As we limp towards the end of 2022 there are many things we might wish were different or had not happened or were long gone.
Putin and Trump are rotten and ragged but still
extremely dangerous, like cheap fireworks that have spent their main
force but are far from extinguished.
Bolsonaro is gone but the amazon rainforest
destruction he accelerated along with his vile right-wing hate and lies, wrought permanent damage.
Brexit is now an acknowledged blight as
opposed to something politicians and the mainstream media dare not mention.
But we still
have a government of the craven and the hopeless. We still have a Prime Minister (our 3rd unelected) who was building a £400,000 swimming
pool at one of his domestic
residences while beachgoers in England, over the summer, could not go into the
sea due to raw sewage dumped by the profiteering water companies his party
privatised. Out-of-touch hardly covers it.
Crypto and Twitter are exposed as the big pile of
bollocks most sensible folk knew they were (see last post). But, like
Trump/Putin, continue to harm.
Afghanistan seems to have further to slide after
being abandoned by the countries that have played war games there for decades.
In one of the most hideous displays of lack of organisation and appalling mess
and chaos anyone in the military has possibly seen, Afghanistan was abandoned in
the most callous way. I include the action of our then PM Boris de-Brexit Johnson – we presume on the
say so of his ridiculous wife – greenlighting the rescue of pets before people
and the current deputy PM Dominic Raab, currently under investigation for
bullying but who was then – as Foreign Secretary - AWOL on a beach holiday when
the horrors were unfolding.
The world still burns and saving the planet is way
down on anyone’s priority list especially in a world where many millions of
folk seem entirely comfortable with celebrating the big pile of corrupt,
oppressive shite which is the Qatar world cup.
As usual – I could go on
But for me, what I’d like to see for 2023 is Word
Laundering by the mainstream media end. To turn around the famous Nike slogan Just
DON’T do it.
By Word Laundering I mean the careless, lazy way
that mainstream broadcasters in particular (and especially the publically
funded BBC) smush out second-hand shite from social media guff. So and so on
Twitter said blah blah blah. So and so on Fb claims rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.
This is no different to money laundering. You take something with no credibility
or value and elevate it simply by including it in the mainstream where it comes
out shiny.
It’s lazy. It’s dangerous. It serves no purpose and
it is commercially completely idiotic. How much would these platforms have to
pay to have their nonsense legitimised if it were properly analysed and
examined and authenticated? None of that happens. It’s just - Tada – from
gutter spew to glittering factoid. Word Laundering. More powerful that money
laundering.
It has to stop.
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As usual do check out my novels, children’s books
and anthologies by clicking this link My BOOKS or on your own favourite online book
stores.
Also – bandcamp have another bandcamp Friday December 2nd in
support of artists where their fees are waved so do check out my environmental
audio story Casey & the Surfmen (you can sample for free).