observer Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 What the hell as it come to? Diane Abbot allegedly makes some tweet about "whites using divide and rule", presumably in some reference to colonialism; then we get a tsunami of false indignation from the pathetic twitterarchy and politicians; with a demand from Millipede for her to apologise for her "racist" remark. How pathetically juvenile and superficial has our society become, when the PC Police hang onto and disect one's every word, waiting to pounce with cries of "racist"? No doubt, if a white person had made a similiar generalisation about blacks, the PC uproar would have been ten times worse; as a white person, I for one am NOT offended by her remark; it's frankly imo just not that important in the general scheme of things. Perhaps the PC Brigade need to get over themselves, and start addressing more profound issues. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harry hayes Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Quite right. Once we were famous for our 'free speech'. Mountains out of mole hills springs to mind. Happy days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stallard12 Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Fight on Obs, it's a worthy cause. I would venture to say that PC presents almost as much danger to traditional life as do terrorists. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleopatra Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Say what you like about Egypt but here there is zero racism. There are all shades of colour from white through brown to black all living in harmony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 all living in harmony. Well apart from the ones shooting each other on the streets of Cairo of course!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Sid Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 bad taste that man, funny but bad taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Tessla Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 You can't really accuse Diane Abbott of having double standards - it's not as if she is a labour politician who would send her child to a £10.000 a year private school What was that? My apologies, apparently she is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleopatra Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Well apart from the ones shooting each other on the streets of Cairo of course!! There was no need to raise that. You and I both know that the subject is about racism and the troubles in Cairo was nothing to do with race. Your remark was not in the least funny, considering that people of all shades died fighting together for their rights! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Well said Obs !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfie Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 This ia quote from the Arab Media Community. I myself lived in Cairo for two years and was shocked over how racist many Egyptians were. I've lost count of the times I was told by Cairenes how Sudanese and blacks are 'lazy', 'monkeys', or 'animals'. Then there was the 'anecdote' of the Sudanese man waiting for the micro bus driver in a Cairo suburb and how he was told by the Egyptian driver that his bus 'was not going to Darfur' and refusing the Sudanese to enter the vehicle. The full text can be found here Arab media community Not doubting anyone, but now find myself confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 .... oh bloodly hell here we go. Obs I think your topic may be just about to go off on a tangent even though you or Diane Abbot did not mention Egypt. Well done Baz and Wolfie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 .... oh bloodly hell here we go. Obs I think your topic may be just about to go off on a tangent even though you or Diane Abbot did not mention Egypt. Well done Baz and Wolfie Chuck a bucket of water on the fire afore it gets out of control! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Bucket at the ready Algy although like you know mine has a hole in it at the moment and is not very reliable. Can you man the hose just incase I have to go off to refill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 There was no need to raise that. I'm afraid I felt there was.... you stated that people in Egypt are all living in harmony when they are clearly not. There were many reasons that people rioted in the UK last year; some were angry at the government, some were angry at each other, and some just wanted a new pair of trainers....The reasons are unimportant if people are rioting. and you can hardly point at Egypt being the vision of utopia when women do not have equality with men.... now there is something to riot over .........considering that people of all shades died fighting together for their rights! I could point you in the direction of the graves of some of my relatives who died both in world war one and two; defending my right to freely express myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted January 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Fact is, we've become so tied up with petty liberal PC thought control, which has now turned into an Orwellian speach control; that most normal folk are hiding in the trench, frightened to pop their heads above the parapet and not bow to these liberal lovely conventions. Free speech is essential to a free society, interference with that freedom can just as easily come from the liberal left as it can from a tyranical right. Suppression of ideas, of thoughts, doesn't negate them, it mereley forces them underground to fester; without those ideas being given the scrutiny of discussion or debate. One would have thought the social media would be a vehicle for such debate; but the national ones appear to be a force for suppression by a twitterarchy clique, with some politicians, like vultures, waiting to zoom in on any carcass brought down by these PC police. If prejudice is open, it can be identified and countered by arguement; much better imo to be verbally assaulted than to be lethaly assaulted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Bucket at the ready Algy although like you know mine has a hole in it at the moment and is not very reliable. Can you man the hose just incase I have to go off to refill Consider it done Dizz, although it will have to be within the next half hour as I'm off for some shut eye, never mind, I'm sure it will stay alight until morning as Baz and obs are still chucking fuel on. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted January 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 It's called open discussion Alg - or are there some things we're not allowed to talk about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter T Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 There's a hole in my bucket Dear Liza, Dear Liza. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Apparently free speech is OK as long as you don't say anything to upset anyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algy Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Well! at least I managed momentarily to divert them off course, although I'm sure the embers will flare up again this morning . Incidentally Baz a learned gentleman such as yourself should know there is no such a thing as "free speech", the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on libel, slander, obscenity, incitement to commit a crime, etc. :grin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Incidentally Baz a learned gentleman such as yourself should know there is no such a thing as "free speech", the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on libel, slander, obscenity, incitement to commit a crime, etc. :grin: I know.... but my statement did not break any of those rules..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlady54 Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I would just question the common sense of anyone, let alone a politian, making a comment on a social networking site and not thinking how it would appear to the worldwide audience these sites reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted January 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Are you remotely "offended" by her innaccurate generalisation SL? Perhaps folk would be better employed challenging what is said, rather than how it's said? Much preferable and honest imo, for our politicians and public to say what they actually think and feel, rather than hide behind a PC mask. This ridiculously trivial and superficial verbal straight jacket, is imo killing any possibility of open and honest debate on serious issues. Libel and slander laws are there to protect one individual's reputation against malicious lies of another, even though most can't afford to use the law to protect themselves. But a generalisation about a whole group of people merely requires challenging within the context of the debate in hand - that's politics. And to suppress thoughts and ideas, doesn't dispel them, but rather drives them underground where they can fester unchallenged, and turn into more sinister activities - EG: Muslim Fundimentalism. In France and Germany it's apparently illegal to deny the holocaust; which imo is as stupid as denying Darwinian Evolution; but either can be dispelled by rational debate and in so doing, consign them to terminal decline. So, as the man said - " I disagree with what you say, but I would fight to the death for your right to say it". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlady54 Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 No Observer, I'm not offended by what was said, it was more a comment on social networking sites and we seem to agree on freedom of speech! My point is that anyone making any comment on these sites, especially those open to everyone with no restrictions, leaves themselves open to misinterpretation of all kinds plus ridicule, bullying and victimisation of the worst kind. Had the comment been made in a real debate amongst people face to face, it would have been challenged in the proper way, argued for or against and hopefully come to some sort of conclusion without misunderstanding. Even on this forum, it is clear that people's ideas and comments can be easily misunderstood when you don't see the face of the person making them, so cannot always judge the sentiment behind them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dizzy Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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