Organisational Virtue-Signalling

[neversay]

My wife and a dozen colleagues have spent all week working on the wording for a Black Lives Matter statement for a local FE institution. Multiply that by every organisation nationwide who are trying to word their Twitter or Instagram posts. It's fine that they should review and improve their practices for racism, equality, inclusivity etc - that's a sensible real-world approach. What annoys me is the mountain of effort going into a cringe-worthy virtue-signalling social media post just because they can't be seen not to join the insanity that's going on right now.

No doubt even raising this pantomime will have someone branding me a racist. In reality, I can't relate to this vacuous parallel universe of social media.

There, said it.

[UncleEbenezer]

Why "social media"? The old-fashioned media have been fuller of it than anything since ... maybe ... Diana's death? We have the likes of Radio 4's flagship programmes giving an uncritical platform to (among others) some very unpleasant outright racists from the darker corners of "black lives matter".

[edit] the phrase "the darker corners of" should indicate explicitly I am no sense condemning the mainstream movement. Indeed, if we exclude nasty elements, they have my support. I guess one could say exactly the same of police forces.

Moderator Message:
RS Moderator reference removed

[neversay]

Thanks @UncleEbenezer.

I didn't get on to how my teen daughter is being indoctrinated by the stream of digital effluent on her phone, including from the regular media as you highlight. Getting her to see through it is difficult, even within a family that tries to engage her in critical thinking, underlying theories, and actually getting her to read a real book now and then. Regular kids without such parental support stand no chance of avoiding the indoctrination. Besides, that's all pointless when the school sends out an email today with an ideological diatribe on why the kids should all feel guilty and join in the fight to get Little Britain banned. Bad kids.

I hate racism, I really do. What scares me though is this insidious Orwellian culture that is emerging has become so twisted and intolerant to free speech and diversity of thought that it borders on cultural fascism.

Ironically that intolerance is highest among those who are least affected by injustice but want to signal their guilt about it. Our neighbourhood whatsapp group set-up at the start of the epidemic to coordinate our coronavirus response has become a target for posts informing us that we should 'take the knee' on our doorsteps at 6pm in solidarity. Implicit in the subsequent dialogue was that if you don't do it then you are part of the problem. It doesn't feel far from a world where those that fail to comply will be marched out of their houses to be shot.

Like you, UncleE, I don't mind the underlying issues should be debated and addressed. But what is happening is far more sinister. The causes are being bundled together, issues deliberately amplified, and causes hijacked to undermine our institutions, our culture, and our way of life. All of which will/should evolve, but the way that some vested interests want is represents a dangerous reduction of freedoms that within a generation have been taken for granted. I fear the consequences for our children and society.

[UncleEbenezer]

I didn't get on to how my teen daughter is being indoctrinated by the stream of digital effluent on her phone, including from the regular media as you highlight. Getting her to see through it is difficult, even within a family that tries to engage her in critical thinking, underlying theories, and actually getting her to read a real book now and then.

So think through an issue or two.

Like calls to purge the language of negative associations of "black". The strongest and most fundamental of those date from long before most English speakers would've ever seen a dark face. Calling for repression of deep language and culture will of course provoke resistance, and is surely deliberately divisive (though also repeated by well-meaning Useful Idiots). Maybe if it arises you provoke thought by pointing out that neither "white" nor "black" is, um, black and white. For example, "whitewash" is bad, "black belt" is good.

The anomaly there is surely applying such a versatile and historic word to people of ... um ... ebony complexion.

Regular kids without such parental support stand no chance of avoiding the indoctrination. Besides, that's all pointless when the school sends out an email today with an ideological diatribe on why the kids should all feel guilty and join in the fight to get Little Britain banned. Bad kids.

Nothing new there. See for example Tom Sharpe, writing about it in his 1970s world.

Nor is it confined to the "left": look at some of today's elected world leaders.

[neversay]

I get you. I'm not going to get bogged down in the details or politics of race, power, etc. as it all goes around in circles in different forms from one generation to the next (and I need to get on with work). It's the use and misuse of social media that was the target of my Bitter Lemon rant. I quit it years ago as I could immediately see the dangers for groupthink, control and subversion. At the start it was naive, but now it is orchestrated and out of control. Unfortunately, I can't see a path where the apparatus and surrounding culture doesn't lead to some form of totalitarianism in response to a fractured society that made up of ungovernable kidults. A dozen people spending a week writing a 1984 style newspeak message is just the beginning.

EDIT: I've just read about the white Oxford-educated museum curator in Hertfordshire who has been posting social media messages on what household chemicals can be thrown at statues to destroy them. I rest my case.

Off to check my blood pressure.

[TUK020]

I fear the consequences for our children and society.

Surely not a problem if there remain sufficient number of grumpy old geezers to point out the vacuousness of such empty posturing.

Arise, Champions of the Bitter Lemon, the hour of need is upon you

[OLTB]

I've just seen that The League of Gentlemen has now been removed from Netflix owing to the Papa Lazarou character

Cheers, OLTB.

[scrumpyjack]

I get you. I'm not going to get bogged down in the details or politics of race, power, etc. as it all goes around in circles in different forms from one generation to the next (and I need to get on with work). It's the use and misuse of social media that was the target of my Bitter Lemon rant. I quit it years ago as I could immediately see the dangers for groupthink, control and subversion. At the start it was naive, but now it is orchestrated and out of control. Unfortunately, I can't see a path where the apparatus and surrounding culture doesn't lead to some form of totalitarianism in response to a fractured society that made up of ungovernable kidults. A dozen people spending a week writing a 1984 style newspeak message is just the beginning.

EDIT: I've just read about the white Oxford-educated museum curator in Hertfordshire who has been posting social media messages on what household chemicals can be thrown at statues to destroy them. I rest my case.

Off to check my blood pressure.

Given that it is an offence to incite criminal damage, perhaps this gentleman should be reported to his employers?

[UncleEbenezer]

Strewth. Radio 4's "media show" right now.

In response to the question whether reporting now should be factual or campaigning, "This is not a time for objectivity".

Or if I may paraphrase, If we report news as it happens, we're part of a racist plot. Or maybe just Don't believe a word we say.

[Lootman]

Ironically that intolerance is highest among those who are least affected by injustice but want to signal their guilt about it. Our neighbourhood whatsapp group set-up at the start of the epidemic to coordinate our coronavirus response has become a target for posts informing us that we should 'take the knee' on our doorsteps at 6pm in solidarity. Implicit in the subsequent dialogue was that if you don't do it then you are part of the problem. It doesn't feel far from a world where those that fail to comply will be marched out of their houses to be shot.

I have seen more than one insinuation by some that if you are not actively protesting (alleged) racism then you are part of the problem, i.e. the mere act of silence or neutrality makes someone a racist.

This is one dire slippery slope. There was always a rather fascist component to political correctness and the idea of thought crimes. This marks a new low because you can be persecuted not just for using a non-PC word, but for not uttering a word (or performing a gesture) at all.

[JohnB]

Gladstone Hall in Liverpool University is being renamed. Washington D.C. and Washington State are next, and then America as Amerigo Vespucci had slaves.

I considered a FB post about this, but didn't want to put my head above a parapet.

[jfgw]

If you want to get rid of racism, a good start would be to abolish all this racist "black lives matter" nonsense. Is it ok to kill people as long as they are not black? What sort of response would a "white lives matter" protest elicit?

Skin colour is an important distinction, as is eye colour, height, age, gender, and so on, and we should be free to refer to it, but if you want to protest, then protest that "people's lives matter" or "all lives matter". If some people are black, they are black; if some people are white, they are white. So what? What's the issue? Some people have green eyes, some blue and some brown. Who @!**#% cares? That is the attitude we should be aiming for.

When my father was in the navy, there was a black sailor affectionately known as "niggger". (Extra "g" added to defeat the filter.) It was a colloquial term, just like calling an electrician "sparky" or a carpenter a "chippy". (It was also the name of the dog owned by Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson of Dam Busters fame, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Scamp ... on_022.jpg ).

I see no reason to try to abolish the word "black" as a negative term and there would probably be a lot of harm done if it was tried. Any vain attempt to erase the term "black death" (for example) from history references would, itself, go down in history and merely strengthen the association between "black" (as in death) and skin colour. Unless you choose to associate the two, they are two entirely different uses of the same word. Someone who practices and encourages environmentally friendly activities may be described as "green" but that does not mean that that person is unseasoned, unripe or inexperienced.

Julian F. G. W.

[didds]

I have seen more than one insinuation by some that if you are not actively protesting (alleged) racism then you are part of the problem,

Its basically George W Bush. if you ain't with them, then you are against them. QED.


didds

[JohnB]

Next round is censoring tv and film, so you won't be abke to watch Gone With The Wind, and form your own opinion of a 1940s view of 1860s events. Once you start censoring, there will always new groups wanting to chip away another layer.

With computerisation, applying these filters gets easier for the mainstream at least. No need to visit libraries to take the banned books away.

[SalvorHardin]

EDIT: I've just read about the white Oxford-educated museum curator in Hertfordshire who has been posting social media messages on what household chemicals can be thrown at statues to destroy them. I rest my case.

She's had quite a bit of blowback. Visited by the police earlier today, can't see her employer being pleased about that, and has now locked her Twitter account. She's now got a lot of people watching her for when she next screws up.

The tactics that these people have been using are now being used on them, in particular going after their livelihood and publicising their activities. It's effective and they don't like it.

Thankfully the lockdown is playing havoc with university finances. There will soon be a load of unemployed grievance studies lecturers and other low-rate academic wasters, plus bankrupt universities, which will destroy much of the social justice warrior production line.

People are also going after hypocritical woke celebrities' sponsors. Lewis Hamilton's fans are now increasingly aware that his employer (Mercedes) employed slave labour during the Second World War. Also one of his sponsors (Hugo Boss) made uniforms for the SS also using slave labour.

Kind of taints their products. There is such a thing as bad publicity!

Guido Fawkes has found a few things about The Guardian. It was founded out of slavery profits, it supported the Confederates during the American Civil War, approved of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, etc.

https://order-order.com/2020/06/10/guardian-must-fall/

[fca2019]

Minority view. I can live without gone with the wind, shows like little britain, and statues of slave traders. No great sacrifice to move with the times. I'm actually surprised that there were statues of slave traders in UK cities the 21st century in the first place.

[Lootman]

There will soon be a load of unemployed grievance studies lecturers and other low-rate academic wasters, plus bankrupt universities, which will destroy much of the social justice warrior production line.

"Grievance studies lecturers".

Excellent. I am going to shamelessly steal that phrase.

[anon155742]

Chairman Mao would be proud. A Red Guard movement happening in England.

Makes me more fearful of the wealth taxes that may be coming to pay for all of this "justice"....

[Lootman]

Chairman Mao would be proud. A Red Guard movement happening in England.

The cultural revolution is a good analogy.

You will be sent to a labour camp for re-education and re-programming. You will be made aware of all those you oppressed implicitly.

But is it more Orwell or Mao? Tough one. Still, at least Corbyn isn't running the show. This would have been his moment.

[SalvorHardin]

Minority view. I can live without gone with the wind, shows like little britain, and statues of slave traders. No great sacrifice to move with the times. I'm actually surprised that there were statues of slave traders in UK cities the 21st century in the first place.

Not a minority here.

Problem is that they're not stopping at slavers.

They're going after their descendants, people with a similar name (Robert Peel), and their next stop is burning books. Then buildings. Then "re-education camps"

Ideologically they are the 21st Century's Khmer Rouge.