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I'VE NEVER FELT LESS PROUD TO BE BRITISH - by Mr Biffo

3/11/2016

80 Comments

 
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This piece is going to have nothing to do with video games. Sorry. I just need to write it. It's off the back of the above tweet from The Sun Apologies, quoting this column from Rod "The Sod" Liddle.

It feels for a while like I've been reaching a tipping point, where a growing sense of unease about the direction of our country - and our world - becomes all-out despair... and now, thanks to The Sun, I might just have reached it.

It's Liddle's use of the term "whites", and how he equates immigration almost exclusively with Muslims. Or, it seems, anyone who doesn't have white skin. And I'm kind of confused about this.

I mean, what about white Eastern European immigrants? Are they acceptable because of their skin colour, Liddle? How about Italians, like my step-daughters? Or someone, like my partner, whose father was Croatian, but who grew up in Australia? I mean, her mother's English - and she's white - so that's probably alright, yeah? We can let her into our whites-only compound can't we?

Oh. But what about black British people? Unacceptable? Should they be among their "own kind", who are "a little bit like them"? Does it matter that, culturally, most of the black people I know have more in common with me than I probably do with you, Rod? I mean, we're more alike because of our skin colour, yeah? We're skin brothers. That's what matters. 
PicturePHONING HONEY G
LIDDLE BIT OF POLITICS
​Liddle argues that "the greater the influx of immigrants, the less integrated the country becomes. Moderate numbers are easily dealt with and it’s more likely the incomers will assimilate."

He makes a point which seems reasonable, though most of the more extreme racists I've met in my lifetime are experts at hiding their racism behind arguments and logic traps, which - upon first glance - seem impossible to argue against.

Frustratingly, it's even possible to agree with the arguments of Liddle and his ilk, if you don't dig too deeply. I mean, white British people aren't the only ones aggressively asserting their cultural identity: everyone is doing it these days. I can't pretend I didn't roll my eyes when I read a piece from a black writer in The Guardian arguing that The X-Factor's Honey-G - a white comedy rapper from North Weezy, same as me - was an example of offensive "cultural appropriation". 

Then I caught myself, and wondered whether I was being a bit racist because I'm not black, and can't possibly understand how an idiot like Honey G might offend somebody who is black. It's a minefield.

Y'know... you even get the politically correct lobby asserting the rights of others to assert their cultural identity - Lily Allen jumped on the "Honey G is offensive" bandwagon, and all that sort of thinking results in people - particularly the English, with their tenuous grasp of their own identity - roaring harder to establish who they are. I get that.

In America, Black Lives Matter is a movement the likes of which we've not seen since the 70s. Radical Islamic Terrorism is on the political agenda like never before (despite terrorism killing far, far, far fewer people annually than, say, obesity, smoking, traffic accidents, and people falling off ladders - yet despite this, billions are spent on wars to combat it... like a bulldozer driver demolishing an entire block of flats, because he's got a fly in his cab). And we're leaving the European Union, because those ruddy Eurocrats want to shove our country full of filthy foreigners. 

It feels like everyone is being more racist than they have in decades, a trajectory that has slowly built ever since 9/11, and stoked more recently by the likes of UKIP and Donald Trump. 

And it depresses the hell out of me.

All my life I've been proud of my country, because it was multicultural. That, to me, was its identity; its acceptance of others, a country that was multi-racial, multi-cultural, and - for the most part - we all got along.

I confess, I may have been trapped in a little London bubble, but nevertheless... it felt like that spirit of inclusivity spread beyond the M25. That's who I was. I was part of that. And now? Despite feeling like I belonged, despite living in a street for years where my neighbours were either black, Muslim, Fijian or Romanian, I now feel utterly alienated by my country. I feel like I don't belong here - because, apparently, I'm not racist enough.

​And to make matters worse, I'm constantly worried that my neighbours might suspect I'm racist, because of the colour of my own ethnicity. Imagine what they must feel, wondering whether I think they're terrorists (the Muslims), thieves (the Romanians), or a volcano (the Fijians).

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SKATING ON THIN ICE
Thing is, I'm on thin ice, because I'm not inherently a political person. I used to vote Lib Dem - the true sign of the politically apathetic.

Whenever I've brushed against politics on this site - even the politics of something like Gamergate - I've usually received a lot of flack for not understanding the deeper issues, or I get accused of being pro-this or pro-that.

"If you don't choose a side it's as bad as condoning it" I was told repeatedly, in an unironic echo of George W. Bush's "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" speech.

All I wanted was to understand though, and try to listen when people told me "We've been misrepresented". From speaking to those on both sides I came away feeling that there were good and bad eggs in both camps. There was misunderstanding and misinformation, from everyone. That was my experience of Gamergate, and it was a deeply unpopular position to take.

I stepped away from the issue when it became clear that trying to make people, with a vested interest in the topic, see beyond their prejudices was only making me unpopular, and I was being misrepresented as pro-Gamergate, or a "Social Justice Warrior".

When tackling such subjects, I've always come away feeling like I've done more damage than good - heck, last week I even got pointed in the direction of somebody who apparently stopped reading Digitiser2000 and cancelled his Patreon donations, because of my coverage of Gamergate. 

But my view of something like Gamergate always comes down to one thing: we're all just people, and by highlighting our differences, instead of our similarities, we're going to isolate ourselves from one another. By not trying to see others as individuals, and through individuals not seeing themselves as individuals - letting themselves be defined by nationality, religion, or culture, we stay dangerously polarised.

That might be painfully naive and wishy-washy, but it's a sincere wish, because I don't want to live in a world where we're all at one another's throats. Why would anybody want that? 

You know: unless their sense of self was sufficiently weak that it needs to be shored up by being identified as a member of some group, race, or religion.

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THE BIGOT FRIENDLY GIANT
For the first time in my life it feels like I live in a nation of bigots.

Not just a nation: a global society of bigots, and people who are spoiling for a fight at every turn. 

I mean, casual racism was a thing when I was at school, back in the 70s and 80s... but then, anybody who stood out for any reason - be it their skin colour, or their religion, or being a ginger, or a four-eyed speccy twat, or too fat, or too tall, or too posh - was a target. I speak from experience. 

I don't know if it's still like that, but second-hand experience - via my kids and step-kids - suggests not. All my kids had Muslim friends growing up, my step-daughter's boyfriend is mixed-race... the kids I know don't seem to bat an eyelid when it comes to race or religion. To them, people are people; some people just happen to have brown skin, or be Muslim, or have been born in Turkey, same as some of us are born with bad eyes, or blonde hair.

Which is as it should be. I wonder, given the prevailing winds, how long that spirit of acceptance is going to last. 

​It feels, as I said on Twitter this morning, as if all the progress we've made over the course of my lifetime is being undone. We're even on the cusp of a new Cold War with Russia, for pity's sake.

Are our political leaders so weak, so desperate for power, that they will pander to the prejudices of a vocal minority, and stoke fears, rather than lead by example? How can we ever build a better world like this? Shouldn't that be the goal we're working towards? 

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THE REAL ENEMY
It just feels to me as if there are complex forces at work which have lead us to this backwards, ugly point in history. I'm not learn-ed enough to understand all the underlying issues which have driven us to this place.

I can speculate that staying racist, hating the Muslims and the foreigners, keeps us distracted from the ones who are really screwing with our lives - the rich, the establishment, the huge, tax-avoiding corporations who we won't stand up to because we like their phones too much. The pressure is put on the shoulders of those who can least afford it, and they're lashing out at the wrong targets.

The world in which most of us live is designed to feed anxiety and a sense of unease. Maybe it's that: we feel unsafe, so we're all retreating to a place of security among those we view as our own. Fighting to hold onto some sort of identity in a world where our identity isn't valued, because we're just gears in a machine which is designed to allow those at the top to lead a life of comfort.

They're the ones who are really screwing us over: those who choose consciously not to contribute to society, to exploit others, to let the rest of us take up the slack - and fight one another over the scraps.

I feel as if we were close to successfully completing a swim across the English Channel, only to turn back at the last minute, because someone from the support boat shouted that he could smell garlic, and that if we stepped foot on the beach, we'd stink of it forever. I just feel heavy, I feel tired, at the thought of us having to make that swim all over again. 

What the hell happened?!

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80 Comments
PeterPurvis
3/11/2016 11:45:09 am

"What the hell happened?!" You simply got old enough Mr B.

Stick around for long enough amongst the humans, and you realise how pathetic they are. We've ridden a wave of *relative* calm in the last 40-50 Years which inevitably will come to an end soon.

A virus with shoes.
Strategically shaved apes.

Take your pick. You can intellectualise it all you want, but we're still nothing more than tribal animals, so there's not much point.

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Doctor Strange
3/11/2016 12:47:04 pm

Yes, we may as well rape and kill each other as we're nothing more than cancerous savages. Mozart and Shakespeare? Marie Curie and Einstein? Deluded benders. They should have just accepted they were pieces of shit and gone to Wetherspoons.

In the words of Alan Partridge to the real Peter Purvis. "Don't be blue - Peter."

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PeterPurvis
3/11/2016 01:21:38 pm

I'll take each of your points, if I may...

1. Savages? Yes, we are. Cancerous? Yes, one in two get cancer now. Rape and kill? Lots of raping goes on. Lots of killing goes on.
2. Mozart? Bender. Shakespeare? Beard. Marie Curie? Rubbish magazine. Einstein? Moustache (and his theories will be proven wrong soon anyway, but we'll let that one go)
3. Wetherspoons wasn't around until 1979.
4. Nice work on the Alan reference, but your context is wrong.

Kelvin Green link
3/11/2016 12:09:36 pm

Me too, Biffo, me too.

Over the past few years I've been embarrassed, then frightened, by the way the country is changing, from something that at least pretended to be multicultural and open, to this current horrible mess that seems like some sort of Pythonesque parody, with politicians demanding dental identification before admitting refugees, or schools sending out questionnaires asking for the nationalities of pupils' grandparents.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
3/11/2016 12:28:30 pm

Oh Biffo, you know you can't write about some controversial subjects without trouble. I mean, the terrifying rising tide of societal racism thing, sure, but Gamergate? That's a real minefield...

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David W
3/11/2016 01:38:18 pm

Just as well he didn't mention crisps. Or Marillion.

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Gaijintendo
3/11/2016 03:19:20 pm

Maybe best to let Chip Shop Man say it, then you always have his wonder to deflect things.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
3/11/2016 03:40:09 pm

I miss Chip Shop Man...

Darcy
3/11/2016 12:39:53 pm

A few years back, when my youngest brother was around 15, he had a mild panic attack whilst waiting for a train in Cambridge, because he thought terrorists were about to attack.

His reason? He saw someone vaguely Arabic on a phone.

So yeah, I think you're lucky in that you and your family live in a multicultural metropolis. Out here in Norfolk, where ethnic minorities are about as common as Dratinis in Pokemon Go,, UKIP has made frightening inroads, and lots of people believe the EU a secret Nazi plot by the Germans to take over Europe without ever firing a shot. And no, you can't convince them otherwise, no matter how much evidence you throw at them.

Of course, this goes for both/all sides. I don't think the human race will be building any utopias anytime soon.

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PeskyFletch
3/11/2016 01:14:28 pm

That pretty much matches up with my own experience. When living in multi cultural areas there was a lot less racism than more homogenously white area, that seemed filled with rabid bigots.

Still, i'm sure Superbeast37 will show up soon and tell me how to think, hopefully including the terms "Virtue signalling" and "reductive left".

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Wicked Eric
3/11/2016 04:30:44 pm

Get your bingo cards at the ready folks, look out for all the hottest talking points...

Virtue Signalling
The Regressive Left
Free Markets
Polygon and/or Kotaku
Something about how saying racist things doesn't necessarily make you a racist
Islam = cult

Eyes down everyone and markers at the ready, I can hear a (super) beastly rumbling in the distance.

Nick
3/11/2016 04:52:41 pm

I've always liked the strawmen. I like to think they have little straw hats.

Spiney O'Sullivan
3/11/2016 05:39:10 pm

That's not how it works. You have to say "Gamergate" five times while looking in a mirror.

Spiney O'Sullivan
3/11/2016 05:44:57 pm

Also Fletch, to be fair, overwhelming homogeneity of any kind tends to breed a lack of understanding of "outsiders".

Super Safe Space 37
3/11/2016 06:30:50 pm

The EDL originated in a multicultural area. How many such groups originated in all-white areas?

In b4 "waaaaaaa, waaaaaa, facts are waaacissstttt".

Nick
3/11/2016 07:07:37 pm

Go on then. I'll bite.
Facts can be presented in a racist way.
The EDL developed out of Luton a multi cultural town. Also a town of significant poverty indicators ( ranks highest for child poverty in East Angila) and social deprivation. But that couldn't be the cause could it?

Antony Adler
3/11/2016 12:44:21 pm

Great article Mr. B and don't ever feel you can't write on non-game related subjects ! I think we all feel a similar maelstrom of emotions, such strange days, at least with articles like this, we realise we're not the only ones feeling this sense of shame, disappointment and occasional panic :(

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Alex Rogan
3/11/2016 12:48:57 pm

Those bigots have always been around. It's just that events like brexit, the Paris terror attacks have given them license to out their hatred amongst like minded people. And in todays age of free information, stories of antisemitic attacks in Stanford Hill, African American's unfair treatment by the police- which are nothing new-are much harder to avoid. You get older, you take more of an interest in the world around you, you can't help butnotice how fucked up everything is.

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combat_honey
3/11/2016 12:49:07 pm

I agree with your sentiments entirely, Biffo.

It's been bubbling under for some time, but since the EU referendum it really does feel as though political discourse has become poisoned and polarised. And I'm not just talking about the racists and the gamergaters but, for example, people on the uncompromising hard left, too. (When people like Owen Jones are being called 'Blairite' then you know something has gone disastrously wrong.) Basically the whole thing has driven a lot of people off into their own little insular factions.

For me, the saddest thing about the referendum is that it was basically how I discovered that both my parents are racist and xenophobic. I've always been strongly anti-racist and pro-refugee, and I just assumed that I was that way because of the values my parents taught me. But apparently what I didn't pick up from what they taught me about being nice and caring towards others is that they only meant other white people! Silly me!

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WaxenFrenchBiter
3/11/2016 01:14:09 pm

Yes, yes, I agree and everything, but for the love of god don't give 'opinion' pieces any thought or attention, they're written to be as inflammatory, isolated and stupid as possible to provoke rage. If you think the piece was written by a whelk affixed to the bottom of a trawler in the Arctic that gets mocked by his mates for being particularly out-of-touch, the guy that wrote it is doing his job well

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Rawce
3/11/2016 01:20:50 pm

I agree. Brexit was a watershed moment for me. I genuinely felt that we were better people than it appears we are. Much more integrated both internally within the UK and externally with Europe. I thought we were people of the world and that this ill feeling was a vocal minority. It turns out I was wrong, it turns out we are more racially motivated than I gave us credit for, more willing to believe the deliberate hate preaching of the Sun, Express and Daily Mail. I think the majority realise it's mostly lies and misrepresentation but Brexit seems to have legitimised that, making falsehoods into fact as it says what they want to hear.

Whatever happens financially as a result of Brexit, even if some miracle happens and we end up much better off, I think we've lost so much morally. It has made me re-evaluate my place in this society and that's something I never thought I would think about the UK.

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Kara Van Park
3/11/2016 01:24:48 pm

Rich white folk at the top that want us at each others' throats because they don't want us to realise that we've got more in common with the supposed outsiders than we do with them. Divide and conquer.

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dab88
3/11/2016 02:08:30 pm

I think Mr B nailed it on the head "our political leaders so weak, so desperate for power, that they will pander to the prejudices of a vocal minority, and stoke fears, rather than lead by example"

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David W
3/11/2016 01:32:37 pm

I can't get angry at that article. It seems no less trashy than usual for The Sun, and most readers seem aware that, at best, it offers mildly entertaining rubbish.

I think the underlying anger is to do with employment, housing, healthcare, and education. Solving that requires hard work and patience, so some politicians prefer to tinker with the top of the needs pyramid, playing on the esteem of whichever group they consider most immediately advantageous.

It feels like parts of society, like universal healthcare and social security, are already coming apart. However, people seem no less generous or selfish than they were before.

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Chris Wyatt
3/11/2016 01:39:31 pm

It worries me slightly that a newspaper article was the final straw; newspapers which are crammed full of bigotry and hatred every day, because the media prey on people's prejudice and fear. These days everyone has become so influenced by the media, that the government basically have to use the media in their fight to gain power and brainwash the masses, so you've got this toxic combination of the government, media and the idiots who take it seriously. Even the newspapers themselves won't always know they're playing along with a bigger agenda.

Speaking from experience, I rarely encounter racism from people in my generation, and hopefully the march of time and the way this country/world is going won't turn us into ones.

Unfortunately, the more heated relationships between different countries and cultures become, the more reasons we will have *to* hate them, and for them to hate us, so it's something that could escalate and even us reasonable people could perhaps accidentally get caught up into it all.

I hate this country more and more, but maybe it's just because I'm getting older and seeing things for what they really are. I'm suspicious of happy people!

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Picston Shottle
3/11/2016 01:54:57 pm

Is it still OK to fear and lampoon gingers? If any minority deserves this it is the ginger. And I come from a family of gingers, so I should know.

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Chris Wyatt
3/11/2016 02:27:33 pm

Yes. And the Scottish. Particularly if they're Scottish and Ginger.

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colincidence link
3/11/2016 06:10:38 pm

In another life, maybe, we'll all be ginger and free.

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Frank Chickens
4/11/2016 11:26:07 am

Nice David Devant reference there.

Nick
3/11/2016 02:54:17 pm

June 23rd was the turning point for me. The realisation that 52% of my country looked at Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage and thought "You know what, these look like trustworthy chaps. I'll do just what they say". I didn't see it coming, I was living in my nice middle class, multi-cultural town (Cambridge) and not a single one of my friends or colleagues voted to leave. We were just in our own echo chamber (I have since discovered that most of my family voted to leave, they live in south Lincolnshire, I shouldn’t be that surprised and it’s really making planning for Christmas difficult).

Since then the rhetoric coming from the media has become more right wing and nasty. Viewing those in need, be them poor, disabled people or even refugees, as takers from society. That we will be brought down by helping them up, made somehow less by any showing of kindness. This appears to be most prevalent in print media (where Rod Liddle is a prime example) but there is also insidiously vicious thread running through the poverty/benefit porn shows on TV that are so scared that someone will receive something they may not be entitled to.

I’m sure there are real and studied reasons for this reaction, a natural fear of the other perhaps or a previously observed societal reaction to the fear of scarce resources that results in greater instances of racism and xenophobia, but I can’t help but believe that we should be better then this.

I think the 2010’s will be looked back on as a time society took a backwards step, when we stopped listening to our conscience and started listening to our fears.

Well this has cheered me up. Sorry about the long winded moan.
I’m off back into the chamber; it’s nice and comforting in there.

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Rawce
3/11/2016 05:03:11 pm

You put it better than I could, well done.

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Darcy
3/11/2016 05:25:18 pm

Coming from a large, working class family scattered about the Fens, I can assure you the culture shock of moving to a city (as I did when I went to university) is akin to emigrating. They really are two very different worlds. And the echo chamber is just as bad on the other side: I've had family members sniping at Remain voters, assuming them all rich, urban yuppies and pampered students. Everyone who lives in London has a £5m house, don'tcha know?

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Dr Kank
3/11/2016 09:07:07 pm

Cambridge taking in a lot of asylum seekers and refugees then?

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Nick
3/11/2016 09:51:56 pm

I'm not sure I take your meaning. I don't know if Cambridge is taking in a lot of refugees and I'm not sure if it's relevant to the point I was trying to make (perhaps poorly).
I was referring to my own bubble and my ignorance to how the country thinks beyond it. It's not thinking I agree with and it saddens me that it is so prevalent.
I would be happy for Cambridge to take in more refugees and to pay the tax needed to support them.

Lorfarius
4/11/2016 08:13:01 am

Not sure what you are getting at but Cambridge has been taking in quiet a lot of refugees. Are you trying to stoke some sort of racism and ignorance? The rich parts aren't taking any, well yes they are:

https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/syrian-refugees

As a whole the UK is not doing it's part. We are one of the biggest drivers of the war destroying Syria we should be expected to lead the way in sorting out their refugees after bombing their homes and cities to oblivion.

Dr Kank
4/11/2016 06:40:44 pm

I'm trying to stoke racism and hatred by suggesting the most privileged parts of the country haven't taken on their fair share of refugees and asylum seekers? It's clear that the the most deprived areas in the UK have been disproportionately affected by the refugee crisis, putting an immense strain on local infrastructure, health services and housing. And on top of that we now have the media and the privileged middle classes down south taking every opportunity they can to label us bigots and racists because of Brexit.

I mean, even that link you referred to only proves that Cambridge is one of nine local authorities to take on the 20,000 refugees. Like, what, 50 refugees in the first year?

So jog on, guy!

Clockwork Fool
4/11/2016 06:13:00 am

The thing to remember about Brexit was that it was a done deal the moment they agreed to hold a referendum. There was simply no way remain could win.

Because that's when Remain started campaigning to stay, but Leave started campaigning against Europe when we joined. And some very big and entrenched parts of the media have been hammering away at that concept, the idea that Europe is foreign, silly, wasteful and undemocratic for decades.

Remain never really stood a chance. It doesn't really come down to racism, or some failure of the remain campaign during the referendum. It was a decision reached in public consciousness over many years as the media were allowed to spin and influence according to the agendas of a few powerful moguls. I don't think Boris et all really come into it anywhere near as much as they'd like to think they do.

The collective shock in the political classes at the result is something I've found darkly hilarious, given my views above.

Bear in mind I voted Remain anyway, just for the record. (Even though I confidently expected Leave to win).

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Chris Wyatt
4/11/2016 08:53:23 am

The 'we we weren't expecting this outcome and haven't got a plan' move was hilarious, because it was clearly rubbish. I think everything was pre-planned; even that Gove betrayal thing with Boris. Seems like most people I've spoken too don't seem to think there's some underlying narrative.

Nick
4/11/2016 09:19:36 am

You may be right CF. The tabloid headlines during the campaign really weren't much different to the ones they have been running for the past twenty years. They had spent a very long time building an anti European narrative and then playing down the chances of a Leave wine. The referendum result was a great third act twist.

I think much of the shock coming from both the remain voters and the politicians comes from the fat that looking back it seems so obvious,like all great narrative twists.

I still don't think it was planned this way. These people are opportunists and adept at spinning after the fact. There was no (and still isn't) any plan.

Nick
4/11/2016 09:21:37 am

*I think much of the shock from both the remain voters and the politicians comes from the fact that looking back it seems so obvious,like all great narrative twists.*

Whoops

Lofty from EastEnders
3/11/2016 05:15:06 pm

I would still like to culturally appropriate Michelle, if that's okay with everyone else.

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Clive Peppard
3/11/2016 05:57:41 pm

until the whole world is a uniform beige this BS will continue.

just. fucking. mingle.

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Lofty from EastEnders
3/11/2016 06:15:06 pm

I just like to fucking mingle with Michelle, if that's okay both with you and everyone else.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
3/11/2016 06:41:02 pm

Sadly then a lot of the beige people would just start picking on the beige LGBT people or the beige people who believe in different deities (or believe in none).

Or just the beige people from two villages over. Those bastards.

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Dr Kank
3/11/2016 06:14:57 pm

New stretch goal for the Kickstarter - hit £20,000 and Mr Biffo will run for parliament in a bid to bring about peace and goodwill for all!

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colincidence link
3/11/2016 06:15:42 pm

It's essential to recognise faults on every side of an argument, but the Can't We All Just Get Along? stance loses its dignity when one side defines itself around oppression/stopping people from getting along.

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BillyB
3/11/2016 06:52:53 pm

It's fairly simple. Muslims have made every country they have majority rule over into utter shitholes. Lots of people in the US and Europe aren't interested in transitioning from Western-style democracies into sixth-century thugocracies run by murderous, misogynistic, homophobic maniacs. That's not "racism," it's common sense.

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Grodecki
3/11/2016 07:41:35 pm

Christ.

I mean. I know there's a large amount of people that feel this way, but I'd hoped none of them were here.

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Scott C
3/11/2016 09:29:34 pm

Try being homosexual and living openly as such in a Muslim country, or any conservatively religious community. Even in Dubai it is technically illegal for an unmarried couple to share a hotel room, never mind a gay couple. The reality is that it is hard tolerate the intolerant, unless you just want to turn a blind eye to what we in the West regard as human rights. The problem is not the people but religion.

Kendall9000
3/11/2016 10:34:05 pm

Surely the problem is the particular interpretation of the religion common in those Muslim countries, not the religion itself?

I think it's reasonable to be concerned about the culture that immigrants from those countries could bring to the West, and I've got no time for apologists for conservative theocracy, but there are plenty of Muslim people who don't hold ultra-conservative, misogynistic, and homophobic views.

I live in an area with a significant Islamic community and work with Muslim people. It's hard to reconcile the people I've got to know with some of the anti-immigrant scaremongering I've run into...

Jib
3/11/2016 11:14:43 pm

I remember seeing a photo of just before this year's Manchester Pride and there were representatives of both the Sikh and Muslim religions there with rainbow flags. I accept that there are parts of Muslim teaching that need serious change but generalising about all adherents of certain religions being ENTIRELY intolerant is a mistake itself, and I say this as a staunch atheist.

Scott C
4/11/2016 10:29:04 pm

Find me an imam who tolerates homosexuality and I'll agree.

Grodecki
3/11/2016 07:40:53 pm

It's strange, you know. I find it so utterly crazy that there's this giant sentiment in this country against 'immigrants' and europe and god knows what. I'm in *such* a bubble and I imagine a huge amount of the people who are vocal about it are too.

I'm middle class, went to a top 10 university, and live in East London working for a city firm. Everyone around me is pro europe, pro immigration, pro everything, but outside of this bubble I'm very aware that the same feeling doesn't exist.

That makes me sad. Not just because those people feel that way, but because I'm isolated. I don't think it's good to live in a bubble of people who think like you, and I don't really know what to do about it.

It's a strange world.

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Wet Ham
3/11/2016 09:29:43 pm

My wife and I have decided that we're leaving the country. We've been despairing at the direction this country has been going (particularly under the Tories of late) for a while, but we've had enough now.

Ultimately, we realised that we didn't want our daughter to grow up here. So, for her sake we're just running off.

We were thinking "When will the UK be a nice place to live again?" and realised we might well be old, so the chances of us returning are slim. This makes us sad. But we'll be buggered if we're going to sit around and wait for it to come crashing around our ears because of some bizarre notion of belonging that we don't really feel.

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Lorfarius
4/11/2016 08:14:34 am

Very lucky you can afford it! I'd go too if I could. I despair at what we are becoming.

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Col. Asdasd
4/11/2016 08:35:01 pm

Out of interest, where are you going that you think it is better?

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Wet Ham
6/11/2016 02:18:21 pm

We're aware nowhere's perfect, but we're looking at both Denmark and Sweden right now.

Chris Wyatt
8/11/2016 05:23:31 pm

I've heard they're as miserable as us in Sweden. I'd probably pick Canada, but I'd worry that they might be too jolly over there; too much optimism might irritate me.

I'm joking of course, and they probably both beat the pants off this crappy country.

Starbuck
3/11/2016 10:13:23 pm

Respect to your family, and anyone who has the drive to move to another country for a better life (abroad or the UK) rather than the stagnant-minded stuck in situ, whether tranquillised or anxious by othe puppet-Masters of our politicians.

And that.

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Paulvw
4/11/2016 03:28:54 am

Without wishing to be ironic, I believe that comment sections are heavily to blame for the current rise in the acceptability of the public display of intolerance. Always shocked at the lack of basic empathy that is usually proudly on display.

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Clockwork Fool
4/11/2016 06:04:46 am

Just a thought to raise, Biffo, but wouldn't you say that writing off a significant proportion of the British population as Bigots and Racists is in and of itself both a bit of a generalisation and a matter of prejudice?

As in, you are judging a huge number of people before meeting them. Assuming the motives behind what they're saying, discerning unstated meanings and implications?

Just something to think about, perhaps.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
4/11/2016 08:15:15 am

Yeah Biffo, have you ever considered that being worried about a rising tide of hate crimes and dehumanising narratives in major media sources makes you the real racist here?

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Mr Biffo
4/11/2016 08:53:04 am

Uh, yeah... CF. I'm not dismissing everyone who voted for Brexit - I didn't even mention Brexit in this article! - as being a racist. I know a fair few people who voted Leave who are definitely not racist. In fact, this article isn't even really about racism: it's about identity and how people's fears have been stoked by the media and by politicians.

Is it racist to notice the differences in people, and want to be among "your own kind"? That's not really what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is that I'm sad that we even notice the differences in race or religion, and will ignore differences in someone merely because they superficially appear to be the same as us.

If you read it back, at no point do I blame individuals for this. I blame the system, the media, our leaders, for stoking those fears over immigration, and giving voice to a racist minority, who then drag others along with them. I talk about how I feel like an alien in my own country because the people I'm told that I am akin to - the "whites" - are the ones I often feel most apart from. Read it again.

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Lofty from EastEnders
4/11/2016 09:03:27 am

If you and everyone else don't mind me saying, I think Michelle is a bit of all white.

Barrybarrybarrybarry
4/11/2016 09:47:18 am

Lofty (from Eastenders), I have no problem with it at all - go onwards with my blessing. But I'm thinking maybe you should ask her as well? She might be a more important person to speak to.

Just TALK to the woman!

Although according to adverts I keep getting at the bottom of articles, you WON'T BELIEVE what she looks like now!!!!!

Lofty from EastEnders
4/11/2016 09:54:06 am

I accept, Barrybarrybarrybarry, that I WOULDN'T BELIEVE what she looks like now but I've clicked on articles like that and I all I see are other pictures of people and usually I CAN BELIEVE what they look like now. But these things do not matter to me. All that matters is Michelle, and also my shells, which I took to collecting to ease the pain of losing my Michelle. Also, if anyone needs any odd jobs or social work doing, give me a tinkle.

Barrybarrybarrybarry
4/11/2016 11:00:50 am

You've already shown your bravery by daring to click on one of those articles. You are demonstrably a better man than me. I did, however, suspect that I would believe what they looked like as well.

Now, you just need to pluck up the courage to talk to the one person who matters.

Michelle. From Eastenders.

Good luck!

Lofty from EastEnders
4/11/2016 11:52:26 am

Thanks you for the kind words, Barrybarrybarrybarry. It will take courage, but if Apple has the courage to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone then surely I will find the bravery to call my Michelle. Do you know her current address or phone number? I am actually asking for myself, not for a friend. I guess I'll start by asking her why she killed our baby.

Brian Dennehey
4/11/2016 10:53:59 am

Honey G looks like King John from Maid Marian going incognito at JD Sports

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Barrybarrybarrybarry
4/11/2016 11:02:22 am

THIS IS VERY NICE AND I LIKE IT.

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Chris Wyatt
4/11/2016 11:39:57 pm

I blame you for getting an Eastenders version of Badger Badger Badger playing round in my head. I'll wake up with that in my head tomorrow as well.

Thanks a lot, you fat East End twat.

Barrybarrybarrybarry
5/11/2016 09:49:04 pm

Sorry, guy.

I'm not Barry from Eastenders. Though it should be pointed out I like mushrooms.

And I bloody hate snakes.

Billy-Bob Thornton
4/11/2016 01:25:09 pm

As a true patriot and advocate of the Empire it pains me to see that our people now have to live elbow to elbow with the savages we once kept under whip and chain.

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Acid_Arrow
4/11/2016 09:51:26 pm

I did a Brexit in my pants earlier. Well I assume it was a Brexit.

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Chris Wyatt
4/11/2016 11:38:08 pm

We Brits aren't racist. We'll just make some casual jokes, be slightly passive aggressive, give you foreigns slightly less job opportunities and mine your countries if they've got anything useful for us. We're alright really; not a bad bunch.

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Random Reviewer
5/11/2016 12:40:32 am

I always thought you called Gamergate straight down the line, which is why you got harangued by ideologues from both sides. I would say the primary reason it got so heated is because of the 'this is the house I live in' phenomenon - what seemed like a point of triviality to onlookers was actually of massive importance to those consuming gaming news media and already actively participating in gaming community discourse, because it felt like the discourse itself was suffering at the keyboards of those with influence and power- people on both sides who really ought to know better (Devin Faraci being one egregious example that springs to mind).

Although it's a much broader topic with greater significance, I feel like Brexit, Trump and the awful state of public discourse were all partly brought about by the same scare mongering, just on a wider scale and for a far longer period of time. No wonder we're all of a tither.

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Kendall9000
5/11/2016 02:41:23 pm

The recent sexual assault accusations against Devin Faraci -- which led to him quitting Twitter and stepping down from his film review site -- perhaps put a different spin on his behaviour.

If often seems to be the case that self-righteous moralisers, who use their cause as an excuse to bully other people, are actually overcompensating and have something to hide. How many fire-and-brimstone religious fundamentalists turn out to be hypocrites who don't practice what they preach?

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Random Reviewer
5/11/2016 07:07:00 pm

That's a really good point. In The Perfect Spy, le carre describes a preacher giving these fire and brimstone speeches as if he had 'an intimate knowledge of sin'. It turns out that (spoiler) the knowledge is firsthand. That paradox applies to all ideologues, so I wasn't that shocked when the Faraci stuff came to light. The guy bullied commenters on Birth Movies Death and on his previous site CHUD. He used hyperbolic language that was incredibly inflammatory and unhelpful during gamergate. Listening back to some of the episodes of his The Cannon podcast, the way he treated his female co-host was appalling. He foolishly tried to fight ideological fire with ideological fire during the ghostbusters 2016 debacle, steering the conversation away from critical film analysis and towards advocacy on both sides. Yet because he was espousing the popular views of the day, the liberal, progressive audience at his site gave him a free pass (the 'He's a good guy, really' syndrome). Only when they had knowledge of his most heinous behavior was he forced to step down, and even then certain commenters chose to commend his no-nonsense departure rather than focus on his wrongdoings. The cloak of decency seems to offer a lot of leeway to media figures. This both fascinates and scares the crap out of me.

Barrybarrybarrybarry
5/11/2016 09:50:26 pm

Thanks a lot, I was going to read that!

Richard
6/11/2016 11:44:08 am

Divide & Rule, pretty shit... I'm with you Biffo. Every generation goes through the same battles, seems like their winning at the moment.

Reply



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