Culture War

[Seeker_UK]

When I was in the Civil Service only auditors were allowed green ink.

And the head of MI6. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uk...carlett-still-signs-letters-in-green-ink.html)

 

[Joe Hutch]

I can give the correct answer to most questions. For example: fox hunting is wrong.

Well, yes. But I felt awkward and was diffident with my elders, so I waffled.

 

[Seanm]

We've just had a relatively unauthoritarian lockdown.

Disagree. British lockdown, like the US lockdown, has been marked by a high degree of authoritarianism, it just hasn't been evenly distributed. There are different flavours of authoritarianism. Britain's isn't of the martial law variety. Instead, right wing governments single out marginalised minorities and uses real and symbolic violence against them to shore up the support of a majority. Hence years of bogus asylum seekers, ASBOS, benefit cheats, the Hostile Environment, Windrush, Operation Prevent, Stop and Search etc. etc.

Poor and black communities have been wildly over-policed during lockdown, while the government and the press have wheeled out a succession of scapegoats in an effort to worm out of their responsibility for the cull: working class people snapped with long focal length lenses as they exercise in parks or go to work, hypocritical scientists, teaching unions, BLM protesters, Muslims, asylum seekers in dinghies...

Which is what we're talking about here. Lockdown has been waged as a culture war as much as a public health campaign, because end-stage Thatcherism doesn't have the capacity to govern, let alone win popular support, except by channelling and amplifying the authoritarian instincts of quite a large number of voters, mostly of a certain age.

 

[Seeker_UK]

Someone on Twitter shared them.

Amazingly, all published within a couple of days.

About a completely made-up story.

You care too much about too many things that you have no control over or which behave in a way you would expect. It's bad for your health.

 

[droodzilla]

You care too much about too many things that you have no control over or which behave in a way you would expect. It's bad for your health.

See the Christine Berry article I shared earlier. It's a balance that anyone who cares about anything has to find for themselves and yes, sure, we don't always get it right. However, it's better to care than not to care. Cynicism is a form of living death.

 

[sean99]

See the Christine Berry article I shared earlier. It's a balance that anyone who cares about anything has to find for themselves and yes, sure, we don't always get it right. However, it's better to care than not to care. Cynicism is a form of living death.

Well said. Plus we can look to other countries and see that it is possible to do better.

 

[Seeker_UK]

Well said. Plus we can look to other countries and see that it is possible to do better.

Possible but unlikely.

 

[Seanm]

There was something I heard on the radio, some university man who'd done some research on this. What he found was that people experience less of an echo chamber in social media is than in real life.

In real life, he said, we often choose our friends according to whether there's a basis of shared opinion. People tend to exclude people whose values and attitudes and beliefs are far from their own.

But on public internet media, your fundamental views can get challenged, and you might find yourself drawn into a discussion with someone very different from you.

Yes, this is more or less the consensus amongst media researchers.

 

[mandryka]

Disagree. British lockdown, like the US lockdown, has been marked by a high degree of authoritarianism, it just hasn't been evenly distributed. There are different flavours of authoritarianism. Britain's isn't of the martial law variety. Instead, right wing governments single out marginalised minorities and uses real and symbolic violence against them to shore up the support of a majority. Hence years of bogus asylum seekers, ASBOS, benefit cheats, the Hostile Environment, Windrush, Operation Prevent, Stop and Search etc. etc.

Poor and black communities have been wildly over-policed during lockdown, while the government and the press have wheeled out a succession of scapegoats in an effort to worm out of their responsibility for the cull: working class people snapped with long focal length lenses as they exercise in parks or go to work, hypocritical scientists, teaching unions, BLM protesters, Muslims, asylum seekers in dinghies...

Which is what we're talking about here. Lockdown has been waged as a culture war as much as a public health campaign, because end-stage Thatcherism doesn't have the capacity to govern, let alone win popular support, except by channelling and amplifying the authoritarian instincts of quite a large number of voters, mostly of a certain age.

This does sound very plausible to me, thanks for taking the trouble to write it. I need to think harder about end-stage Thatcherism, I'll post if I have any ideas.

 

[claire.foxx]

A lot of the people that worry loudly in op-eds about echo chambers in the media are those with access to a mass-media foghorn & are not used to the marginalised people they built their careers kicking getting their shit together & mass disagreeing with on platforms with a different playing field, this is the identical situation with “cancel culture”.

 

[Seanm]

A lot of the people that worry loudly in op-eds about echo chambers in the media are those with access to a mass-media foghorn & are not used to the marginalised people they built their careers kicking getting their shit together & mass disagreeing with on platforms with a different playing field, this is the identical situation with “cancel culture”.

Yep. Also tend to be married to or the offspring of politicians, or journalists, or journalist-politicians, and hang out almost exclusively with journalists and politicians. It's such a scam.

 

[eternumviti]

Scam?

Bubble.

 

[thebigfredc]

welcome to republican America.

I see only two options - the Voltaire approach and emigration. You can certainly get involved politically but at this point in history I’m afraid the left is swimming against the tide.

Isn’t Biden ahead in the polls?

 

[puddlesplasher]

All these anti Tory posts are all well and good but don't we at least need a party that's worthy of our vote to be rid of these clowns that are destroying our country.

 

[Tony L]

That is the problem. Being awful is the Tories mission statement. Not being awful is therefore the logical opposition location, but sadly that is overlooked much of the time.

 

[Bob McC]

Isn’t Biden ahead in the polls?

Less than Clinton was at this time last time and that went well didn’t it?

 

[thebigfredc]

You would hope the Democrats have learnt from 2020s mistakes so as not to repeat them this time round.

 

[Minio]

Poor and black communities have been wildly over-policed during lockdown,

Only during lockdown?
Perhaps the under-resourced police force should be walking around lower crime middle class areas to reassure the disgusted gammon that everything is under control.

 

[Seanm]

Only during lockdown?
Perhaps the under-resourced police force should be walking around lower crime middle class areas to reassure the disgusted gammon that everything is under control.

Not really sure what you’re trying to say here.

 

[mandryka]

Disagree. British lockdown, like the US lockdown, has been marked by a high degree of authoritarianism, it just hasn't been evenly distributed. There are different flavours of authoritarianism. Britain's isn't of the martial law variety. Instead, right wing governments single out marginalised minorities and uses real and symbolic violence against them to shore up the support of a majority. Hence years of bogus asylum seekers, ASBOS, benefit cheats, the Hostile Environment, Windrush, Operation Prevent, Stop and Search etc. etc.

Poor and black communities have been wildly over-policed during lockdown, while the government and the press have wheeled out a succession of scapegoats in an effort to worm out of their responsibility for the cull: working class people snapped with long focal length lenses as they exercise in parks or go to work, hypocritical scientists, teaching unions, BLM protesters, Muslims, asylum seekers in dinghies...

Which is what we're talking about here. Lockdown has been waged as a culture war as much as a public health campaign, because end-stage Thatcherism doesn't have the capacity to govern, let alone win popular support, except by channelling and amplifying the authoritarian instincts of quite a large number of voters, mostly of a certain age.

Just a thought that’s come to mind.

In France - which may or may not have a right wing government - the group which is being used as scapegoat is not a marginal minority, but a huge group - the young.

Maybe others will see it differently, I’m not a native Francophone and I don’t live there, so I could easily have misunderstood things. I think the French media and the French political powers are busy blaming the irresponsibility of the young for the rise in new COVID cases. Not black or Muslim or working class or dispossessed young - all of them, the lot. The idea is that they haven’t controlled themselves over the past few months, they’ve been having parties, getting close, and the result: the disease is getting increasingly rampant.

This has had serious consequences: major cities, including Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg and many others, have made masks compulsory in all public places, inside and out. That’s a major imposition, I certainly would hate it. The reason given for the new regulation is this: the young aren’t disciplined enough to observe social distancing, so we have no choice. Masks outside are unnecessary at best if you keep your distance, but the French young population have shown that they can’t be trusted to do that - that’s the line being spun.