How tribal we all are. All the people who like Boris argue that a politician’s domestic volatility and volubility is none of our business and bears no relevance to anything else and on the other hand all those who don’t like him deflect by accusing the neighbours of being curtain-twitching busybodies and troublemakers.
Same with almost any other of the issues that ‘divide us’. We ignore what we don’t like and can’t understand why others do likewise, in reverse.
I suppose it all boils down to the way we approach life’s fundamentals. How informed we are. Traditional loyalties. Prejudices and biases. Maybe the peripherals are mere distractions; fodder for mainstream and social media whose main business is drumming up clicks.
Personally, I’d be annoyed if my nearest-and-dearest spilt red wine on my nice soft furnishings (if I had any) but I’ve put up with worse for the greater good.
Now, before anyone says pot-kettle-black I will defend my own biases to the hilt, and I’m buggered if I can get the police to do anything about our own antisocial near-neighbour.
Give Boris an ASBO. We’ve had an MP with a tag on, so why not?
There are probably two sides to every position and by mentioning them one can evoke the standard BBC response, criticism from 'both sides' so 'we got it about right'.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the MSM and the BBC in particular is that they don't start from a middle position, the 'zero' is very firmly set 'on the left'.
Take the Jo Brand incident, a 'neutral' judge upholding 'free-speech' would have no problem with either her or Carl Benjamin's 'tweet', 'we have the right to offend'. The difference is that Brand's comment was made at a time when both 'milkshaking' and acid-throwing are in the news and her words could be seen as encouragement. Her comment was recorded, 'produced' and broadcast, i.e. it had been considered by others before going public. Benjamin's tweet on the other hand would have been a spur of the moment thing with no editor sitting over his shoulder, primarily intended for his followers/opponents, called for NO action and was three years ago!
Compare and contrast the reaction of the MSM and the BBC.
As has been said many times here, one side complains that their argument isn't being pushed hard enough and the BBC shouldn't even give the other side a platform. The other side complains that their argument isn't put at all. complaints from both sides! Perfect BBC balance!