Life
Equality? Sometimes...
22/02/17 18:17
I am all for inclusivity and equality. The big problem with it is that it often isn’t paired with a sense of proportionality and common sense. By all means fight for equality when it genuinely doesn’t exist but once you achieve your aim know when you have done it and avoid going too far any undermining the key principle you have established - that we are all equal. It’s perfectly understandable that after working so hard for victory you might be prone to some unnecessary ‘over celebrating’ as you have put so much effort into your victory. When you score a goal the best advice is always to play everything safe, don’t get over excited and give away a goal as it’s then that you are also at your most vulnerable. The point is the tail mustn’t start to think it can wag the dog.
There’s no doubt there have been huge strides in sex, race and social equality in recent years, much of which was necessary. It needed to happen and the job isn’t done. The point is that whilst we are all equal, we are not the same. Perversely this is actually the whole argument that is being made. Where it goes wrong is when you forget you are not fighting for a side but for all of us. I am not a supporter of gay marriage, not because of any issue other than my belief that that is not what marriage is actually about. By all means have the same ‘service’ available and allow the same legal rights and so forth but not in any way to seek to alter a traditional church marriage. That should remain exactly how it is but variations and options providing the same result should be provided as to exclude no one. No one at all. The previous status quo shouldn’t be removed for the sake of progress. The same with sex definition. Of course there should be acceptance of every scenario but the idea that this has to go hand in hand with an exclusion of any common sense and a demand for multiple public toilets to be provided to every possible variation is crazy. It makes a spectacle of a person rather than normalizing them in my opinion.
That woman who spent years pretending to be black and campaigning for black rights is now coming out with the idea that race is actually something that can be equally as fluid as sex apparently. I don’t know. Where do you draw the line? The argument, which I buy into, is you are born ‘the way you are’ and you do not choose. You feel like you should be the other sex or gay, but not the right race too? You can be whatever you feel? Sex and sexual preference I can understand but surely being black or white or whatever? Isn’t the whole point supposed to be when it comes to that that we are all the same. You are what you are, it’s the same, equal, defines nothing about you any more than your height or hair color. Maybe next we will have short people demanding to be tall as they were ‘born tall’ really. The other thing is where people expect and demand every walk of life to be equal. The same numbers of every category of person in every profession. Firstly it’ll never happen, secondly there are biological and cultural reasons why people might be more suited to different jobs. Just make sure there are no barriers, but vive la difference after that surely, again the whole point. It drives me nuts that people constantly complain about there being too few black football mangers. If there was any manager who is qualified to win more games then they will get the job. Prejudices go out of the window completely in this area more than any other when it comes to success in sport. Show me examples of successful black mangers getting sacked or overlooked when winning games and I will adjust my opinion. The greatest ever manager might be around the corner and might just as likely be black but there just haven’t been too many successful so far. Who knows the reason it might be, be are all equal, but not the same and maybe this is just one of those weird quirks.
Whenever these subjects need to be addressed I’d like to see more emphasis on the basic idea we are all equal and different rather than just the same, which we are not and should be celebrated. Education is the basis for all progress in these matters and it’s important that that remains at the core rather than the dogma of zealous campaigning that might well have been necessary in the past.
There’s no doubt there have been huge strides in sex, race and social equality in recent years, much of which was necessary. It needed to happen and the job isn’t done. The point is that whilst we are all equal, we are not the same. Perversely this is actually the whole argument that is being made. Where it goes wrong is when you forget you are not fighting for a side but for all of us. I am not a supporter of gay marriage, not because of any issue other than my belief that that is not what marriage is actually about. By all means have the same ‘service’ available and allow the same legal rights and so forth but not in any way to seek to alter a traditional church marriage. That should remain exactly how it is but variations and options providing the same result should be provided as to exclude no one. No one at all. The previous status quo shouldn’t be removed for the sake of progress. The same with sex definition. Of course there should be acceptance of every scenario but the idea that this has to go hand in hand with an exclusion of any common sense and a demand for multiple public toilets to be provided to every possible variation is crazy. It makes a spectacle of a person rather than normalizing them in my opinion.
That woman who spent years pretending to be black and campaigning for black rights is now coming out with the idea that race is actually something that can be equally as fluid as sex apparently. I don’t know. Where do you draw the line? The argument, which I buy into, is you are born ‘the way you are’ and you do not choose. You feel like you should be the other sex or gay, but not the right race too? You can be whatever you feel? Sex and sexual preference I can understand but surely being black or white or whatever? Isn’t the whole point supposed to be when it comes to that that we are all the same. You are what you are, it’s the same, equal, defines nothing about you any more than your height or hair color. Maybe next we will have short people demanding to be tall as they were ‘born tall’ really. The other thing is where people expect and demand every walk of life to be equal. The same numbers of every category of person in every profession. Firstly it’ll never happen, secondly there are biological and cultural reasons why people might be more suited to different jobs. Just make sure there are no barriers, but vive la difference after that surely, again the whole point. It drives me nuts that people constantly complain about there being too few black football mangers. If there was any manager who is qualified to win more games then they will get the job. Prejudices go out of the window completely in this area more than any other when it comes to success in sport. Show me examples of successful black mangers getting sacked or overlooked when winning games and I will adjust my opinion. The greatest ever manager might be around the corner and might just as likely be black but there just haven’t been too many successful so far. Who knows the reason it might be, be are all equal, but not the same and maybe this is just one of those weird quirks.
Whenever these subjects need to be addressed I’d like to see more emphasis on the basic idea we are all equal and different rather than just the same, which we are not and should be celebrated. Education is the basis for all progress in these matters and it’s important that that remains at the core rather than the dogma of zealous campaigning that might well have been necessary in the past.
Words lose their meaning...
15/12/16 22:40
Racist? Nazi? Really?
There is a time and a place for these sorts of words. Certainly there is and hopefully we never forget the history they come from and in isolated cases where they actually are still sadly relevant but in the last year..? I don’t know. It’s like that stat that 90% of all photos ever taken were taken in the last five minutes or whatever it is. I think it was actually the last year being equal to everything before that, about five years ago so now it’s probably far less of a spectacular contrast in the stat. If you did the same analysis for words like this we’d probably find that Trump not Hitler was the biggest Nazi and people who voted to leave the EU were the biggest racists the world has ever seen too. It never ceases to amaze me not only how easily these abhorrent terms are wheeled out but how acceptable they seem to be in society. I think the problem is on both sides, possibly more so on the recipient’s side where they seem to take such accusations in their stride without the disgust they should invoke.
We do live in an age of hyperbole without any doubt but these terms should still retain their power and its to all our shame if we allow them to lose the power their use should unleash. They represent and recall some of the worst episodes in human history. By all means disagree, be angry, argue but don’t throw these insults out there as you would any other. Especially in an age when snowflakes seem to take offense from the smallest, most innocent misjudgment of someones relationship, sex or preference for one lifestyle or another. Mistaking someone for a racist or a Nazi is unforgivable and the shame is in fact very upon you rather than them.
There is a time and a place for these sorts of words. Certainly there is and hopefully we never forget the history they come from and in isolated cases where they actually are still sadly relevant but in the last year..? I don’t know. It’s like that stat that 90% of all photos ever taken were taken in the last five minutes or whatever it is. I think it was actually the last year being equal to everything before that, about five years ago so now it’s probably far less of a spectacular contrast in the stat. If you did the same analysis for words like this we’d probably find that Trump not Hitler was the biggest Nazi and people who voted to leave the EU were the biggest racists the world has ever seen too. It never ceases to amaze me not only how easily these abhorrent terms are wheeled out but how acceptable they seem to be in society. I think the problem is on both sides, possibly more so on the recipient’s side where they seem to take such accusations in their stride without the disgust they should invoke.
We do live in an age of hyperbole without any doubt but these terms should still retain their power and its to all our shame if we allow them to lose the power their use should unleash. They represent and recall some of the worst episodes in human history. By all means disagree, be angry, argue but don’t throw these insults out there as you would any other. Especially in an age when snowflakes seem to take offense from the smallest, most innocent misjudgment of someones relationship, sex or preference for one lifestyle or another. Mistaking someone for a racist or a Nazi is unforgivable and the shame is in fact very upon you rather than them.
Still waiting to hear any reason to Remain
07/10/16 22:40
“Questions questions, give me no answers! All you ever give me is questions, questions!” as the great Tony Hadley had sung decades before. Well, not entirely appropriate as there aren’t really many questions being asked by the remoaners, but they are certainly very slow to give any answers.
My own position is always one of wanting to learn. Of course I hold my opinions as strongly as anyone. Why not? You think something so there should be a good reason for it right? At least if you care passionately about it surely? So if someone says they think remaining is a good idea I want to know why. I ask at every opportunity and have yet to have a decent answer. Nothing showing any imagination. I keep on asking but I rarely get any answer of any sort.
Sometimes you get a vague idea we would be ‘better off in’ as if money was the only consideration, let alone that was the case. They don’t really know why but claim we ‘need immigrants’ and trade with our biggest market. Well we’re a bigger market for them so they need us more but the fact that it’s a big group means little when the whole premise for it is protectionism and it is failing in a bit way. Falling further and further behind and with the PIGS effectively economically DOA. The EU is an economic zombie we would not want to be tied to if we had any sense but the remoaners just don’t see it and ‘Love EU’ - love truly is blind apparently. There is also a sense of ‘working together’ which is admirable I suppose but there has never been any suggestion that anyone ever wanted to ‘haul up the drawbridge’ is so often suggested. No one. No one ever suggests we ‘send ‘anyone home’ either. This is all fake news of the worst kind. Not only is it not representative, it’s not at all true in any respect. Is that the best you can do? Along the way there are silly snipes that are picked up and repeated en masse by the petrified parrots.
I have thought long and hard about why I might have voted stay. Real reasons that would actually be a direct choice and not just something made up. The only thing I can intellectually validate is the natural desire to avoid change and the unknown. If you really think things are OK and we are not being taken in the wrong direction because of a lack of knowledge or awareness.
My own position is always one of wanting to learn. Of course I hold my opinions as strongly as anyone. Why not? You think something so there should be a good reason for it right? At least if you care passionately about it surely? So if someone says they think remaining is a good idea I want to know why. I ask at every opportunity and have yet to have a decent answer. Nothing showing any imagination. I keep on asking but I rarely get any answer of any sort.
Sometimes you get a vague idea we would be ‘better off in’ as if money was the only consideration, let alone that was the case. They don’t really know why but claim we ‘need immigrants’ and trade with our biggest market. Well we’re a bigger market for them so they need us more but the fact that it’s a big group means little when the whole premise for it is protectionism and it is failing in a bit way. Falling further and further behind and with the PIGS effectively economically DOA. The EU is an economic zombie we would not want to be tied to if we had any sense but the remoaners just don’t see it and ‘Love EU’ - love truly is blind apparently. There is also a sense of ‘working together’ which is admirable I suppose but there has never been any suggestion that anyone ever wanted to ‘haul up the drawbridge’ is so often suggested. No one. No one ever suggests we ‘send ‘anyone home’ either. This is all fake news of the worst kind. Not only is it not representative, it’s not at all true in any respect. Is that the best you can do? Along the way there are silly snipes that are picked up and repeated en masse by the petrified parrots.
I have thought long and hard about why I might have voted stay. Real reasons that would actually be a direct choice and not just something made up. The only thing I can intellectually validate is the natural desire to avoid change and the unknown. If you really think things are OK and we are not being taken in the wrong direction because of a lack of knowledge or awareness.
Lies, Damn Lies & Remoaners
22/09/16 22:41
Since the Brexit vote we have had to put up with a sustained barrage of misinformation and a concerted effort to undermine peoples right to an opinion and its validity.
Are we in or out yet? - one minute everything is fine and dandy because we have triggered Article 50 yet. Then it’s the exchange rate because of the vote. So when is it we are out? Or at least when the vote takes any effect. We were told the day after was going to be pretty grim pre-vote but so far all the signs are everything is AOK aside from the drop in the pound which was inevitable the result going against what was expected and being long overdue for an adjustment.
350 Million Quid a week? - I never noticed it but this bus apparently won the referendum. We all fell for it and voted leave to get that £350m for the NHS. Of course very few did. We all understood the difference between gross and net. The amount made little difference anyway. It’s huge enough. They could have said we could use it to buy jellybeans and the bus would have been equally effective. It was just a relatively small part of the equation and something that was actually rarely disputed or denied in the campaign. The cost of EU membership was clear, agreed by all parties and understood. No one was tricked, however many times you claim they were.
The exchange rate - It happens. It fluctuates all the time without this amount of hysteria albeit it was definitely a step. Now everything has the narrative of people voting to be ‘worse off’ and the price of everything going up. Of course this is nonsense. The exchange rate change will mean that even post-Brexit our exports will cost less in the EU. We will also new able to then buy tariff free from new markets that previously had huge additional costs added on. It will go up and down forever and a day. It will do so based on the sentiment of the market and people will rarely pay too much attention to it aside from when they go on holiday. For now however, it can somehow be the proof of everything and yet nothing at all in reality.
The economy - The fact that the UK is performing better than anyone else in the world since Brexit is purely down to the fall in the value of the pound. That awful thing that apparently has made the economy great at the same time - somehow…
Immigrants’ feelings - Documentaries and anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that nearly every immigrant currently working in the UK is ready to flee. As if they feel unwanted and hated now. The media coverage might certainly have helped give them that impression but really? Seriously what made you come to the UK and what has really changed? Nothing I say. With any luck the UK will become even more attractive. No one is going to be thrown out and no one has ever said they would be. Before every election various people promise to leave whatever country it is but few if any ever actually do. Talk is cheap, but if anyone is that deluded and wants to cut off their nose to spite their face then go ahead. There will be ten others who will be more than happy to take your place for the same reasons you came here.
Hate crime - There was a widely reported spike in hate crime straight after the Brexit vote. I’ve no doubt that were a few words said and tempers raised but I honestly don’t believe that all but a few ‘emboldened racists’ actually went out and committed any hate crimes. People’s awareness was raised, leaflets were handed out to encourage the reporting of hate crime. Nothing wrong with that per se. The interesting thing was that once the dust settled was there actually any increase in prosecutions as you’d expect? No, not significantly. Nothing really changed aside from a few ruffled feathers and an acceptance that the UK was now full of racists that would never have existed if we had just voted remain.
Two Thirds Out? - Apparently, because of the huge gravity of the decision it should have required a two thirds majority to come into law. Put aside that that wasn’t the case in the seventies, that we never actually ever voted to become members of the EU at all or at any point when we gave up more and more with each new treaty. No. That doesn’t count apparently. These people who are now so keen on the intricacies of the law and political process didn’t have any concerns at any point anywhere along the line whilst the flow was in their direction. Total hypocrisy of course.
Basically the whole thing was a lie. We misunderstood. We were stupid. Ignore what we said before, you only heard their ‘lies’, what has happened since proves everything and nothing? What it is? There is so much denial amongst the remoaners they can’t even admit it to themselves. Some do admit they will do anything to remain. Others insist that nothing could be further from the truth and are happy to accept the awful choice of the people. They still go through the motions though that delay, distort and attempt to derail what the people have voted for. Oh yes, that’s the other line you hear now. We voted for control, for our parliament to be sovereign and therefore we should hand back the choice to the politicians to go against them.
Be aware people are not that stupid. Least of all Brexiteers. I think the campaign was one of the most long and well argued - far more so than any election I recall. Every aspect was covered and all views debated week after week. People are not stupid, they did not vote out of ignorance and equally 90% will see through your paper thin arguments and explanations now. You have been warned, although I think in your hearts you actually know this already.
Are we in or out yet? - one minute everything is fine and dandy because we have triggered Article 50 yet. Then it’s the exchange rate because of the vote. So when is it we are out? Or at least when the vote takes any effect. We were told the day after was going to be pretty grim pre-vote but so far all the signs are everything is AOK aside from the drop in the pound which was inevitable the result going against what was expected and being long overdue for an adjustment.
350 Million Quid a week? - I never noticed it but this bus apparently won the referendum. We all fell for it and voted leave to get that £350m for the NHS. Of course very few did. We all understood the difference between gross and net. The amount made little difference anyway. It’s huge enough. They could have said we could use it to buy jellybeans and the bus would have been equally effective. It was just a relatively small part of the equation and something that was actually rarely disputed or denied in the campaign. The cost of EU membership was clear, agreed by all parties and understood. No one was tricked, however many times you claim they were.
The exchange rate - It happens. It fluctuates all the time without this amount of hysteria albeit it was definitely a step. Now everything has the narrative of people voting to be ‘worse off’ and the price of everything going up. Of course this is nonsense. The exchange rate change will mean that even post-Brexit our exports will cost less in the EU. We will also new able to then buy tariff free from new markets that previously had huge additional costs added on. It will go up and down forever and a day. It will do so based on the sentiment of the market and people will rarely pay too much attention to it aside from when they go on holiday. For now however, it can somehow be the proof of everything and yet nothing at all in reality.
The economy - The fact that the UK is performing better than anyone else in the world since Brexit is purely down to the fall in the value of the pound. That awful thing that apparently has made the economy great at the same time - somehow…
Immigrants’ feelings - Documentaries and anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that nearly every immigrant currently working in the UK is ready to flee. As if they feel unwanted and hated now. The media coverage might certainly have helped give them that impression but really? Seriously what made you come to the UK and what has really changed? Nothing I say. With any luck the UK will become even more attractive. No one is going to be thrown out and no one has ever said they would be. Before every election various people promise to leave whatever country it is but few if any ever actually do. Talk is cheap, but if anyone is that deluded and wants to cut off their nose to spite their face then go ahead. There will be ten others who will be more than happy to take your place for the same reasons you came here.
Hate crime - There was a widely reported spike in hate crime straight after the Brexit vote. I’ve no doubt that were a few words said and tempers raised but I honestly don’t believe that all but a few ‘emboldened racists’ actually went out and committed any hate crimes. People’s awareness was raised, leaflets were handed out to encourage the reporting of hate crime. Nothing wrong with that per se. The interesting thing was that once the dust settled was there actually any increase in prosecutions as you’d expect? No, not significantly. Nothing really changed aside from a few ruffled feathers and an acceptance that the UK was now full of racists that would never have existed if we had just voted remain.
Two Thirds Out? - Apparently, because of the huge gravity of the decision it should have required a two thirds majority to come into law. Put aside that that wasn’t the case in the seventies, that we never actually ever voted to become members of the EU at all or at any point when we gave up more and more with each new treaty. No. That doesn’t count apparently. These people who are now so keen on the intricacies of the law and political process didn’t have any concerns at any point anywhere along the line whilst the flow was in their direction. Total hypocrisy of course.
Basically the whole thing was a lie. We misunderstood. We were stupid. Ignore what we said before, you only heard their ‘lies’, what has happened since proves everything and nothing? What it is? There is so much denial amongst the remoaners they can’t even admit it to themselves. Some do admit they will do anything to remain. Others insist that nothing could be further from the truth and are happy to accept the awful choice of the people. They still go through the motions though that delay, distort and attempt to derail what the people have voted for. Oh yes, that’s the other line you hear now. We voted for control, for our parliament to be sovereign and therefore we should hand back the choice to the politicians to go against them.
Be aware people are not that stupid. Least of all Brexiteers. I think the campaign was one of the most long and well argued - far more so than any election I recall. Every aspect was covered and all views debated week after week. People are not stupid, they did not vote out of ignorance and equally 90% will see through your paper thin arguments and explanations now. You have been warned, although I think in your hearts you actually know this already.