Free speech and hate speech by Susan Grimsdell
Absence of respect It’s interesting that those who clamour for the right to say anything they want are almost always people who want to say cruel hateful things about other people. They demand the “freedom” to spew out whatever racist, sexist, anti-semitic, anti-gay messages they want, whether in person or on social media. I’ve never heard anyone shout out for the right to express kind, generous, tolerant, respectful messages. We should remember how damaging hate speech is, and if anyone doesn’t know how to identify hate speech, the simple test is –… Read More
Balancing acts by Trevor Plumbly
They don’t use balance scales anymore. It’s a shame really; we could learn a lot from the basic principle of equal weight. Unlike pre-packaging, the old scales and weights used to be part and parcel of everyday shopping, representing trust and fairness. Personal costing was an important part of the process, almost ceremonial: for the retailer the accuracy of his scales was the pivot between profit and loss, for the customer they were the dividing line between need and costs. The act of weighing provided a mutual bridge; old fashioned though it… Read More
Look on my works ye mighty and despair by Angela Caldin
A corpulent man with an orange face stood on the Truman balcony at the White House wheezing after a slow ascent of the steps. He pulled his shoulders back and puffed out his chest, telling the world not to let the virus dominate their lives. Little comfort for the families and friends of the two million who have died. He peeled off his mask in a gesture that might have been rehearsed several times in front of a mirror, before going inside to let droplets of infection fall freely on members of… Read More
Hail to the creep by Trevor Plumbly
The cringe machine I couldn’t ignore the guy any longer. As with Hitler and a couple of other despots, we’re likely to have to pay a heavy price for pretending it’s really OK. I know that it’s stretching things a bit to make those comparisons, but aren’t there some eerie similarities? Trump’s campaign rallies fell short of Nuremburg and the stiff arm salute, but the rhetoric got pretty close. The message was familiar and basic; paying court to the unemployed, the disgruntled and the racists creates a natural division and, as with… Read More
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