"Freedom of speech is not a white flag to get out of being responsible for one's words"
How very true, I am both saddened and angry about the increase in Internet "trolling" the minute a story is published in any paper from the Daily Mail to the Guardian. About the hardship and difficulties people are facing in the name of Austerity, a little bit of hope dies as the trolls come like a pack of dogs at the smell of blood.
Internet Trolls are not new and this blog post isn't about them per se, but about how the "we are all in it together" mantra, spouted by David Cameron and his coalition government is far more than a sound bite slogan. It is clever spin and places everyone of us in an impossible position of not being able to say hang on this isn't right.
The reality is we make decisions about what is important when it comes to spending our money, we all do it from a small child holding their grubby 10 pence deciding on what penny chews to buy* to the government with its much larger penny clutched in its exceedingly grubby hand.
The truth is if i asked you to list in order of priorities would you choose to spend
£20 Billion yes that's BILLION pounds on Nuclear submarines* or would you use that money to make sure families with disabled children could have access to the equipment they need to have a quality of life and not go into debt?
You see its not that the penny jar is totally empty, the government has decided what it thinks is important. Its still spending money but with clever spin and the way stories are presents, people don't hear about all the other things it is buying from Nuclear Subs to millions of pounds on research companies
I know what i choose - and that's the rub the government have been dishonest we all know that yet we cant argue about the need for some reform and some cuts and everyone will lobby for their own particular cause.
But when you read the comments on these stories, the bigoted hate filled rants, about benefit scroungers, how dare they talk about having to cut more when we are all being hit and in this together i am reminded just how well the government have spun it how we are in a state of such fear and anger bordering on mass hysteria we step ever closer to a modern day witch trial.
Think I'm wrong look back at every time in history where poverty, fear, recession and desperation lead to a time of retribution, neighbour versus neighbour pointing the finger so those self same neighbours don't turn on them.
The Pendle Witch Trials
The English Civil War
The French Revolution
The Russian Revolution
will we look back at Age of Austerity and think how could civilised people sit at computers and suggest children should be put in homes, how just because they have less everyone should have less, where people are frightened and scared and those with blinkered views are encouraged safe in the knowledge its supported however veiled by of one of the most morally corrupt and oppressive governments this country has ever seen.
Would people say this to the faces of others, i doubt it but if we who believe in a fair society that is about supporting those in need, and not moralising and subjecting vulnerable people to such hate do not challenge and stand up and counter them then we are a poorer society for it.
You might think this doesn't affect you and you carry on with life and choose to say and do nothing. That just keeping your families safe and as long as it doesn't come to your door then its someone elses problem. They say the heart and soul of a society can be seen by the way it treats the sick and poor...
In this age of austerity its a very black heart indeed.
*Im a 70's kid i remember pennie chews
* News about nuclear submarines budget
How very true, I am both saddened and angry about the increase in Internet "trolling" the minute a story is published in any paper from the Daily Mail to the Guardian. About the hardship and difficulties people are facing in the name of Austerity, a little bit of hope dies as the trolls come like a pack of dogs at the smell of blood.
Internet Trolls are not new and this blog post isn't about them per se, but about how the "we are all in it together" mantra, spouted by David Cameron and his coalition government is far more than a sound bite slogan. It is clever spin and places everyone of us in an impossible position of not being able to say hang on this isn't right.
The reality is we make decisions about what is important when it comes to spending our money, we all do it from a small child holding their grubby 10 pence deciding on what penny chews to buy* to the government with its much larger penny clutched in its exceedingly grubby hand.
The truth is if i asked you to list in order of priorities would you choose to spend
£20 Billion yes that's BILLION pounds on Nuclear submarines* or would you use that money to make sure families with disabled children could have access to the equipment they need to have a quality of life and not go into debt?
You see its not that the penny jar is totally empty, the government has decided what it thinks is important. Its still spending money but with clever spin and the way stories are presents, people don't hear about all the other things it is buying from Nuclear Subs to millions of pounds on research companies
I know what i choose - and that's the rub the government have been dishonest we all know that yet we cant argue about the need for some reform and some cuts and everyone will lobby for their own particular cause.
But when you read the comments on these stories, the bigoted hate filled rants, about benefit scroungers, how dare they talk about having to cut more when we are all being hit and in this together i am reminded just how well the government have spun it how we are in a state of such fear and anger bordering on mass hysteria we step ever closer to a modern day witch trial.
Think I'm wrong look back at every time in history where poverty, fear, recession and desperation lead to a time of retribution, neighbour versus neighbour pointing the finger so those self same neighbours don't turn on them.
The Pendle Witch Trials
The English Civil War
The French Revolution
The Russian Revolution
will we look back at Age of Austerity and think how could civilised people sit at computers and suggest children should be put in homes, how just because they have less everyone should have less, where people are frightened and scared and those with blinkered views are encouraged safe in the knowledge its supported however veiled by of one of the most morally corrupt and oppressive governments this country has ever seen.
Would people say this to the faces of others, i doubt it but if we who believe in a fair society that is about supporting those in need, and not moralising and subjecting vulnerable people to such hate do not challenge and stand up and counter them then we are a poorer society for it.
You might think this doesn't affect you and you carry on with life and choose to say and do nothing. That just keeping your families safe and as long as it doesn't come to your door then its someone elses problem. They say the heart and soul of a society can be seen by the way it treats the sick and poor...
In this age of austerity its a very black heart indeed.
*Im a 70's kid i remember pennie chews
* News about nuclear submarines budget
Oooh Beth, difficult to know which bit to comment on; super blog anyway.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I agree that humanity is poorer as a whole when people sit back and watch, maybe even gloat about, others being abused and victimised; whether through a computer on in reality.
But, by writing this you've started the challenge, lets hope readers pick it up and use it.
Thank you Jayne,
DeleteI totally agree and the more support given to speak out wiuth good well reasoned arguments, with facts and reserach the more we break thier rhetoric.
I want to help people less confident to relaise they too can stand up and be counted. we have to or we will be a worse society for it.
First they came for the communists,
ReplyDeleteand I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Good piece. We are all in this together, just not the way Cameron means!
Thank you, absolutely i had that poster on my wall as a teenager. I marched in support of the black south africans, CND, joined hands with womwn at Grennham and marched again the iraqu war with 1 million others.
DeleteI cant march now but i can write :) x
Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying about Witchhunts. I feel we're reaching a tipping point where abuse and distrust of disabled people is becoming an acceptable, mainstream view. Like hatred of Jews under facism.