaks fluent English, almost as a first language and he is well versed in everything from economics to Oscar winning films. He's not stupid despite impressions to the contrary. He is the leader of the Mouse That Roared and he will oversee his own 'cultural revolution' and transform North Korea into a burgeoning China-like People's Republic. No one dies; the Korean people will be ecstatic for years and arguably the most potentially unstable (Ha!) region of the world is at peace.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East...
During the pretend 'cold war' escalations in the early 1980s, I always said that WW3 would start in the Middle East and one way or the other Israel would be at the centre of it, so therefore we had nothing to worry about. I think the Russians are more dangerous now, but I'm not wholly sure who should be frightened of them. Did you know that a number of European newspapers and none particularly 'left wing' reported that the chemical attacks in Syria never happened and that the subsequent air strikes were on long abandoned warehouses and storage facilities - they reported either outright or suggested that it was all some kind of ruse. None of this is ever reported in the UK media the way Corbyn refusing to condemn members of Labour for speaking out against Israel or defending the Palestinians is. For some reason the world is turning a blind eye to something horrible in Gaza (and Yemen) while trying to scare the world into believing that handing control of politics to people who might be decent, honest and hardworking for them is somehow evil.
Why would Donald Trump want a war in the Middle East? Well, Money, Oil, Power, Halliburton, 'democracy' 'freedom' and 'solving a problem'. People are not an issue, what is under and over the ground carrying billions of dollars is. Oh and if you think naively enough to shout GREEN at me and electric cars, wind power etc etc, I will say this: Do you think oil is going to get cheaper as its availability dwindles? It might have 200 years left but that's long enough for rich family dynasties.
Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Fake News-ish
I've been wracking my brains for months about what purpose - what future - the world has with the slightly bonkers way it has gone in the last couple of years. I think I'd feel this way even if I'd voted Leave and was one of those people who feel 'Brexit at all cost' is the only solution. You'd have to be some special kind of ignorant to have not noticed some changes to life since the referendum and eventually, when we do leave our free trade club, we'll notice a lot more - whether that's for good or bad.
Bare with me for a second; there is a conspiracy theory coming up that even for me is up there with fake moon landings, staged massacres and Elvis not being dead...
What do you know about eugenics? I appreciate I'm wandering back towards an old favourite when I ask that, but it is actually an ancient Greek concept and like the swastika has no origins in Nazism whatsoever. However, a cornerstone of eugenics is probably the creation of a master race and usually supporters of eugenics rarely fit their desired description. Just look at Hitler. In fact, yes, let's look at Hitler. A short, slightly ugly, authoritarian pervert managed to persuade half a nation that being tall, strong, with blond hair and blue eyes was the pinnacle of human evolution without the aid of the Internet. He must have been one hell of a charismatic character. He must have been Jesus-like to be able to change the way Germans viewed themselves and others; how he managed to persuade people and politicians with real power that his way was the only way; that took something that I'm sure holocaust deniers would argue was beyond human ability in the 1930s. I mean, you could argue that Hitler, like Jesus, might just be a construct from a number of people, designed by the 'free world' to give a face to the threat - a really dull and unthreatening face...
The internet is a dangerous place. People like me inhabit it. People who kill people stalk on it. Hate groups establish. Paedophiles operate outside of the law with ease. Networks grow. Revolution or Jihads theoretically flourish and however much the people who think they run the world control it, the truth gets out. The antidote was pump as much fake news out there as real stuff; obfuscate the screen; make everything grey; pander to emotions rather than common sense. The internet has created a world where strange bedfellows make unbelievable bargains while brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and grandchildren have fallen out to the point where it is impossible to reconcile because the disagreement is about philosophy and beliefs rather than a familiar event.
I've been saying for a while that I think there's a war coming. World War Three - fought in each country between one faction against another. The same way Hitler (if he really existed) turned friends and family against each other, political divisions and social perceptions are driving massive wedges between families. We can also throw culture, race, religion, gender and social choices into the mix - loads of people are prejudiced against lots of things and many would arguably not flutter an eyelid if certain people just disappeared...
What better way to get rid of huge swathes of the population and then impose an authoritarian rule over the people for their own protection. How quick would it become to get rid of dissenting voices then? If the 21st century has learnt anything it's that politicians will use history to their advantage. They will look at fascist dictatorships and communist regimes and they'll steal all the bits they like the best and then label their enemies both. Do we really get the news and do our journalists ever, now, ask the right questions? 24 hour news and then the internet created 'what if reality TV' - a place where inconsequential things will be fearmongered to death to fill air time that you pay for - neat trick that.
As for the opening question... aside from the possibility that we'll face some kind of war - and bearing in mind that the above was written before the UN decided we had another Cold War - I can't think of a way of reconciling humanity. You can be friends with a Democrat if you're a Republican and vice versa; I know as a Labour supporter I like people who (thing they) are Tory supporters - politics alone doesn't have to drive wedges between human friendship; but when solid beliefs are challenged, whether between father and son or brothers and sisters, you often find only a death can heal a wound, forcing people to face each other over someone else rather than themselves.
We are experiencing a polarisation, especially in the Western world; beliefs now rule peoples lives so much more than simple religious beliefs; in an OCD society, obsessed people will allow paranoia, fear and xenophobia to dominate. You only have to argue with one of them to see that for every one of their arguments you can dismantle about leaving the EU, for example, will have something else, probably more trivial, to add to the mix. Leaving the EU for many people was about a belief and no kind of proof was going to change that. I'm struggling to suggest belief is a good thing, because sometimes, especially in 2018, it sets personal bars too high.
The world because of the allowance of diversity to become a barrier is also fractured; too many are poor and hungry, not enough is done for them and plenty is done for the wealthy, based on the 'trickle down' theory, which the right and centre like to bang on about, but little evidence exists that anyone but the rich get richer. If this governmental pyramid scheme worked why do so many people complain about austerity? Even people not really affected by it are now affected by it, because the people they rely on are now affected and by association...
The problem is the world has successfully created a lot of people who don't give a shit. People who metaphorically beat their chests and bang on about the survival of the fittest. People who for no other reason than it's there, will sit on their computer devices and be hateful, cruel, vile and nasty on various social networks because they can and possibly because they feel they have no voice in the real world, so create a storm in a virtual one. The internet created sad pathetic people like this almost 30 seconds after it was created, because hate finds all manner of avenues to invade your lives - just asked that Hitler bloke or his creators.
Bare with me for a second; there is a conspiracy theory coming up that even for me is up there with fake moon landings, staged massacres and Elvis not being dead...
What do you know about eugenics? I appreciate I'm wandering back towards an old favourite when I ask that, but it is actually an ancient Greek concept and like the swastika has no origins in Nazism whatsoever. However, a cornerstone of eugenics is probably the creation of a master race and usually supporters of eugenics rarely fit their desired description. Just look at Hitler. In fact, yes, let's look at Hitler. A short, slightly ugly, authoritarian pervert managed to persuade half a nation that being tall, strong, with blond hair and blue eyes was the pinnacle of human evolution without the aid of the Internet. He must have been one hell of a charismatic character. He must have been Jesus-like to be able to change the way Germans viewed themselves and others; how he managed to persuade people and politicians with real power that his way was the only way; that took something that I'm sure holocaust deniers would argue was beyond human ability in the 1930s. I mean, you could argue that Hitler, like Jesus, might just be a construct from a number of people, designed by the 'free world' to give a face to the threat - a really dull and unthreatening face...
The internet is a dangerous place. People like me inhabit it. People who kill people stalk on it. Hate groups establish. Paedophiles operate outside of the law with ease. Networks grow. Revolution or Jihads theoretically flourish and however much the people who think they run the world control it, the truth gets out. The antidote was pump as much fake news out there as real stuff; obfuscate the screen; make everything grey; pander to emotions rather than common sense. The internet has created a world where strange bedfellows make unbelievable bargains while brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and grandchildren have fallen out to the point where it is impossible to reconcile because the disagreement is about philosophy and beliefs rather than a familiar event.
I've been saying for a while that I think there's a war coming. World War Three - fought in each country between one faction against another. The same way Hitler (if he really existed) turned friends and family against each other, political divisions and social perceptions are driving massive wedges between families. We can also throw culture, race, religion, gender and social choices into the mix - loads of people are prejudiced against lots of things and many would arguably not flutter an eyelid if certain people just disappeared...
What better way to get rid of huge swathes of the population and then impose an authoritarian rule over the people for their own protection. How quick would it become to get rid of dissenting voices then? If the 21st century has learnt anything it's that politicians will use history to their advantage. They will look at fascist dictatorships and communist regimes and they'll steal all the bits they like the best and then label their enemies both. Do we really get the news and do our journalists ever, now, ask the right questions? 24 hour news and then the internet created 'what if reality TV' - a place where inconsequential things will be fearmongered to death to fill air time that you pay for - neat trick that.
As for the opening question... aside from the possibility that we'll face some kind of war - and bearing in mind that the above was written before the UN decided we had another Cold War - I can't think of a way of reconciling humanity. You can be friends with a Democrat if you're a Republican and vice versa; I know as a Labour supporter I like people who (thing they) are Tory supporters - politics alone doesn't have to drive wedges between human friendship; but when solid beliefs are challenged, whether between father and son or brothers and sisters, you often find only a death can heal a wound, forcing people to face each other over someone else rather than themselves.
We are experiencing a polarisation, especially in the Western world; beliefs now rule peoples lives so much more than simple religious beliefs; in an OCD society, obsessed people will allow paranoia, fear and xenophobia to dominate. You only have to argue with one of them to see that for every one of their arguments you can dismantle about leaving the EU, for example, will have something else, probably more trivial, to add to the mix. Leaving the EU for many people was about a belief and no kind of proof was going to change that. I'm struggling to suggest belief is a good thing, because sometimes, especially in 2018, it sets personal bars too high.
The world because of the allowance of diversity to become a barrier is also fractured; too many are poor and hungry, not enough is done for them and plenty is done for the wealthy, based on the 'trickle down' theory, which the right and centre like to bang on about, but little evidence exists that anyone but the rich get richer. If this governmental pyramid scheme worked why do so many people complain about austerity? Even people not really affected by it are now affected by it, because the people they rely on are now affected and by association...
The problem is the world has successfully created a lot of people who don't give a shit. People who metaphorically beat their chests and bang on about the survival of the fittest. People who for no other reason than it's there, will sit on their computer devices and be hateful, cruel, vile and nasty on various social networks because they can and possibly because they feel they have no voice in the real world, so create a storm in a virtual one. The internet created sad pathetic people like this almost 30 seconds after it was created, because hate finds all manner of avenues to invade your lives - just asked that Hitler bloke or his creators.
Wednesday, 21 February 2018
For Northamptonshire
I look, from a distance, at my old county and my old employer and I wonder how the Conservative voters of Northamptonshire can look anyone in the eye and tell people that the Tory's are a financial safe pair of hands, or are better with the economy?
I think you've been conned. Obviously not all of you, but a large swathe of the population - possibly driven by the desire to have more money - bought this Tory spun bullshit in 1992, despite the country heading towards economic disaster and, even recently, I have heard from people I love and/or like that they voted Tory for the sake of their children/family/economic stability and I'm wondering how that's worked out for them. Could Labour have done worse?
I've noticed that the press has failed to prevent national coverage of the Northants County Council debacle and I hope that people look at that story and try to marry the fact that NCC has a massive Tory control, along with NBC (the Borough Council) they have managed to sell off just about every one of Northamptonshire's crown jewels to keep council tax low to ensure that the greedy people of the county vote for them.
I want those Tory voters to look at the lack of services across the county and the looming threat to the ones that remain and ask if they think their money was well spent? Do they really think a Labour or Hung council would have been worse? And if they do, why? What evidence have you got that a band of chimps and a dancing frog couldn't run NCC better, because the money all you Northants people pay has been mismanaged almost continually since the Coalition government gave NCC carte blanche to obliterate your public services and still run out of money...
Seriously, at the next council elections - is it May? - if you get a Tory knocking on your door, even if you voted Tory, you need to ask them what evidence they can give you that they are better equipped at running the budget given the evidence at hand. You could also ask them why anyone should believe the Tories are better with the economy. I'll bet you get an answer that equates to 'We're better than Labour' or 'How bad do you think it would be under Labour'... If you think scaring you with something that might be worse is intellectual politics then you probably don't deserve the vote.
You want to know what the irony here is?
The Leave campaign banged on about Project Fear, yet they took their own government's tactic and turned it into a weapon to bash them and all Remainers. Tories have used project fear since Thatcher; why talk about how you can fix things when you can remind people how bad the other side is. People like negativity; they like being able to blame someone.
I reckon people have heard it too many times. Take whenever there's a problem somewhere in the country's infrastructure; this government are always there to remind us that they've invested/spent/kindly donated record amounts to ensure the improvement of [insert whatever's fucked up here]. Well, if they spend the same as the previous government with an inflationary rise, of bloody course it's going to be more; doesn't mean its enough though does it?
If we're so rich, why do we need so much austerity, job insecurity and councils running out of money. If we - as a country - are so rich, who's getting all this money and why haven't you seen any of it? You also need to ask yourself; why do you have to pay for their fuck ups?
I think you've been conned. Obviously not all of you, but a large swathe of the population - possibly driven by the desire to have more money - bought this Tory spun bullshit in 1992, despite the country heading towards economic disaster and, even recently, I have heard from people I love and/or like that they voted Tory for the sake of their children/family/economic stability and I'm wondering how that's worked out for them. Could Labour have done worse?
I've noticed that the press has failed to prevent national coverage of the Northants County Council debacle and I hope that people look at that story and try to marry the fact that NCC has a massive Tory control, along with NBC (the Borough Council) they have managed to sell off just about every one of Northamptonshire's crown jewels to keep council tax low to ensure that the greedy people of the county vote for them.
I want those Tory voters to look at the lack of services across the county and the looming threat to the ones that remain and ask if they think their money was well spent? Do they really think a Labour or Hung council would have been worse? And if they do, why? What evidence have you got that a band of chimps and a dancing frog couldn't run NCC better, because the money all you Northants people pay has been mismanaged almost continually since the Coalition government gave NCC carte blanche to obliterate your public services and still run out of money...
Seriously, at the next council elections - is it May? - if you get a Tory knocking on your door, even if you voted Tory, you need to ask them what evidence they can give you that they are better equipped at running the budget given the evidence at hand. You could also ask them why anyone should believe the Tories are better with the economy. I'll bet you get an answer that equates to 'We're better than Labour' or 'How bad do you think it would be under Labour'... If you think scaring you with something that might be worse is intellectual politics then you probably don't deserve the vote.
You want to know what the irony here is?
The Leave campaign banged on about Project Fear, yet they took their own government's tactic and turned it into a weapon to bash them and all Remainers. Tories have used project fear since Thatcher; why talk about how you can fix things when you can remind people how bad the other side is. People like negativity; they like being able to blame someone.
I reckon people have heard it too many times. Take whenever there's a problem somewhere in the country's infrastructure; this government are always there to remind us that they've invested/spent/kindly donated record amounts to ensure the improvement of [insert whatever's fucked up here]. Well, if they spend the same as the previous government with an inflationary rise, of bloody course it's going to be more; doesn't mean its enough though does it?
If we're so rich, why do we need so much austerity, job insecurity and councils running out of money. If we - as a country - are so rich, who's getting all this money and why haven't you seen any of it? You also need to ask yourself; why do you have to pay for their fuck ups?
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