Apparently someone gobbed at a journalist yesterday. And a Tory got some egg on him.
Oh, and there was a protest where 60,000 people protested the Tory choices which are literally killing people.
One would think that that would be the thing to focus on, really, but apparently it’s more important to discuss that there was some saliva in a bloke’s hair. And condemn it.
Falling over themselves to show off how respectable they are, liberals have surged to bang on about how it’s Very Bad That There Was Violence, because that means It’s All That Anyone Will Talk About And The Messages Will Be Lost. And they’re partially right. The messages are being lost. Precisely because liberals are rushing to distance themselves from a very minor incident.
We could talk about how things are so bad the UN is investigating Britain’s treatment of disabled people, that fitness to work assessments have been linked to at least one suicide, that benefit sanctions are linked to people dying. We could talk about how austerity is a purely ideological choice and has been picked because our government has decided that some lives are worth more than others. We could talk about how under austerity, even the survivors are barely living. But no. Instead there are a lot of people who probably have the best of intentions, playing directly into the media’s hands by tossing away the key issues in favour of denouncing a fucking egg.
Who cares about this, when people are dying?
That’s the message we should be going for. It’s the only message that matters really.
The media, let’s remember, are on the side of the murderers. Almost every single newspaper in the UK encouraged its readers to vote for the party with the documented track record of killing people. One of the two that didn’t, the Guardian, then went on to decry Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity politics during the Labour leadership election. The media has no interest in ending a policy that kills. Therefore, they’re never going to be particularly sympathetic for those who do take a stance against austerity.
Yesterday in Manchester, everyone could have filed from A to B with pleasant, inoffensive placards, chanting “pretty please, can we renegotiate austerity because it’s a little too much”, and the media still would have found something to bitch about them for, because they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
So, liberals, I implore you: whenever something happens and you’re worried the media might use it against the protesters, ignore it. Just redouble your efforts to get the message out there. Nobody cares what you think about a tiny bit of spittle, and it’s detracting from the fact that people are dying.
People are being killed. That’s the thing that matters. Not your respectability, nor your hot takes on political violence. The blood on the hands of the government is the thing that matters.
The media can only hijack the message if you let them. If you participate in their hijacking of the message. Don’t give them that. Don’t serve their agenda. It doesn’t matter if there’s a bit of gob, or some scum gets called scum to his scummy face, or something gets set on fire, or the Duchess of Cornwall gets poked with a stick. If you care about the message being lost, make sure the message isn’t lost by focusing on the message.
So, the take-home message of this post? The Tories are killing people, and that’s the thing that matters most.
Another angry woman 
Reblogged this on perfectlyfadeddelusions.
People just don’t give a fuck about PWD. A proposal to limet child benefit payments to people under £X results in outrage, but Herr Cameron’s Aktion T4 2.0, “Starvation Macht Frei” has been going on for years with hardly a peep. The MSM failed to cover demos about cuts to the ILF & DLA, and the sanctions that are killing people.
I’m working class Northern, crippled, queer, pov scum to the Melinda’s and Tarquinas tut-tutting over eggs.
Reblogged this on Rosie Writes….
Reblogged this on The Bogman's Cannon.
Thing is, it’s not just about liberals wanting to be all twee and respectable, is it?
If we want to, you know, *do something* about the Tories killing people, spitting at a Tory doesn’t achieve much except a lot of pearl-clutching in the shires. Now that we do actually have a radical socialist alternative, it doesn’t help much if the 20% of the electorate who might be persuaded to vote for him decide that his supporters are an unruly mob. If you want a generation of unbroken Tory rule, get that lot to turn up and expectorate all over our elected representatives.
As an anarchist you may be hoping this anger will turn into full-scale revolution. If that’s the case, defending spitters and egg-throwers at least has some intellectual coherence; though given that we haven’t had a revolution since 1688, dream on, is all I can say. But the vast majority of us who oppose this government want to do so via the ballot box. It’s hopelessly naive to suggest that gobbing in the face of a journalist or politician doesn’t harm our chances of doing that.
PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING PEOPLE ARE DYING
I had no idea about the UN investigation – a pretty important piece of news by all account! The hold over the media (and media interests) that those on the Right have is disgusting, and it’s so important that we look beyond the buzzfeed-style tripe (which even occupies many so called “broadsheet” newspapers) and not lose sight of the real issues. I totally agree that far too many people are taking the likes of the egg throwing to a joke of an extent. A tory was egged. Good. Now let us see some real news.
I really enjoyed your post and you make some great points, and I’d also like to congratulate your brilliant list of categories in the sidebar.
There will be have to be blood on the streets before the sociopaths notice. Why was nothing made of police snipers?
“just observing” through the literal fucking sights of a gun