As a man, I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person, I was born white, into a two-parent household which now, whether I like it or not, makes me "Privileged", a racist & responsible for slavery.
I am a fiscal & moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist because I plan, budget & support myself.
I went to Grammar School, joined the rest of the working population and then joined the police and am now retired, I now find out that I am not here because I earned it, but because I was "advantaged”.
I am a happily married heterosexual, which now makes me a homophobe.
I am not a Muslim, which now labels me as a Crusader and an infidel
I am a flawed individual who believes in (but fails to follow) the basic teachings of a poor carpenter from Nazareth which makes me a fundamentalist Christian talking to an imaginary being in the sky.
I am 56 making me a useless idiot who doesn't understand the culture of today and a grumpy out of touch old git (plead guilty on that one)
I think and I reason, and I doubt nearly all of what "mainstream" media tells me, which makes me a "Right-wing conspiracy nut”.
I am proud of my heritage & our inclusive British culture, making me a xenophobe.
I believe that there but 2 genders which means I am not “Woke”
I believe in hard work, fair play, & fair compensation according to each individual's merits and efforts, which today makes me an anti-socialist and selfish.
I believe our system guarantees freedom of effort - not freedom of outcome or subsidies which makes me a borderline sociopath.
I believe in the defence and protection of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for and by all citizens, now making me a militant, and a fascist
I dare to have a hobby in which I collect, paint and play games with model soldiers making me a warmonger or at best eccentric.
I am proud of the Union flag, what it stands for and the many who died to let it fly, so I must be an imperialist and a racist.
I am against Irish Republicanism in any form be it via Sinn Fein or whatever, which makes me a sectarian bigot.
For me BLM should stand for Babies Lives Matter which makes me anti-female, anti-choice.
I believe in the rule of law (despite its flaws) and know the difference between peaceful protest and unlawful rioting, making me out of touch and once more a racist.
I have sense of humour which makes me often inappropriate or insensitive
Please help me come to terms with the new me because I'm just not sure who I am anymore !
If all this nonsense wasn't enough to deal with we currently have Covid-19 to deal with !!
����������
ReplyDeleteNot sure I can make it any clearer :-)
DeleteI wouldn't be too hard on yourself, we are just getting older. I'm a card carrying Guardian reader, but evidently still monumentally unclued up about what is OK and what isn't, and also in some mysterious way responsible for all the ills of the world. I'm sure our parents felt just the same.
ReplyDeleteAgeing no doubt has much to do with it, but some might argue I have been this age since I was 10 :-)
DeleteWorking class British are not to blame we did not benefit from slave trade just read Charles Dickens on another note my late father loved Vera Lynn during the war and my grandfathers fought in the 1st War I am 65 and still working and completely shocked at how easy the younger generation’s embraced the loss of rights and freedoms which the working class fought for for a overhyped pandemic with dubious statistics from a sinister media and politicians and a politicised police force if that’s being woke you can keep it
ReplyDeleteNot having go at you I still work for Police after 30yrs but their actions against people demonstrating against lockdown and their actions against BLM protests could not be more cowardly or biased against ordinary people which has broke my spirit my whole life consisted of fair play and ethical standards to see the truth twisted and people being destroyed daily sickens me
ReplyDeleteProbably best a discussion had off the blog, but...
ReplyDeleteI cannot claim to begin to have real understanding of the long history and realities of Northern Ireland.
In the US, while racism is certainly far less than it was decades ago, it is very far from gone, and the economic and cultural effects of it would take generations to undo. Being straight and married in no way makes you a homophobe, as I am quite sure that your gay friends would agree... it is actions and words that do or do not. Mostly, they would ask us to accept them for who and what they are, as we should try our best to do with all people. We all differ in so many ways, and yet deep inside, we are far more the same. Transgender individuals are difficult for us to understand, given that gender is do central to our identities; understanding being gay is easy by comparison (but it is also why effeminate gay men bother us where "straight acting" ones may not).
Less than 1% of the population is transgender. Gender is more complicated than chromosomes, hormones and genitals. Lest one doubt that, there are plenty of biological "experiments of nature" - Turner's Syndrome, Kleinfelter Syndrome, the syndrome of testicular feminization (androgen resistance), adrenal metabolic disorders etc that create discordance between various elements of traditional gender assignment. If we imagine that we had spent all of our lives feeling deep inside that we were the opposite gender to that assigned to us for whatever reason, it is then easier to understand how difficult this situation is for someone who experiences it. As I say to my very few trans patients, I really cannot possibly understand what it is like for you, but I can support you just as I would anyone else, and I can treat you as the gender with which you identify. If that makes me somewhat uncomfortable, that is at least as much my issue as yours.
Now people who think wargamers are warmongers, that's a *whole* different situation! :-)
They are best referred to the epilogue of HG Wells "Little Wars"
Way, way back in college, a group of us were playing Column, Line and Square in a small corner of the cavernous ROTC hanger at UConn. At the same time, a group of mostly coeds was taking a martial arts class in another part of the hall. When they were done, they came over to our table and airily observed "How Militaristic!" As though they had not just been avidly practicing a form of combat designed to incapacitate one's opponent!
Retired at 56? What a slacker! :-)
Wishing you every good thing, my freind!
Peter
A bit of a tongue in cheek rant :-)
DeletePersonally re any of these ‘items’ mentioned above I could care less what an individual believes or how they perceive themselves BUT stop telling me how I must think about or act regarding someone else's issues or problems or that it is somehow my fault or I am a lesser person if I do not agree.
PS keep staying healthy and keep up the FOB reports :-)
DeleteThanks, you too!
DeleteIn the eighties at Northern Militaire Swinton Manchester , students from Salford Uni were demonstrating outside and were shouting and calling us Warmongers and in the painting competition they entered some flattened cardboard model apartment buildings calling them Beruit which I thought was pretty cute anyway they ended up fussing the old British legion men in their blazers and medals and was all quite innocent and people weren’t warmongers just nerdy men who play with toy soldiers
ReplyDeleteAhh the 80’s hayclon days indeed :-)
DeleteBe assured you are not alone, just part of the silent majority.
ReplyDeleteDon't let any of this get to you. My best advice is to stop listening to the news or reading any printed press.
Enjoy you hobby old chum. Best wishes,
Jeremy
I have no love for the general media, having seen them in action at first hand, as they no longer report the news but feel they need to make political comment and push an agenda. All about scoring points and being sensational than simply relaying information.
ReplyDeleteI fully intend to continue enjoying gaming especially once social interaction returns.
Cheers
I'm carrying most of the same cards as you.
ReplyDeleteThe danger with modern media is that its reason to be is being supplanted by a thousand other ways of getting information, and they are running scared (see the Blue Church vs Red Religion debate).
Quite why we pay for national media, which is 'anti-state' still beggars belief. If I pay a state fee - I want state news. Let independent platforms give alternate views.
The Chinese predicted that the west would eat itself. We are faced with a national issue (I won't call it a crisis) whereby we blame our own government before we deign to ask for an inquiry into actions (or lack thereof) in China. They know us better than we know ourselves - and tell us we are racist when we criticise them. What they mean is, we are stupid and soft.
I was astonished to see news reports of BoJo's car accident being a more prominent headline, than a 2nd viral outbreak in China.
State Media, in my view, should support the state, not undermine it through sensationalist anti establishment propaganda.
But then I'm also a follower of Jordan Peterson's views, so far too anti PC to be allowed to comment...
Bring back Pathe News I say :-)
DeleteWell, there was a propaganda element there, certainly; but at least it didn't try to undermine society the way modern media does. There is fair evidence to suggest that media manipulation of facts helped bring about the 2008 financial crisis in a more catastrophic way - which impacted everyone in the private sector, due to stock market variation. That is power without requisite responsibility.
DeleteIt's happening again (in one instance with the same journalist).
Also an advocate of the simple biological fact that, for the most part, men and women's brains are different.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the simple pros and cons of both in action (again for the most part).
But no one wants to have that debate either...as that might affect their openness to identifying as something they're not, and never will be.
As for the media running scared.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC now have a nice little column called 'reality check', which summarises the real hard facts surrounding the issues of the day.
Perhaps they do this so that you don't have to find out for yourself? You know, like Pravda did in the 1980s... Perhaps they are a little concerned that you might find an alternative, more right wing viewpoint if you try to find the truth yourself...