What Can I Say?

(As I live in the UK, not very much, it seems)

Here’s the thing. If I put stickers saying this up all over the place, would I be investigated for a “hate” crime?

I haven’t written much recently. Sorry about that, but I turned 60 last week and I’ve been mostly trying to avoid the depression. I am now, officially, a member of one of the most hated demographics on the planet. I am an old, white, man.

There aren’t enough events in the Intersectional Victimhood Olympics for me to compete in that would ever fully remove the stigma of being the perfect trifecta of shite.

To most normal people, sane people, such things don’t matter all that much. Oh, you’re black AND queer AND non-binary AND neurodivergent? How very interesting. I’m almost incapacitated by fascination, do tell me more.

But then again, I did grow up in an era where someone’s words about, oh I don’t know, the content of one’s character, were resonant and powerful.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but progressives will always find some way to be offended. Can’t quite remember the original phrase. It was something like that, anyway.

The British, rightly or wrongly, have always been famed for their sense of fair play, their reticence (or emotional continence), and having upper lips made of concrete. And talking about the weather.

We’re fast-moving to a society where talking about the weather will be the only thing we’re legally allowed to do!

OK, I exaggerate maybe just a smidgeon. But things are definitely taking a worrying, and darker, turn.

We’ve seen the cases where people have been charged and convicted of some crime for silently praying too close to an abortion clinic. I don’t think that’s the actual crime on the statute books - it will be something like violating some ‘non-intimidation’ boundary set around such places. If you’re going to kill your baby, you should be allowed to do it in peace and in as guilt-free way as possible.

I think this is to prevent women who want to access such services from facing a barrage of signs and protests as they enter, which I can understand if not totally agree with. But clearly, mentally beaming one’s religious good intentions is also similarly intimidating. Allegedly.

And now we have this one.

The judge in this case ruled that silently holding this sign too close to an abortion clinic in Bournemouth constituted sufficient ‘intimidation’ and she now faces hefty legal costs as a result.

It is now, apparently, illegal in Britain simply to offer to talk to someone if that offer is made in certain places.

For most women, still I think, at least those who haven’t gone into some progressive baby-killing celebration mode, abortion will elicit a very complex and difficult set of emotions. It will not be, for most perhaps, an easy or light decision. Nor should it be. Maybe some of those women will come to regret their decision and carry a burden of guilt for the rest of their lives, despite still thinking it was the right thing to do at the time.

I suspect that the only way to escape the guilt is to convince yourself that whatever that thing is that’s growing inside you it’s not really ‘alive’ until it pops out. It’s just some parasitic clump of cells that can be dispatched without a second thought. Which kind of makes having sympathy (or empathy) for those women who suffer a premature stillbirth or a miscarriage a bit weird. What ya so upset about? It was just a clump of cells, right?

Anyway, the rights or wrongs of abortion are secondary to the point here. The thing is we are busily constructing a society in which the expectation is that we should be free from harassment and intimidation. That sounds fine, doesn’t it? That should be a law, right?

OK - define intimidation.

That’s not so easy now, is it?

When does firmly, and repeatedly, arguing your case stray into the no-go zone of harassment?

And should progressives be hauled before the courts for firmly, and repeatedly, denigrating white men, or white people in general?

No that’s OK. You can kill your baby without facing any kind of counter-argument that might tempt you into second thoughts, but if you’re white and male you just have to suck it up and rely on that endless reservoir of white privilege you have.

Heck, if the recent Netflix show Adolescence is to be believed, if you’re young and white and male, then you’re likely to have been infected by the deadly Tate Mind Virus and will shortly be engaging in some killing spree as a result of your burgeoning toxic masculinity and incellization.

Now, don’t get me wrong, some (most?) of Tate’s views on women are abhorrent - I think he’s a nasty piece of work. He says some good things about respecting yourself and having the strength and courage of your convictions - but his version of ‘respect’ for women is practically criminal in my view.

This, then, is how white men, particularly younger ones, tend to be viewed by the progressives. They need to be ‘protected’ from all of those online ‘influences’ that might cause them to think the wrong things.

In general I do think it’s a good thing that we attempt to instil a decent set of values in our kids. But surely this is better done by explaining why some values are better than others rather than just presenting one uniform set of ‘approved’ modes of thinking?

But I suppose we’re not allowed to explain why we think one set of values is better than another these days, just in case we might offend someone who wants to remove the clitoris of their daughter. All cultures are awesome, don’t you know, unless it’s one of those dastardly white and colonialist ones.

Again, the specific details of the rights and wrongs are secondary here. The expectation in many has been set up that people, in general, need to be ‘protected’ from certain views. And, specifically, it is the role of government to set the boundaries of what is acceptable and what things we need to be protected from.

How did we get from the general expectation of “sticks and stones” to the general expectation that hurty words and counter-opinions are so terrible and horrific that we need to be protected from them?

Maybe we’re just so weak and infirm in our opinions that as soon as we see a Tateism we immediately devolve into some violent misogynistic brute? We’re so weak that we’re swayed by every (negative) opinion out there?

Are we really akin to children in some playground who need to be kept under the close and careful supervision of teacher lest we call that rather obnoxious little twerp Jemima a big poo-poo panty head?

This seems to be how our governments increasingly see us.

And if you thought I’m maybe over-egging the pudding somewhat, you’re probably all aware of the recent case in the UK where some parents had been having a rather robust (but not illegal) exchange of views with their daughter’s school and its Governors.

The school and Governors complained to the police and, lo and behold, the Stasi-Plod duly turned up mob-handed to arrest the parents.

Yes, of course, we’ve had the typical (and expected) back-track from police management, overreach, mumble, mumble, shouldn’t have happened, mumble, mumble. But it did happen.

This is the salient point. Instead of dissolving into a fit of giggles at the thought of actually using your police force like this, someone in a position of authority actually gave the go-ahead for this. Instead of saying “go boil your head you deranged tit, oh and by the way, hand in your resignation tomorrow for even considering this” they went “what a bloody brilliant idea”.

That this arrest was considered an acceptable course of action in the first place is what’s deeply concerning.

That’s only the first concerning thing, though.

The second, and it may even be more of a problem, is the attitude, the expectation, that a disagreement like this should be within the purview of the police. The childish behaviour of the school and Governors, running to the mummy and daddy figure as represented by the police, is perhaps the most troubling aspect here.

We’re being criticized and, oh, it’s so traumatic and stressful, can’t you do something about it for us? Please, pretty please. We’re just so weak and ineffectual and are so very upset about everything that even our safe-space-soft-play areas don’t work.

When, and how, did we get like this?

I’m somewhat unlikely to last another 6 decades, but what the fuck are things going to look like then if we continue on like this?

Perhaps it’s best to clam down and to just let things sort themselves out and not to get too concerned with it all. Pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last month. And so to end on a more genteel note, here’s a few pics I took on my birthday. I’d been trying to get decent pictures of my granddaughter, but realized that (a) I wasn’t very good at it and (b) I was missing too many good shots. In January I decided to get myself a better camera and to learn a bit more. Using a camera out of “Auto” mode has been fun and I’m starting to get some decent pics (or at least ones I’m happy with at the moment).

I like the seagull against the vaguely ‘prison camp’ background¹. Its graceful flight and the lighting form a nice contrast. There are still some things in life we can take real joy in.

And maybe that’s the key, even for progressives. Look for more things to take joy in - and stop getting so worked up about everything. It’s good advice for me, certainly.

1. It’s actually Felixstowe pier, but it’s a nice contrast between the natural and the modern machine - for me, at any rate