🔔 Yes, it's f***ing political. Everything's political

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About the sweary title... It's entirely justified.

Let me explain.

If I got it right, the title caught your attention.

You might think I'm outraged or upset about something.

Maybe it's all about to kick off and some major internet beef gon' go down in here.

Also, this is just how it works now.

The media machine is an entertainment industry.

Content is designed to trigger an emotional response in exactly the same way as films and TV shows are.

Nothing is safe from these tentacles of emotional triggers.

Social media is just another distribution network (and one that's harder to switch off).

You want facts?

Facts don't sell. Feelings do.

And that's a fact. You'll have to take my word for it.

Although if you're paying attention, you don't.

The evidence is everywhere.

Exhibit A:

How do you feel when you read that? What do you see?

The message I see is that England is recklessly plowing into Freedom Day while being governed by idiots. I think I'm supposed to respond by rolling my eyes and mouthing FFS under my breath.

a) I do that every day anyway.

b) Do any of those things actually matter?

Rephrasing the first three points.... One man tests positive for Covid, two men are in isolation. All three are still able to work.

Test & Trace is broken. How? Has it ever worked properly? Are we missing anything due to it not working?

Un-named scientists & experts make hyperbolic claims that sound very non- scientific and expert. Are those quotes perhaps attributed to the reporter rather than the scientists?

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Back to the title.

Showing my age here, it's a line from a song by Skunk Anansie (in 1996 😲) featuring the lines...

Negative viewpoints to get attention (fake cool), a puppet all the same... 👇👇👇

Remember, this song is from way back in 1996, before the age of social media, in an era of 'political satire' (criticising the government for cocking stuff up & everyone laughs. Genius.)

Negativity sells.

We all have a bias towards negativity...

And making everything 'political' is a great way to hijack our negative thoughts, even momentarily.

Exhibit B:

I like this one. It has statistics.

Hahahahaha! What a bunch of idiots!! ONE IN FIVE!!!

Wait a second.... It's actually 5%...

They've lumped two groups (definitely/probably) together there.

How many people were completely serious when they said 'probably true'?

It's the kind of thing you GENUINELY believe, or you don't actually believe at all (but it's fun to say in the bar).

Anyone saying it's probably true isn't committed to that view.

Make it a yes/no question and you've got a very different outcome (but no story/headline)

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What's your point then, Tim?

Well, I wanted to focus on the next line of the song.

Everything's satirical

So don't take things too seriously.

If there's an interesting idea, research it.

If it's funny, laugh about it.

If it's neither, forget about it and move on.

If you get irrationally annoyed about people trying to politicise everything & you worry about the negative impact it has on peoples capacity for critical thought...

Write about it, pass it off as work and hope for the best.