Better

[smokingboot]

Still thoroughly exhausted, but better.

What a strange day that was. Constructive though, I'm not displeased with it.

I want to keep going, but there are dull things I must do today, timetables, bit of shopping...

A lot's happening out there. The Telegraph is banging on about how the threat of nuclear war is very real. I saw the byline but didn't read it because the Telegraph is basically the Conservative Party Newsletter. Still, it has left me determined to enjoy whatever time there is. One does see a lot of stuff about Russia warning us that nukes could happen. Well, who's going to push the button, Thanos? It happens if Putin goes for it, but no-one is forcing him to do this. No-one forced him to invade in the first place. The propaganda sounds almost frantic; 'we'll do it, we will, don't you push us, don't you poke the bear!' But how much of Europe do we let him take in the name of avoiding nukes? Does he really think we'll just make him king of the continent?

Anyway, there is no point in worrying about it. All you and I have for sure is today.

The Twitter shouting is strange. For sure it's a bad sign that one person has control over this vast propaganda machine/news outlet/shrieking tower of Babel. But I am worried by some of the arguments against it, this idea that there's Free Speech as conducted by Us; responsible, civic-minded, community orientated, compassionate, intelligent, coherent, educated. And there's FREE SPEACH conducted by Them, selfish, deluded, bigoted, badly educated, all-caps using, over emoji reliant, -ist, just -ist, in every bad way possible, murderous, anti-democratic and above all, so so stupid. And these latter must be stopped, in the name of, er, the right kind of Free Speech. One person whose politics and personal integrity I admire immensely, was talking about how total free speech meant death threats to women etc. It can, but we're not talking about total free speech in any case. Hate speech laws haven't gone away. There's a problem if we label every opinion we don't like as a form of hate speech, a tactic used pretty indiscriminately at present. I have received death and rape threats from supposed lefty style progressives as well as right wing reactionaries. There's a lesson around that somewhere; the person who wants you silenced does so because they fear people will listen to you. The way to safeguard against evil doctrine is education, not constant propaganda. Teaching people not what to think but how to think for themselves, how to weigh up what they are told, how to approach with critical discernment, how to discriminate between opinion and fact, how to apply judgement, these make for a wiser society.

But these do not help zealots, or those who 'work' zealotry to their own ends.

I suspect any cause that makes argument itself the wrong-doing.

I suspect any side that requires silence from its detractors.

And I trust the power of not turning up.

Yeesh, been prattling away for ages! Time to stop procrastinating and get on!