Freedom of speech and acting on Fake News

Extinction rebellion have acted to peacefully protest against the Murdoch empire, and in doing so have also disrupted the distribution of papers from the Telegraph and the Mail stables.  As some of you may be aware, I do not read The Sun, and I despise The Daily Mail and I boycott both.  However, I also disagree with actions taken to prevent the distribution of these papers.  

Many feel that this action is justifiable, but to them, I ask, is it acceptable if left wing voices are silenced in a similar manner?

I used to read the Morning Star (I do not have time to read the paper version now) and while I disagreed with it at times, it was a voice of the left.  A question I would ask those who have supported the Extinction Rebellion newspaper protest is if they would consider a similar act by groups like Britain First or UKIP to be acceptable, or would they consider this to be an act to limit freedom of speech.  

Is Britain First right to act in a peaceful manner to try to restrict the freedom or worship that we enjoy in our nation? 

Trump has stated that he wanted to act to infringe the rights of Social Media in an attempt to prevent them commenting on his tweets.  He also has commented on infringing it in other ways in the past.  Is that acceptable?

I have come across those who feel that freedom of speech from those with left wing views should be limited.  If that is not correct, how is it moral to limit the freedom of the right wing media to express their views.    

Kinder, Gentler Politics and social media

I have been involved in a particularly abusive argument on Twitter.  It seemed to involve the creation of fake accounts to harass the other, and it appears that one side has ‘won’ as the other has made their account private.

I use Twitter for several reasons and one of them is to learn about the views others hold and to debate.  Sadly, some engage in abuse.  It can be hard to remember who started what at times, but for those on the left, like me, I think it is important to remember the message from Michelle Obama and Jeremy Corbyn, which is in essence, not to descend into abuse.

Sadly many in the UK have not followed this, as seen with the abuse that people like Rachel Riley and Emma Barnett have experienced.

I do not justify any abuse, but I cannot recall many politicians on the right calling for civil behaviour.  One was John McCain, but after he turned on Trump, I am not sure that many on the right of US politics respect him any more.  But those on the left have called for civility.

Ultimately people are won over by being civil to them, not by being abusive.  And anyone who wishes to change views needs to remember that.  

The all clear

All is well.  We have been given the all clear.  I got the message by text in the morning but it came too late for me to cycle to work so I worked from home instead.  So I am back to work talking to and if needed, seeing patients, and the same for my wife.

Isolation, again

We are in isolation again.  This morning my wife woke with a persistent cough and so we went for testing in Ipswich again.  She has rested for a lot of the day, but her cough improved once she had her swab.  She loved me having mine!

I had locked myself out of my work laptop last week and did not have time to correct this matter then, so I had to have that fixed before I was able to work from home.  And that took time.  Using my mobile to make calls, and my headphones to preserve patient anonymity I was able to see my call lengths easier, and many take longer than ten minutes now.  When I started in quarantine many months ago, the issues we had to deal with her so much easier.  Now they are back to the usual complexity along with additional diagnostic uncertainty due to COVID meaning we are not assessing all face to face.

Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Segregation

Can anyone tell me if the following are examples of cultural appropriation?

Chicken Tikka Masala.
The Hello Kitty video by Avril Lavigne.
Stuffed crust pizza’s.
People who appear not to be black wearing dreadlocks & Bantu knots.
The use of henna by those with no visible ancestry from the Arabian Peninsula, Indian subcontinent.
Near and Middle East, Carthage, other parts of North Africa or the Horn of Africa.
The Jai Ho music video by The Pussycat dolls.
Eating Haggis on Burns night if you have no Scottish heritage.
Wearing a Kimono if you have no Japanese heritage.
Eminem, Vanilla Ice, Iggy Azalea, UB40 & Madness.
The use of Tartan by those without significant Scottish ancestry.
The video for Romeo by Basement Jaxx.
Dressing as another ethnicity for a fancy dress party.
Drinking Guinness if you have no Irish heritage.
Someone with no South Asian heritage wearing a bindi (or anything like it).
Having an opinion on liking a dish if you are not from the ethnic group it is from.

I do think that trying to trademark certain names, such as Kimono is unacceptable.  Issues like Jamie Oliver using a name for food that has been inspired by dishes like paella are a grey area along with food inspired by a nation.  But he is not wrong to use such foods in the creation of new dishes.    

It may be best to prevent offence if we segregate different communities to prevent cultures mixing.  But that is what people like the BNP want, and I like how the society I live in has been, and continues to be influenced it’s multicultural history.

But, I would like to know what is and what is not cultural appropriation and I welcome comments about what people think on this matter.

Bank holiday Monday

We relaxed today.  I went into work to do some telephone work.  In my drive to get fitter, I took a slight detour and I think that my fitness levels may be improving.  After work when home I found that my wife was not as well as she had hoped.  She rested, I ironed and helped her prepare some food that she had cooked.  But I forgot to do it properly.  Fortunately she and my son helped salvage the food.

I also got to go for a walk with my daughter as well as watching Star Wars Rebels with my son.  He loves watching the Simpsons but took time to not watch that and instead spend some time with me.  Rebels is a kids cartoon, but there was a reason cited in one of the episodes we watched as to why stormtroopers cannot shoot properly.  And we had a slight disagreement about how The Clone Wars ended.  I was right, but he will not accept that. All in all, it was a good end to the weekend, so long as my wife is better tomorrow.  

The US right and cucks

I have had an interesting debate with a US lady who supports Trump on Twitter.  Sadly, it resulted in her using her second account to try and troll me.  While I understand that she was annoyed with a poster who I had mostly supported (there were a few posts which I felt were racist and I did point out that I considered them to be unacceptable), it was interesting when she turned her attention to me.  Needless to say, she tried to be more annoying than me, and as my wife said, she was doomed.  My children later agreed with this.

What is fascinating, are the terms that she tried to use to insult me.

One was calling me a beta male.  I actually do not want to be an alpha male.  I associate such a term with a lot of negative issues.  Needless to say, one is heart disease.  There are other issues associated with it.  Growing up, I was given mixed messages about what a man should be.  People would tell me that women wanted kind caring men, but growing up, they were not the men they went for.  Or rather I should say, that alpha males attracted a sort of female and like other boys growing up, we assumed that all women and girls wanted that.        

The other insults were when she called me a Cuck.  What makes this more interesting is the way that one or two prominent Trump supporters are in effect cuckolded.    

One is Roger Stone, who initially denied such things took place, and then later admitted it.  I have no issue with someone being open about the relationship they have with their wife especially when there is no double standards.  

And the other, allegedly is Jerry Fallwell Jr.  Now if this is true, it can be argued that double standards apply here.      

But the term Cuck is one which refers to a man allowing his wife to have coitus with other men.  When it comes to those who support Trump, what do they think of Melania Trump and if she has allowed Trump to have affairs with Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels and of course, they way he tried it on with the women he had taken furniture shopping.  Is Melania Trump a Cuck or is the behaviour of Donald Trump acceptable as he is an Alpha Male and therefore, something that Melania should not be judged over?