Tag: Twitter
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Dodgy Motifs
Mr Jarel Robinson-Brown, a trainee man of the cloth, has landed himself in hot holy water after adding his mites to the opinion collection in the wake of Captain Tom’s earthly departure: ‘The cult of Captain Tom is a cult of White British Nationalism. I will offer prayers for the repose of his kind and…
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Chapter and Verse
In the hours following the US Inauguration pomp and ceremony, CNN triumphally announced that Amanda Gorman had ‘… reminded America of what poetry can do’. Well, indirectly at least. Absolutely nothing. We had just watched the world’s most powerful nation saved from the brink of implosion, and once again, aspirations masquerading as values had heralded…
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Not the Point
I have long been aggravated by comma abuse in writing, and that goes for both the scattergunners and the stinges. However, rules are not straightforward, and when you have a flow between linguistic registers sometimes within the same piece, commas are infinitely tricky and controversial. Even that last sentence was, for several reasons. That one,…
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Trouble in Sight
It looks like they are all going after Trump now, albeit four years too late. He urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and to cheer some senators, ‘and others not so much’. He droned that they ‘would never take back the country with weakness’. Now, I am no expert in the technicalities of…
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Capitol Punishment
The most staggering take-out from the Capitol ruckus was not the sight of a few hundred rank, one-toothed, tits-out hillbillies in full-MAGA descending on the seat of the legislative body. Nossir, it was that it took a jaunty rumble from the sweaty masses and a few waywardly lobbed bricks to prompt any serious notion of…
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No Kneed
This week, some footballers ‘took the knee’ and people in the crowd booed. The sweet FA is apparently investigating and has ‘asked both clubs for their observations’. Here’s my observation for the FA grandees – they should start dealing with the nailed-on cases of racism that they routinely bottle rather than pandering to high-profile, super-woke…
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Abstained Character
Now, I do get the concept of abstention. It is a signal to express disdain for both options of a Hobson’s choice. In other contexts, it is a luxury; a risk-free gesture when a vote one way or another changes nothing. It is used as a ploy to avoid confrontation with opposing, warring factions, but…
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False Positive
We have come to realise that online connectivity made the world a smaller place, but it is becoming more of a stretch to see social media as a positive? That is not so say that it has no advantageous features, but to me, it’s been long merrily frankensteining. The overriding challenge is that the pace…
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Slacking Off
Ever wondered why the struggle for autism rights is like pushing water uphill with a fork? Look no further than the scorched-earth, slacktivist absolutism of self-centred, butthurt, keyboard warriors. I found this out when I had the temerity to question the vitriolic criticism of a film that none of the froth-mouthed slogan-jockeys had even watched.…
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The Wrong Notes
When Aussie singer/songwriter Sia produced her film Music, she probably hadn’t anticipated the unmitigated shitstorm from disability activists who have blasted her as ‘ableist‘. The reason? The film centres on an autistic teenager, and shock horror, the actor cast in the lead role is not autistic. And apparently, a non-autistic producer is exercising undue privilege…
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