Mirror mirror on the wall
Who's the wokest of them all?
The UK Govt & its Ministers are hypocrites when it comes to upholding their own stated "fundamental British values" which they, & swathes of the UK press, ignore & contradict through their policies & rhetoric. 🇬🇧
In 2014, the Govt published its "Guidance on promoting British Values" in schools - values codified in official guidance on "improving the spiritual, moral, social & cultural development of pupils to ensure young people leave school prepared for life in modern Britain."
The official "guidance" compels schools to "actively promote" the "fundamental British values of democracy, *the rule of law*, individual liberty, & *mutual respect & tolerance of those of different faiths & beliefs*", which #Ofsted must take into account during inspections. 🤔
So how does the rhetoric of Govt Ministers, along with swathes of the UK's press & broadcast news media, align with the "fundamental British values" of "mutual respect & tolerance of those of different beliefs"?
SPOILER ALERT: it doesn't.
Does this mean they're anti-British? 🇬🇧
The Govt's plan is "to ensure children become valuable & fully rounded members of society, who TREAT OTHERS WITH RESPECT & TOLERANCE, regardless of background".
Ministers & right-wing news media do not consider a growing list of 'others' worthy of either respect, or tolerance.
Examples of the understanding & knowledge pupils MUST learn include: "an acceptance that people having DIFFERENT BELIEFS to oneself ("which is protected in law") SHOULD BE ACCEPTED & TOLERATED, & should NOT be the cause of PREJUDICIAL or DISCRIMINATORY behaviour".
Other examples of the understanding & knowledge of "fundamental British values" pupils MUST learn include: "an understanding of the importance of identifying & COMBATTING DISCRIMINATION" - although actively promoting & justifying discrimination appears fine IF you're the UK Govt.
So how does all this fit with 'wokeness'?
It's clear that the Government, the billionaire-owned or funded right-wing news media, including GB "News", & TalkTV are all explicitly 'anti-woke' - but what do *they* actually mean when they mobilise 'woke' & 'wokeness' as pejoratives?
Used as a pejorative, according to the Right 'woke' has THREE main attributes & meanings that they take exception to:
(1) imposed conformity to a particular ideology;
(2) over-sensitivity to particular cultural issues (eg race);
(3) intolerance of opposing ideologies.
Govt Ministers, the right-wing media & others on the right all agree these three components are antithetical to 'free speech' & the "fundamental British values" of "individual liberty, & mutual respect & tolerance of those of different beliefs". Fine. It's a view I'll tolerate.😉
But the Right's OWN intolerant rhetoric conforms PRECISELY to what THEY find objectionable in THEIR understanding of the term 'woke': imposed conformity to a particular ideology; over-sensitivity to particular cultural issues (eg wokeness); & intolerance of opposing ideologies.
But which intolerance came first?
The 'overly sensitive Left', who want to impose conformity to eg tolerating & respecting asylum seekers & minorities?
Or the 'overly sensitive Right', who want to impose conformity to eg demonising & scapegoating asylum seekers & minorities?
We appear to be locked into a very harmful, divisive, & polarising 'intolerance spiral', which is not just antithetical to the Govt's own stated "fundamental British values", but is also threatening the very fabric of society, & democracy itself.
And most MPs don't seem to care.
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I missed this story about Kevin Roberts - President of the Heritage Foundation & the man behind #Project2025, who has close ties to Truss, Patel, Oliver Dowden & Jenrick (who have all given speeches at the Heritage Foundation) - KILLING HIS NEIGHBOUR'S DOG WITH A SHOVEL!
“He was discussing in the hallway with various members of the faculty, including me, that a neighbor’s dog had been barking pretty relentlessly... he kind of lost it & took a shovel and killed the dog. End of problem,” said Kenneth Hammond, chair of the History Dept at the time.
Farage may become Britain's Trump, & Reform UK, Britain's Republicans: same divisive 1930s-style propaganda; same support from the same handful of billionaires; same climate change denial; same policies, from the same opaquely funded global network of free-market think-tanks.🤑
Tommy Robinson CHECKS HIS SOURCES, so he knows Evie is a right-wing online magazine which has spread COVID-19 & vaccine misinformation, & has a traditionalist/antifeminist worldview.
In 2022, Evie launched an app which collects menstruation data, funded by Peter Thiel.
Evie’s anti-vax blogs provide a window into how COVID denialism & misinformation are being marketed in right-wing women’s media. Evie’s founder and editor-in-chief is a former model turned would-be Catholic lifestyle influencer named Brittany Martinez.
In 2023, Rolling Stone described as the "Gen Z ‘Cosmo’ for the far-right" (so Tiny Tommy obviously gravitates towards it), the Peter Thiel-linked Evie Magazine is "harnessing the culture war to grow its audience."
Nazi propaganda dehumanized Jews in order to facilitate the Holocaust.
In the book 'Unhumans', right-wing conspiracy theorists Jack Posobiec &Joshua Lisec claim that Progressive-minded Americans are bloodthirsty Communist "unhumans" hellbent on destrying civilization.
This 🧵quotes this article by Gil Duran of @GeorgeLakoff's #FrameLab. George is a cognitive linguist & philosopher, best known for his thesis that our lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors used use to explain complex phenomena.
Here's the context debunking the abhorrent lies about Springfield Haitians 'eating geese & pets' currently being pushed by Trump, Vance, endless gullible MAGAs, & much of the US right-wing media, which have so far resulted in two bomb threats.
Not content with attacking the UK & Brazilian Governments & spreading wild conspiracy theories, petulant sociopathic politically illiterate one-man-disinformation machine Elon Musk has now lambasted Australia’s government as “fascists”.
The Australian Government has proposed laws that could levy substantial fines on social media companies if they fail to comply with rules to combat the spread of #disinformation and online scams - which Musk has zero interest in doing.
The billionaire owner of @X posted the word “fascists” above a childish tweet posted by the Tesla-loving dimwit who designed the shit X logo, who referred to misinformation as "so-called misinformation".