Speaking Out, If That's OK

This is a post that has been brewing for quite some time.

I apologise to my loyal reader (s?) for not having anything to say for a good while. I have been mainly using this blog recently for advertising my podcast, mainly due to the fact that my podcast platform (Mixcloud) won't let me put the weblinks on the page because I'm limited on the amount of characters i can use, so I post the playlist with all the weblinks here.

But just recently, the state of the world depresses me. And if I try to address all the crazy things that I find distressing about the state of the world in one post, it would no longer be a post, but a tome. Not only that, but there is always the risk that I am going to share an opinion with others who are more eloquent than myself, so my contribution would be so much white noise.

So I have no choice but to break my concerns down into smaller topics and sub-topics. To deconstruct my fears and  dissect the minutiae within. But where to start?

Right now in the world as I see it, there are many small things that are symptomatic of a larger problem. One of those is censorship.

It seems as if the far right and the rightward-leaning, who have never responded well to any form of criticism, are taking steps, or wish they could take steps, towards criminalizing a basic human right, namely free speech.

There are a lot of countries in the world where the people in charge are able to rule with an iron fist, either by dint of religious reasons or simply because they are despots and dictators who can rig elections, get rid of the opposition by fair means or foul, commit genocide without a blink, and make laws whereby a person may be imprisoned for no discernible reason or executed for something that we in the West would regard as fairly normal, such as attempting to acquire an education or happening to be attracted to someone of the same gender. Women, it seems, have it worse in most of these countries, since they are given less opportunities in life and are regarded as subservient baby-making machines who are only slightly higher on the totem pole than stray dogs or livestock.

Here in the West we tend to take a lot of things for granted - the ability to vote, access to education and healthcare, and women, despite still not receiving opportunities or pay rates that are precisely equal, are able to have careers, educate themselves and crucially, to vote. But it seems there are those in positions of power who, given the chance, would turn back the clock and strip us of our rights. The right have always had that not-so-hidden agenda of widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots, but only recently have they been so brazen about it.

Right now we are embroiled in the whole Brexit fiasco, and our PM Theresa May has stepped down, so now there is a leadership race within the Conservative party. Everyone seems to think Boris Johnson, that large glazed ham with a handful of straw for a hairstyle, will win out over Jeremy Hunt (the dismantler of the NHS), Jacob Rees-Mogg the toffee-nosed bureaucratic vampire, and Michael Gove, the hermaphrodite pixie. Actually, no, strike that - that's insulting to hermaphrodite pixies.

Johnson is a man who once described women who wore burqas as "looking like letterboxes", a man who was such a fuck-up as Foreign Secretary that his careless choice of words ensured that British subject Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe still languishes in an Iranian jail, on a dubious charge of  'spying'. Which makes this article from last November all the more ironic.
 https://www.theweek.co.uk/97552/hate-speech-vs-free-speech-what-are-the-uk-laws


But back to censorship. Donald Trump wants to arrest people for protesting. That's another basic human right - the right to complain about government policy. Criminalize that, and you have a dictatorship, you give carte blanche to politicians to do whatever the fuck they want with absolutely no comeback.

Meanwhile in the UK, Nigel Farage was recently doused in milkshake by a protester, and he wanted charges brought against the man. Several days later UK comedian Jo Brand made a joke about the incident on Radio 4's satirical show Heresy. She made the comment in response to a question about the “terrible time” in politics that the country was going through.

She said: “Well, yes, I would say that but that’s because certain unpleasant characters are being thrown to the fore and they’re very, very easy to hate and I’m kind of thinking: ‘Why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid?’”

It was met with roars of laughter from the audience, before she clarified: “It’s purely a fantasy, but I think milkshakes are pathetic, I honestly do, sorry.”

Heresy’s host, Victoria Coren Mitchell, said at the end of the show that she hoped Brand’s comments had not caused offence. She later responded to Farage’s tweet complaining about them saying: “I would totally have had you down as a free speech man. Especially when it comes to jokes.”

So Farage lost it, called for Brand to be investigated, Scotland Yard got involved. The BBC were questioned. Brand was forced into making an apology.


So, here's what I foresee. Unless something drastic happens such as the Greens or Labour getting into power, our rights to protest and to exercise free speech will gradually be eradicated so that we are not allowed to complain about our governments. You will get thrown in jail for protesting or voicing an opinion that differs from the acceptable view. Which means that social media posts, blogs, standup comic routines, TV and film comedy, music, books, even newspapers will be affected. People will become afraid of speaking out. Comedy will be reduced to a watered-down anodyne shadow of its former self. Satire and parody will become criminal acts and police will raid comedy clubs on a regular basis, in a hollow echo of the regular raids of the past of gay clubs and pubs. Those who remain unafraid to speak out and protest will be thrown in jail.

Seriously, what's it going to take before people sit up and pay attention? What else has to come under attack before the masses rise up and the right-wing politics is brought back under some form of control? Music? Sport? Quiz shows?

All I am saying is that things need to change for the better, before this becomes a V for Vendetta-type situation.

My apologies for a rambling disorganised post, but I just wanted to talk about it before it eats me up inside. I'm done now, but I will be back.