Philosophically, I agree with the tone of the OP. Though I don’t know precisely the vector of the current slouch toward milquetoast that the UK may (or may not) be suffering from, the plague of cowardly political correctness and general fear mongering certainly is not contained to said goofy island. It’s rampant here in the USofA as well. Even after 230 years we haven’t been able to come to a concrete conclusion about the need to respect and tolerate one anothers ideals and beliefs irrespective of their impact on our particular sensibilities. Anytime you ban one thing at the behest of the sensibilities of another you risk ostracizing the “banned”. In some cases (i.e. slavery, violent, overt racism) the practitioners are rightly walled-off from society. In other cases, like the ones reflected in the OP, the pendulum swings violently in both directions doing damage to things and people that weren’t necessarily broken or in need of change in the first place.
As a side note, I find it best to refrain from insulting the Brits. The older world has done such an incredible job of skewering them over the years that any insults are absorbed and returned in such a way that your dignity is surgically removed, served to you on your own dishes and they actually manage to persuade you to thank them for the privilege.
Because there are plenty of idiots who are either eager or stupid enough to take their rubbish at face value. There are also many who aren’t really bothered by the factual content (or lack thereof) of what they read on the Tube in the morning, and fair play to them. People (my patrician self included) sometimes like crap that doesn’t tax their brains. I prefer to watch sport than read nonsense, but that’s just preference. The trouble comes when one starts actually taking the crap seriously, and advertises one’s paucity of thought by writing it down and calling it a “thesis.”
Only if you were so spectacularly naive as to think that the UK were in some way unusual in this regard, or that it was ever any different. But you’re not that naive, right?
Sure, you can argue there has been decline or decadence. You can argue that nowadays the elitists read “legitimate” newspapers but the general population prefer tabloids to support your point, but then I’d argue that in classical times past the elitists read “legitimate” newspapers, and the general population read… nothing. That’s not decline is it?
Rags of both side of the political spectrum are popular because they are easy to read like comics, get straight to whatever point they are trying to make, and write what people want to read. And sometimes show tits.
Don’t get me wrong, the UK is not in the best shape, many things could be better. In some areas of society there has unquestionably been decline. We’re not at the stage of banning Christmas lights or locking up carol singings though. We’re just the same as most developed nations, struggling to find the best balance in a changing world.
I love the bold new model Britain. Nearly half of all the funniest story come from over there. If we didn’t have the Brits, we’d have to invent them. Not so ridiculous as the Swedes of course. But that would also take a divine intervention to best the Swedes on their own playing field. But really, everybody should learn to read Swedish. You guys miss all the best stories.
Wow. An idiot academic and a hospital discouraging people from prodding other people’s babies for reasons of HUMAN RIGHTS (and controlling infection). Well, I’m convinced; anyone know of a handy bomb shelter?
(How do you people even breathe unaided? It’s a fricking mystery.)
Fantastic! It’s like a DailySunExpress mashup - don’t know how I missed that. If you combine that with the Twat-O-Tron to accurately simulate the ‘readers views’ page it would completely replace most of the UK media.
Heh. Why is talk radio and Fox News so much more popular than anything offering balanced, accurate information? Because given a choice between having to think or having their prejudices and preconceptions pandered to, most people choose the latter.
You don’t want to be considered a fascist don’t adopt their calling card. Until that time I shall continue to consider you a fascist without the courage to openly stand up for your beliefs.
You being a brain-damaged right-tard appears to be independent of your username though.
“My name used to be ‘Gay’, but nowadays that has connotations, so I changed it to ‘Rampantly Homosexual.’”
To be fair, though, I’ve seen no real indication that the OP is any sort of Nazi, and it’s not like he couldn’t have been born in '88 (although he’s reactionary enough for it to have been 1888). Or maybe he likes fat ladies, who knows. It’s possible to get too attuned to these little internet codewords. The sort of idiot who puts “88” in his handle for Nazi reasons usually isn’t shy about hiding them.
Right, except to post it in my username – then deny my beliefs. That makes lots and lots of sense. Fucking dumbass.
By the way, fucking dumbass, people who actually understand human nature understand that those who hold obsessive, irrational, extreme beliefs are not, as a rule, so clever and cunning about not “openly standing up for [their] beliefs.” If you ever met a real Ilumminati conspiracy theorist, political exteremist, neo-Nazi jackass, your problem would not be that they lacked “the courage” to share their theories with you. It would be getting them to shut up, for one second, about voicing them 24/7.
My OP isn’t even particularly “right” wing. Many of the aspects of the U.K. that I consider ridiculous are independent of political ideology. Liberals and conservatives alike can and do have civil liberty problems with, for instance, the BBC license fee enforcement regime, or with various aspects of the Nanny State.
Nor was my OP only about “political correctness,” though there is, again, nothing politically extreme or bizarre about thinking that, say, the below is fairly ridiculous.
as I remember it, in fact the “88” was used because it is the international amateur radio signal for something like “love & kisses” or some such thing. Gotta love the Swedes. I want to move to Malmø and marry a Swedish feminist.