Labile Labels

Labels are not a bad thing. Without them we wouldn’t be able to navigate the world properly at all. I don’t need to know whether it was a Fagus Sylvatica (Beech) or Quercus Robur (English Oak) that I crashed into to appreciate that my car is buggered. I need to know nothing about their different properties (other than their both being somewhat more robust than my car). The knowledge that driving into a ‘tree’ is not recommended is quite sufficient.

Labels, like technical jargon, are often a useful way of compressing a reasonable amount of information into something shorter and more manageable. Tree is definitely more user-friendly than tall woody thing with leaves that my coffee table is made out of and something you definitely should not drive into.

My issue, particularly over the last two decades, is that we have become far too enamoured of labels and have forgotten their intended purpose. Even worse we have allowed previously well-established and well-understood labels to mean something different. Perhaps worse than this, even, we have also allowed labels to take on a fundamental character where the label becomes the thing.

Labels, definitions, language - call it all what you will - the purpose of a label is to convey some meaning. Like in physics when we write down an equation the equation is not the thing, just a representation of a thing (and in some areas of physics there’s even debates about that).

I’m sure the linguists and philosophers out there will take me to task for being really sloppy with my terms - but what I’m really talking about is part of the process by which we convey meaning to one another.

You’ve got a bit of ketchup on the left of your chin. No, your other left. The label, word, description (who cares what label we attach to a label eh?) conveys some meaning here. It’s perhaps not overly important when talking about ketchup, but it’s kind of essential to be able to figure out the difference between left and right when driving. Although based upon the evidence of her driving I’m pretty sure mum is ultra-progressive in a car - she seems to view left and right as existing on some sort of spectrum - and she’s terrifyingly non-binary when it comes to roundabouts.

If we’re going to use words, or labels, or descriptions in an attempt to convey meaning then it’s kind of critical there’s a common understanding of what that meaning is.

Over the last 2 decades we seem to have slipped more and more into some kind of quasi-quantum realm where meanings change depending on who ‘measures’ them. The label “woman”, for example, conveys something - or at least it ought to - but what that is these days seems to be elusive. A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman is really not all that helpful. Just as a fondlethrob being anyone who identifies as a fondlethrob is not particularly helpful in gaining any insight into what a fondlethrob actually is.

The word “white”, instead of being merely a descriptor like ‘tall’ or ‘short’, when applied to a human being is intended (by some) to convey a whole bunch of other concepts like privilege, colonialism, racism, and supremacy. At least as far as the mandatory “training” courses where my youngest daughter works are concerned, being white means having to accept guilt, some kind of original sin, for the crime of having being born into the wrong skin colour.

You might be able to identify as a woman if you have a schlong the size of a Quercus Robur, but you sure as heck can’t self-identify as “non-guilty” if you suffer the misfortune of being white.

These emotionally-driven contortions of meaning that surround the whole “social justice” thing have their parallels in the sorry saga that has been covid.

Governments may have pretended to have followed something they called “the science”, but pretty much all of their messaging has been emotive and manipulative. They have also manipulated others to be manipulative and emotive. How many posts on social media have you seen where someone proudly announces they have taken their covid Goo? What’s the purpose of this? I took 2 paracetamol yesterday for my headache - I’m a fucking hero!

The only purpose of these kind of posts is to let everyone know how pleased you are with yourself - and to gain the approval of your peers. You’ve done the right thing - and, by extension, those who choose not to are not to be praised or lauded. The social pressure, the coercion, just from this kind of thing, must have been very difficult to resist for many people.

Governments may have paid lip service to ‘science’ but the messaging has really been all about protecting others. That’s a whopping great big emotionally-laden two words right there. How could you possibly be against that? You some kind of psychopath or sumfin?

It’s the same trick pulled by the (label alert) woke when they want you to be an “anti-racist”. You must do X, Y and Z in order to be fully anti-racist, how could you possibly be against that?

The whole framework, without really explicitly revealing itself, is all about being a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ person. It’s exactly how they want you to feel. They want you to feel the label ‘bad’ for not doing what they suggest.

Being labelled as a ‘good’ person these days means you need to have all your government-approved views and medications fully up to date.

It’s all one huge, huge manipulation that falls apart when anything approaching logic is applied. But logic, reason, rational thought are the last things they want you to apply. Far better you remain mired in your feelings - you’re much more malleable that way.

They may have attached the label vaccine to the mRNA Goo they so desperately want everyone to take (for some inexplicable reason) but this lab-spaff from the nether regions of the pharmaceutical industry is not at all like the vaccines we’re used to. They just want you to think it is. If they had attached the label experimental gene therapy, which would be a more accurate descriptor, I doubt whether too many people would have prostituted themselves for likes on social media.

I am not ‘proud’ to remain Goo-free. I am not ‘proud’ to have been vaccinated against measles. With all the data now piling up I think you may have been unwise to have acquiesced to the Goo, but I’m not going to judge you for it. And this is one of the primary purposes of labels these days - they want these kind of judgements to be applied.

Don’t think the label “woman” applies to Ginormous Johnson over there? You friggin bigot. Think structural racism isn’t really as significant as it’s made out to be? You’re the love child of Wallace and Hitler you racist scumbag. Didn’t get the Goo? You fucking selfish murdering anti-vaxxer bastard.

These labels are being used to manipulate our emotions and we need to be aware of it. Labels have a real power when they get hold. One only needs to think back to a certain period in history when yellow stars became a visible label to see how that kind of thing can play out.

But labels have also been abused in another way when it comes to the covid saga. By labelling those who have been recently Goo’ed as ‘unvaccinated’ they’ve been able to wilfully manipulate the data to make it seem the label “safe and effective” is true.

Labels are necessary. We need to be able to communicate without having to spend hours qualifying every statement. But we should never forget that labels can also be dangerous and divisive and manipulative. And we really do need to stop fucking around with the meaning of labels. We really do.

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