And more of the same
Apr. 27th, 2015 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootShe's repugnant and I'm not wasting my time on her. However, the UN statement below makes points of broader scope.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-uns-statement-on-katie-hopkins-cockroaches-column-about-immigrations--full-text-10202351.html
The British press is overwhelmingly rightwing in outlook, and has been for a long time, though the madness we are seeing now, and this return to the language of genocide, is extraordinary. Symbolically it feels to me that the deaths of our WWI veterans has come as a kind of release for some - no-one is left who physically remembers and can challenge this desire to consider the first World War an unavoidable tragedy that we still managed to win, rather than the most hideous bungle of the 20th century. Fortunately, historians like Niall Ferguson retain a clearer view of the past. Just as well, as Europe avidly re-writes itself as the natural inheritor/delineator of concepts like Lebensraum.
It's not as though the right-wing is automatically racist; we know the extreme left can be just as insane and deadly, in fact I think there is a convergence point where the labels blur and only the bullets remain. We know this and we can fight it. But it's harder when the Press abuses Freedom of Expression in order to pedal nonsense and hatred - and yet to suppress that right is to destroy a liberal society. We can't stop them talking sh*t nor should we try. We need more news media unconnected to specific ideologies. It's one of the reasons why the BBC gets bitchslapped a lot. And yet, when the left calls it right wing and the right calls it left wing, I still hold out hope for being as centrist as it is able.
How did everything get so infected?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-uns-statement-on-katie-hopkins-cockroaches-column-about-immigrations--full-text-10202351.html
The British press is overwhelmingly rightwing in outlook, and has been for a long time, though the madness we are seeing now, and this return to the language of genocide, is extraordinary. Symbolically it feels to me that the deaths of our WWI veterans has come as a kind of release for some - no-one is left who physically remembers and can challenge this desire to consider the first World War an unavoidable tragedy that we still managed to win, rather than the most hideous bungle of the 20th century. Fortunately, historians like Niall Ferguson retain a clearer view of the past. Just as well, as Europe avidly re-writes itself as the natural inheritor/delineator of concepts like Lebensraum.
It's not as though the right-wing is automatically racist; we know the extreme left can be just as insane and deadly, in fact I think there is a convergence point where the labels blur and only the bullets remain. We know this and we can fight it. But it's harder when the Press abuses Freedom of Expression in order to pedal nonsense and hatred - and yet to suppress that right is to destroy a liberal society. We can't stop them talking sh*t nor should we try. We need more news media unconnected to specific ideologies. It's one of the reasons why the BBC gets bitchslapped a lot. And yet, when the left calls it right wing and the right calls it left wing, I still hold out hope for being as centrist as it is able.
How did everything get so infected?
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