Friday 20 November 2015

What do we want? (mass rhetorical question)

My brief incursions into Facebook under this name have taught me that the worst thing you can do there is show any negativity whatsoever. The peer-pressure against disapproval is as if you have shamelessly mentioned the 'N' word.

It's very difficult to achieve a simple social balance when the pendulum of acceptable political views swings so violently one way then the other, but it doesn't half produce an atmosphere of divisiveness at the very time when social cohesion would be most useful. Sometimes we are 'them', and sometimes we are 'us', and most of the time we didn't know we had to take sides until we were told to.

Roger Scruton - the British fox-hunting philosopher - has just written a book which argues against political correctness and laboriously points-out that the social fabric is getting very tatty because we are no longer allowed to call a spade a spade. I know a fair few people who would probably buy this book,  and some of them went to the same school as Professor Scruton, meaning that they could actually afford to.

People under 40: 'Conservatism = Bad thing, Socialism = Good thing'.

People over 40: 'Conservatism = Good thing, Socialism = Bad thing'.

People like me: 'Fuck the lot of them'.

16 comments:

  1. I'm not an Anarchist, I am a hereditary monarchist.

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  2. I do abhor PC. It has ruined a generation, well, some of it anyway. It has gotten ridiculous in America; the only reason I can imagine why Trump the buffoon, is popular in the republican party. He calls a spade a spade, I'll give him that. Then again, since I seem to put foot in mouth on a regular basis, perhaps it is a good thing sometimes, or else, I just need to go back to observing and not talking.

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  3. I also abhor PC. I've always shot from the hip, which infuriates some people. On the political scale, i'm a moderate, and moderate politicians are seemingly harder and harder to find.

    On facebook, I rarely say anything I don't want to see misquoted on the front page of the paper next day. And on some days, it just makes more sense to skip it altogether.

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  4. We always call a spade a bloody shovel.

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  5. I agree with Donna. I think PC has ruined a generation and silenced another.

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  6. I have to admit to not giving a shit on Facebook whether I am pc or not. I shoot from the shoulder with both barrels, and if someone (a fb 'friend') doesn't like it, then tough titties. Disagreement is another matter, one can do something constructive with that, whatever the subject is about.

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  7. I've deleted and/or unfollowed so many ignorant and argumentative people on FB that now my page is nice and peaceful, for the most part. I don't mind dissenting opinions, but so many people on the other end of the political spectrum from me refuse to engage in civil, polite conversation about hot button issues, and sometimes it even devolves into name-calling and insults. I won't tolerate that.

    And PC has gone way too far. I'm afraid to share even a slightly funny non-PC meme these days for fear of getting called some kind of hater. And I don't hate anybody (well, aside from one of my bosses).

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  8. You're preaching to the choir, Tom, and probably all over 40.Carry on.

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  9. Next week the UN and all world leaders will be happy, they can discuss what they love in Switzerland and drink spinach and carrot smoothies and choke on soya with their heads in the sand and hold hands and hug and clap and smile to the camera in a semi-circle and say they saved the planet. And fuck to the real world. And millions of the under 40s will press Like on Facebook.

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  10. I belong to that last group (although, as you know, I never use the f word).

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    1. I bet you do when you're coming out from anaesthetic, Weave.

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  11. I'm well over 40 and have never been a political conservative. I suppose I would call myself a democratic socialist. As for PC-ism, you know it has gone too far when Princeton University considers renaming buildings that bear the name of Woodrow Wilson because he supported segregation. What's next, removing Washington from the dollar bill because he was a slave owner?

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  12. PC may have gone too far, but so has ignorance and rudeness. Donald Trump is the poster child for the latter. He appeals to the Archie Bunkers of the US and unfortunately, there are no shortages of them. These are frightening times for many reasons.

    Could we borrow your Queen for a few years, if not, how about William?

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  13. Getting a bit choosy in whose comments you can be arsed to reply to.

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