Speaking out about JK Rowling =/= suggesting that the police need to be reined in =/= kicking various alt right figures off Twitter. It's conflating a bunch of totally unrelated ideas as "muh free speech". If I run naked through a school and get arrested, I have not been subjected to cancel culture. Stop just applying the term to any disparate situation where a thing is criticized.
I get accused of word salad but your best is this? I am saying it has become fashionable to demand things be removed - and there are certain groups who are most vociferous in this. I have given specific examples where people have demanded things and people be 'cancelled'. I am not talking about someone getting naked and arrested, so thanks for that straw man. Let us just clarify. You do not believe there is a growing use of social media to punish those who step out of line with current ideas - mostly financially but often through vicious personal attacks? Come on, let's throw some dressing on my salad. Edit: also, I have not mentioned free speech or kicking people off twitter.
No, I don't. Emphasis on "growing" here. If you think that this is an emerging issue, it's because you're only now finding that you aren't part of the majority position, after long being on that side. "Conservatives, who long aggressively policed political speech, now bemoan that their political speech isn't dominant" isn't cancel culture, it's absolutely ****ing hilarious.
That is an interesting way of calling me out! So, let's drop the growing. We are agreed that social media is often a giant echo chamber in which righteous views are emptily regurgitated and eventually spat back out with the validity that a million voices gives, but, just possibly, no more thought than the original person expressed. When I agree with the majority, I like it and bask in the glow of my own rightness. When I stand on the outside... I am a bigot who thinks he is witnessing a travesty? Perhaps. Or perhaps moderate views are never popular in an echo chamber.
Social media in general is dumb. That is not some sort of societal issue with free speech being violated. It's just that social media consists largely of silly people. But when people talk about "cancel culture", it's usually complete nonsense like this: a billionaire sitting US Senator (who is under investigation for insider trading) giving an interview with a white nationalist who works for a pseudo-news organization that has the ear of the president, arguing that she is being silenced: https://www.ajc.com/politics/politi...-supremacist-ties/YFGCMWR3DJD3RCLGFSAK3BXVGE/
But, my dude, this is precisely what "cancel culture" looks like in practice. It consists of one part randos on the internet bleating fruitlessly that a thing should be cancelled, and nine parts people with a great deal of influence nailing themselves to the cross over their purported cancellation.
And I can't ****ing stand it! I cannot stand the way in which people always know they are right. I hate people who know they are right because they are idiots. If you have absolute conviction, you are an absolute bellend. If you demand abortion centres are cancelled you are a ****tard and if you demand the n word is removed from lord of the Flies you are a ****tard. Moderation.
I do not understand why anyone would want to get involved in getting into the kind of debates on line which have led to the idea of "cancelling culture." The whole phrase is misleading because it is not a unified movement and I don't think that it is putting effective breaks on culture. Some of the issues regarding "cultural appropriation" need to be challenged because it is stifling issues ideas being raised although I can understand why issues with race have been raised in the States where white artists may wish to portray a picture that is rosier than the reality. The problem for me is that the quality of debate is often so poor and the ability to raise views which go against liberalism is being effectively shut down before they are heard. I also think that some of the people who are putting their views of Twitter , knowing full well that there are zealots out there who will resist vehemently , are equally stupid. I have no sympathy with someone like JK Rowling, for example. It always strikes me just how many celebrities put themselves in a position by saying something ridiculous on Twitter that is bound to offend individuals with an agenda. If you have a particular, view, why is it necessary for your to Tweet it? Basically, whenever a celebrity becomes embroiled in this kind of debate, I just think they should really know better. even if it is a view you might agree with. As far as racism is concerned, I have got to say that I am surprised that a statement has been made in this board that we are better than other countries. I still think that racism is deep-rooted in this country but it was morphed from being blatantly obvious to more subtle ways. Whilst the educated part of the population will abhor racist views, I think it is still extremely prevalent amongst the uneducated. On top of this, our institutions need to do far better. We are nowhere as good as we believe ourselves to be.
I love this idea that the educated part of our society, who rarely meet anyone of colour, is less racist than the 'uneducated' parts which tend to live alongside. I grew up in St Mary's and racism from our Asian friends towards me was a daily experience, but I still knew and liked many more young Asians than any educated types I ever met. In this country all races live alongside each other in a way you rarely see anywhere else in the world. Of course there is still racism, but I have seen it change dramatically in the last 30 years and long may that continue. However, the type of rhetoric which compares race in the UK to race in the US is damaging. I also think anyone who has spent any time travelling who cannot see how blatant racism is all over the world is a crackpot. Go to mainland Europe. Especially head east. Go to Australia. Go to India. Go anywhere. The lovely idea that everyone loves each other and that Britain with its Brexit is some kind of monster is a ludicrous daydream.
What a daft post. Sounds like someones been radicalised by the placard wielding Schad. Plenty of good little independents out there talking sense about Britain today (Carl Benjamin Akkad is worth a listen), but you have to go and find them. You don't have to be a raving racist to care about heritage & history of this fine country we live. Even though parts of the media & a fair few posters would have you believe its a cesspit. I'm happy to believe something different.
****ing 'Sargon of Akkad!? Are you absolutely ****ing serious right now!? He isn't an independent, he was a UKIP candidate, and he's an arch-racist and misogynist. Here he is defending his use of slurs because, in his words, he finds them funny: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...racism-youtube-sargon-akkad-mep-a8887696.html And the time he was investigated by the police for suggesting that Jess Phillips wasn't even worth raping: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...llips-rape-youtube-sargon-akkad-a8902666.html He has also suggested that women in politics is demonstrably linked to the decline of society. This is your strong independent thinker that we ought to pay more attention to?
Your self righteous posts have driven away quite a few people over the last months, like Imps, but I just find it rather boring. Might well go missing for a while though, as its just not any fun on here. But you sir, are a ****. Good day.
I'm sorry that I pushed back on your suggestion that we give the time of day to one of the more odious people on the internet. Surely there is a place in the marketplace of ideas for rape threats and racial slurs.