Is There Anything More 'Anti Science' Than The Left, Polly?

That number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time.

How many of those woulfd have died of 'normal' flu anyway, Polly? Will we ever know?  

But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It’s about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media.

Ah, yes, the 'vast rightwing conspiracy again'... 

They have a long history of rejecting things that save lives – seatbelts, speed limits, smoking restrictions, sugar taxes, vaccination, benefits, sewers, clean air, the NHS itself and, of course, stopping climate breakdown.

Some of those lives being saved there are those of the people indulging in risky behaviour, which isn't quite such a noble endeavour as you make out, Polly, is it? 

Recall that during the 1980s and 1990s, the Sunday Times under the editorship of Andrew Neil promoted the strangest gay plague theory, publishing pieces suggesting that Aids wasn’t caused by HIV, and that it was almost impossible for heterosexual people to contract it.

It was. It was strictly a gay disease at first, and targetting the people most at risk, and not everyone, was percieved medical wisdom at the time. 

That anti-science tradition is alive and well today. Lockdowns are the quintessence of everything rightwing science-sceptics abhor: what misfortune that a tribe least equipped to cope was in power during the pandemic. In the circumstances, the interventions from those in charge were “too little, too late”. Hard to imagine, but Covid in the UK could have been even more deadly, had unavoidable facts about the pandemic not eventually overwhelmed their fact-free ideologies.

Could have been even more deadly for whom? The people who were never at risk from it, and who now see their children's education ruined, their country's economy trashed, and are about to see a thick token who would be out of his depth as a parking attendant in Islington but is somehow elevated to the status of a British Cabinet member use it as a lever to wreck our justice system even further? 

Sweden is the country constantly quoted by the right, as it relied entirely on a voluntary advisory approach, never compulsory lockdowns. In terms of deaths per capita, many fewer Swedes died than Britons: case proven? Hallett trounced? Alas, we are not Sweden in social structure, national wealth, vulnerable deprivation, health or social care, mainly due to the longterm malign influence of the right fighting tooth and claw against Swedish-style social democracy.

Funny the 'Guardian' never remembers that when it's praising Sweden for something or trying to suggest we need to be more Swedish.  

The precautionary principle, putting safety first when the science is uncertain, is as alien to these ideologues as risk registers.

And to those supporting the trans agenda and demanding chemical sterilisation for mentally ill children, Polly. Frankly, you don't get more 'anti science' than that!  

'Humankind Cannot Bear Very Much Reality'

Gaby Hinsliff is a case in point:

A few days ago I was in Aldi, making the usual small talk at the checkout (Ed: a sign the rest is bullshit. Who has time for small talk with the speed demons on German supermarket checkouts?). When the cashier said she was exhausted from working extra shifts to make some money for Christmas, the man behind me chipped in that it would be worse once “she takes all our money” (in case Rachel Reeves was wondering, her budget pitch-rolling is definitely cutting through). 

Stick with me, Reader, it gets even more unbelievable....

Routine enough, if he hadn’t gone on to add that she and the rest of the government needed taking out, and that there were plenty of ex-military men around who should know what to do, before continuing in more graphic fashion until the queue fell quiet and feet began shuffling. But the strangest thing was that he said it all quite calmly, as if political assassination was just another acceptable subject for casual conversation with strangers, such as football or how long the roadworks have gone on. It wasn’t until later that it clicked: this was a Facebook conversation come to life. He was saying out loud, and in public, the kind of thing people say casually all the time on the internet, apparently without recognising that in the real world it’s still shocking – at least for now.

To whom is it 'shocking'? Not to me, and probably not to anyone reading this. Secure in her 'Guardian' bubble, Gaby probably only hears support for the shower of shite in the HoC, but out on the streets and in pubs and offices and bus queues all over the UK, it's quite normal. 

I thought about him when the health secretary, Wes Streeting, voiced alarm this week that it was becoming “socially acceptable to be racist” again, with ethnic minority NHS staff fighting a demoralising tide of things people now apparently feel emboldened to say to them.

Streeting mentions a patient saying he only wanted to be treated by white staff, which he cites as racism, despite the fact I don't recall him having such qualms over Diane Abbot's whinge about 'blonde, blue eyed Scandinavian nurses.

You can feel it at bus stops, where polite inquiries about why the 44 doesn’t stop here any more end up wheeling off at sudden wild tangents about chemtrails or the government spying on you; or in casual school-gate chats, where otherwise perfectly ordinary-seeming parents turn out to have some very odd ideas about vaccines.

After the Covid fiasco. it'd be surprising if they didn't!  

A friend calls it “sauna politics”, after the surreally conspiracy-laden conversations she overhears in her local leisure centre sauna. But whatever you want to call it, it’s as if people are suddenly voicing their interior monologues – things that until recently they’d have been embarrassed to say in public, or sometimes even to admit to themselves that they thought – out loud. After all, they can say this stuff online and nobody bats an eyelid. Why not in a hospital waiting room?

A hospital waiting room is the most likely place you'll hear it, as the parlous state of the NHS becomes fully apparent, even to those who fondly believd in 'the wonder of the world'. 

Middle-aged radicalisation sounds almost like a contradiction in terms, a reaction to all the stereotypes about settling comfortably into your rut. Besides, in our own heads, if nowhere else, gen X were always the mild-mannered peacekeepers of the culture wars: not old enough to be deemed reactionary or young enough to be woke, and instead occupying a kind of cheerfully moderate Goldilocks zone in-between. But something seems to have happened to us as we hit the midlife crisis years.

The Royal 'Us', Gaby? I thought you were above such things?  

It’s gen Xers, not grumpy pensioners or teenage boys beguiled by rightwing influencers, who are powering the populist insurgency now.

Well, Gaby, sometimes it's grumpy pensioners too... 

So, Just Stop Trying....

Comedian Stephen Merchant has said he feels 'the Left' is 'policing' comedy with 'sensitivities that seem out of proportion to the joke'. Merchant, 49, who co-wrote The Office, said comedians had become more cautious because they didn't want to spend weeks on social media trying to justify a gag.

...since you never can justify it to these fanatics, and why would you even try?

In an interview, he said: 'There's always been policing of comedy, of there being... guardrails.The difference is that it used to feel like it was the Right that was policing it. 'It feels like it's the Left that's doing it now, and it's allowed the Right to become the arbiters of free speech. Which does feel like quite a significant shift.'

If so, you really haven't understood those two political terms at all.... 

Oh, Here We Go…

...Tolkein's in the 'racism' spotlight again:

Over the years, Italy’s ultra-conservative prime minister has quoted passages in interviews, shared photos of herself reading the novel and even posed with a statue of the wizard Gandalf as part of a campaign. In her autobiography-slash-manifesto, she dedicates several pages to her “favourite book”, which she refers to at one point as being a “sacred” text. When I read the news this week that Italy’s culture ministry is spending €250,000 to organise a Tolkien show at Rome’s National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, and that Meloni will attend the opening, I couldn’t help wondering: why? What is this government trying to achieve by stamping its mark so aggressively on one of the world’s most loved fantasy sagas?

Maybe just to watch you get your Y-fronts in a bunch, Jamie?

When The Lord of the Rings first hit Italian shelves in the 1970s, the academic Elémire Zolla wrote a short introduction in which he interpreted the book as an allegory about “pure” ethnic groups defending themselves against contamination from foreign invaders. Fascist sympathisers in the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) quickly jumped on the provocation. Meloni, an MSI youth wing member, developed her political consciousness in that environment. As a teenager she even attended a “Hobbit Camp”, a summer retreat organised by the MSI in which participants dressed up in cosplay outfits, sang along to folk ballads and discussed how Tolkienian mythologies could help the post-fascist right find credibility in a new era.

At this point, my eyes were rolling so much they nearly fell out of my head... 

Obviously, we’re talking about a fringe movement here. But it’s worth recognising that, with a little imagination, the sagas of Middle-earth do fit pretty neatly into the logic of contemporary rightwing populism.

Paging Dr Freud... 

 

Clearly, More Of A Threat Than Usman Khan...

...but to just whom, I'll leave to you, Reader.

Police found a hoard of Nazi-era daggers, far-right literature and a framed Ku Klux Klan certificate in Nicholas Brock's bedroom in Berkshire.

Are those illegal to possess, then? 

The 53-year-old was found guilty in March of three counts of possessing materials which could be of use in preparing terrorist acts.

Compare and contrast the response to this 'potential terrorist' with that to Usman Khan, the actual London Bridge terrorist... 

Edward Butler, defending, said there was no evidence his client intended to carry out an attack.

That doesn't seem to matter much, since even when there is, usually the authorities do nothing. 

Det Ch Supt Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: "The material Brock had in his possession is dangerous and concerning.

"He had books which would provide techniques on how to fight, assisting someone who was potentially preparing a terrorist act."

Anyone with a Tom Clancy or Andy McNab novel on the shelf has 'books that would provide techniques on how to fight', don't they?  

H/T: Crimebodge

The 'Guardian' View - Wrong On All Counts...

More than 200 people gathered outside a former military barracks housing asylum seekers near Folkestone, to counter rising far-right activity against migrants.

They aren't asylum seekers, those objecting aren't 'far right' and they've got no quarrel with 'migrants', just with illegal immigrants like these... 

After the welcome event, around 50 protesters brandishing St George’s and the British flags marched while chanting racist messages.

Nice dog-whistle about flags there, but I note that there's no description of the so-called 'racist messages'. Probably because that too is wrong. Surely our oh-so-woke police would have sprung into action if they truly had been? 

“The vast majority of people are supportive of migrants, but we don’t always hear their voice, we hear the voice of a very vocal, significant minority,” said Bridget Chapman, from the Kent Refugee Action Network.

It's probably true that the vast majority of people are 'supportive of migrants', yes. But they certainly aren't supporting of freeloaders crossing the Channel to disappear into the black economy... 

Among those supporting asylum seekers was Ross Emans, 43, who came with his son. “This is the first time I’ve been involved with a demonstration to support migrants,” he said, holding a sign that read: “Welcome.”

“I used Google to translate “welcome” to Arabic. Hopefully, it’s correct!”

Why Arabic, Ross? Are you making a bit of an assumption there? 

Turning The 'Wrong' Way...

Alf Gunvald Nilsen is associate professor at the department of sociology, University of Bergen. What concerns you, Alf?

The results from today's Norwegian elections are more or less clear: with some 26.8% of the vote, the Conservative party (Høyre) is poised to head Norway's next coalition government.

This, according to Alf, is an ‘unsettling rightward turn’.

The events that left 77 people dead, prompted public debate to focus on a deeply troubling question: what was it about Norwegian society that had made 22/7 possible?

Norwegian society had to confront deep-seated xenophobic attitudes and embrace the fact that cultural and ethnic diversity had come to stay.

And it seemed to be working as Alf preferred; the electoral support for them dropped off in the wake of the Breivik massacre. But now, it’s rising. Leaving Alf with some uncomfortable truths to try and explain away.

He gives it his best shot:

A very likely reason is the fact that Norway has failed to take the lessons of the attacks that befell us that dreadful day to heart. Breivik's actions and ideology were quickly pathologised and turned into an aberration…

You mean, just like all those 'aberrations' emanating from the Religion of Peace, Alf? Say, just why is it that this shouldn't also be 'an aberration'?

An aberration, of course, is not something that weighs down on a nation's collective conscience. Norwegian society could move along, safely ensconced in its affluent comfort zone. And this should be a matter of great concern for those of us who were hoping for a more tolerant society to emerge from the trauma of 22/7.

Clearly, Norway isn't flagellating itself over this to Alf's satisfaction...

It is equally disconcerting that victory has been claimed by a conservative political party that advocates tax cuts, privatisation, deregulation, and a substantial reduction of public spending on welfare. This agenda is of course familiar in these austerity-ridden times, but the paradox is this: there is no crisis to warrant such policies.

The voters clearly think differently.

In other words, the 2013 elections have thrown up a marriage of neoliberal conservatism and rightwing populism that threatens to entrench that which we need to rid ourselves of and erode that which we should struggle to keep.

The voters will decide what they want to keep. Seems they don't share your views. They must be wrong, eh, Alf? It couldn't be you, could it?