The #SuperBowl half-time show is the biggest gig on earth: Kendrick Lamar performed Alright, heard at #BlackLivesMatter protests across the USA, now performed at the centerpiece event of a league that told athletes they shouldn't protest against #racism.
The 'Metropolitan Police Federation' is part of the wider 'Police Federation of England & Wales' (PFEW) - the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors & chief inspectors in the 43 territorial police forces in England & Wales.
Because the police aren't allowed to join a Union, they instead have a 'staff association', meant to represent 'rank & file officers', governed by rules & regulations set by government.
It's core purpose was amended in 2014 for the first time since it was set up in 1919.
In 2014 the federation had been under fire, with some of its members involved in controversies including allegations of falsified evidence following the Hillsborough disaster & the so-called #plebgate row, when Andrew Mitchell was accused of calling a Downing St officer a “pleb”.
'Fans of Q: The Stakes of QAnon’s Functioning as Political Fandom.'
Affective activation, & the community engagement it fosters, is the driving mechanism of all fandoms. Fandom experts can help us understand the appeal & radicalising techniques of QAnon.
"Centralized objects of affection may hail from popular culture, such as in the form of sports teams, TV shows, cartoon characters, or musicians.
Fan scholars increasingly recognise, fandoms can also emerge around profit-driven brands, specific politicians, & social movements."
"Much has been said regarding the dangers of the online conspiracy theory QAnon. However, these warnings have tended to overemphasize the rapidly evolving, amorphous beliefs of its adherents, rather than recognize the affective activation propelling the movement."
In an attempt to examine how the public made sense of Brexit & its potential consequences, researchers analysed ALL letters to the editor discussing Brexit/the campaign published in UK daily national newspapers in the two months before the vote.
This project illustrates how British national newspapers help to construct citizens’ political motivations, justified because of their role in the mediated construction of citizens’ political views, since letters are presented to readers as unsolicited, non-mediated content.
All published letters underwent a selection process deeming them worthy of publication. Through publishing some letters – and discarding others – newspapers legitimise views they contain, indicating these views are worth considering.
Instead of holding government, workplaces, corporations & the education system to account, neoliberal feminism, slogans & policies result in 'confidence culture', which rejects structural causes of women's problems, & calls on women to work on themselves.
Females are encouraged to take 'self responsibility' for tackling impostor syndrome, & to change the way they think, feel, communicate, hold their bodies & occupy space.
Confidence culture shifts responsibility & the blame for social ills onto the shoulders of individual women.
We need to shift this emphasis & tackle the structural inequalities that the pandemic has so clearly spotlighted & that the cost-of-living crisis is now highlighting so brutally.
We need to challenge the endless encouragement of women & girls to work on & care for themselves.
How many voters resent Keir's scapegoating of the Left, his constant distancing of himself from Corbyn, & the lies he told to get himself elected as LOTO?
How many believe he should at least try to unite Labour & make it more distinctive from the Tories, like Attlee & Smith did?
Imho, this is the conundrum for Starmer's Labour: 'factionalism' or 'infighting' (however you want to frame it) DOES help the Tories, but it's caused to a great extent by Starmer's constant demonisation & scapegoating of the Left, & his constant distancing of himself from Corbyn.
I'm genuinely interested in what people think about how to address this, because imho if it isn't resolved, the tensions won't stop, they'll get worse, & this will only help the Tories.
In an Address to the US Congress on 13th November 1945, Britain's new PM, Clement Attlee, directly addressed concerns around #socialism & #freedom that remain salient today, & which are mobilised by the Right to fuel a culture war pioneered by Steve Bannon & Right-libertarians.
"I think that some people over here imagine that the Socialists are out to destroy freedom, freedom of the individual, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, & the freedom of the Press."
"They are wrong; the Labour Party is in the tradition of freedom-loving movements which have always existed in our country, but freedom has to be striven for in every generation, and those who threaten it are not always the same."