MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I'm beginning to feel a little uneasy about the language I see used so regularly in news reports. It feels like I can't read a story about a kitten stuck in a tree without being told the owner is "far right" or "a leftist extremist".
The bothers me. Both because I feel we should be able to discern the facts / social acceptability of news report without being given some policital angle, but more so because of the reduction of everything to such a crude aspect means we've seemingly lost almost all nuance and from that where are the 'lamdmarks' and the boundaries of the political spectrum..? Gone. And (as any surfer knows) you understand where you are in the moving sea by keeping an eye on your landmarks.
At this rate every Guardianista will be grabbing the Bombers when told the kittens owner is "far right" and the person on the street could simply decry the fire brigade's rescue actions as a Communist plot.
But, seriously... Have we gone too far with the Crude Labels? They're everywhere....
Is a person is genuinely extremist then it is good to know as it has a bearing on their actions and thoughts and quite simply what a **** they are.
Who decides?
And, in case I obfoscated my own point, is everyone far-something these days? Because that's how it's reported....
I think the answer is culture wars and othering.
We use the "far" label too much, especially in political arguments on this forum, where anyone who disagrees with your opinion is either "far" or "not far enough".
But it's useful to remind people drifting towards those opinions where they are heading - Le Pens efforts to soften her image in France is a good point, reminding people of what she and her party have long stood for may open their eyes to what's behind the new "cuddly nationalist" image.
I think the answer is culture wars and othering.
Irony.
Everything is "culture wars" these days. It appears on multiple threads on this forum as a handy label to account for folk just having a different viewpoint.
Far out
Well no, it's a bit more than that isn't it. It actually is a campaign to discredit anything you don't agree with culturally, politically, so you have a nice label to tag it with. Think of 'wokeism' , which not many people actually care about, but certain newspapers bang on about as it suits their agenda. You can assume their intention is to make people care about it enough to complain, and then there's a political response which they want, usually paying less tax
You can blame the first past the post system, combined with modern media, meaning that for a person to be selected to represent a political party they normally have to believe in, or adopt some pretty extreme views
You can blame the first past the post system, combined with modern media, meaning that for a person to be selected to represent a political party they normally have to believe in, or adopt some pretty extreme views
Do they? What % of current MPs have adopted some pretty extreme views?
While I don't hold much respect for MPs I don't see the elected MPs in this country as extremist.
You can blame the first past the post system
Really? Does Britain have more 'far...' MPs than Italy or France or the US?
Serious question by the way. My impression is that we have fewer, but I'm happy to be shown I'm wrong.
Hello US and A!
For To Make Great Cultural Enlightenment Between Good VS Evil With New Electronic Self-Writing Book - ‘The Internet’. Great success!
But seriously, I blame Good Morning Britain!
A National beacon of political illiteracy and intellectual dishonesty. A never-ending repeat-rinse Punch and Judy Show where dumb gets to beat dumber into a pulp while ultra-remunerated perma-grinning hosts frame their creations as ‘life imitating life’. Enough of us believe this and so ‘buy’ it, and the cost of ‘buying’ it is simply ‘watching it’. The advertisers will pay the creator/hosts handsomely for our time. Speaking as ‘Barry from the Wirral’, I feel it’s all gone too far
I think the defining factor historians will point to centuries from now is the democratisation of information, anyone with an internet connection and an opinion can now reach an audience.
This has lead to an awfully noisy environment, meaning the only way to increase that audience is to use stronger language and more extreme statements as this more likely to be shared by both those who strongly agree or disagree.
Throw in the fact this transfer of information is monetised and pretty quickly sober, accurate, factual reporting disappears under a sea of toxic sludge. Unfortunately this has crept into the more traditional sources of news (BBC et al) that are now measured on their reach as well as their integrity.
^ +1
here’s an interesting experiment. Go to your search engine and type in
has the left gone too far?
Have a scan of the results (say, the first two pages)
Now repeat the search except simply exchange the word ‘left’ for ‘right’. ie
has the right gone too far?
Here are two representative screenshots from my searches. I chose the second page of each search:
Use the remote to put something else on the TV. News is boring, repetitive, and mostly about people who were once on a tv show.
Netflix is better.
Give us some concrete examples OP.
I don't recognise what you describe - apart from the Daily Mail etc. smearing slightly left-of-centrists like Ed Milliband as "far left".
Bully boys out fighting, it's just the same old game
Boring ****ing politics that'll get us all shot
Left wing, right wing, you can stuff the lot
Keep your petty prejudice, I don't see the point
Anarchy and freedom is what I want
^ I read that ‘muh freedumb’ is the new ‘greedumb’, and that ‘anarchy’ is now spelled ‘ancap’ or ‘NFT’?
AKA ‘absolutely not a pyramid scheme’
Oxymorons and meta-memes aside, does anyone still truly believe that ‘anarchy’ is the way forward, and if so in what form? Is it grow your own veg, or destroy the NHS, or is it more just jump around and wear some safety pins?
Who will repair the roads, etc?
It’s my (admittedly casual) observation that people have become so disengaged and disillusioned with government and with party politics and so are instead much, much more engaged in the Punch and Judy show/bread and circuses/ endless zombie flicks and instant sugary foods to care much about being actively involved in running the country /in holding officials feet to the flames/running a community allotment?