Protest, protest, protest

If there is anyone still out there checking on my blog, you will know that I have not written for months.  This was not intended but somehow seems to have continued far longer than I would have wanted if it had been planned.  I am not even really sure why!  But I am back and ready to start spouting my stuff all over again.  I haven't stopped reading, Instagramming or thinking since I last blogged.  I have a whole load of subject matter to whitter about, don't worry.

The above is a screenshot from Facebook.  It is utterly horrifying if you just read the list and compare it to the news coming out of the US.  And the news from other places too.  Italy for one.  One article which has spurred my return to blogging was by Fintan O'Toole in the Irish Times.

In this piece he argued that far from being an off-the-cuff tweeter/policy maker/speaker, etc, everything which Donald Trump says or does is carefully calculated to see what he can get away with.  It is not aimed at the more liberal press or at people who would never vote for him.  He is only concerned with maintaining his ratings with the voters who brought him to power.  For example, the use of the abhorrent term 'infest' in a tweet about immigrants.  Widespread disgust was reported.  But Trump's approval ratings with his core supporters went up and the (to him) important far right news outlets (Fox etc) loved it.  O'Toole says that 40% of voters is the typical starting point for Fascism.

I have also re-read The Handmaid's Tale this year.  Margaret Atwood's scarily worrying novel of a fascist future.  If you haven't read it, do so.  (Or watch the excellent TV adaptation.)  And marvel/quake at how many elements of it would appear to be coming true, three decades after it was written as fiction.  No wonder this was one of the books being widely shared after Trump took power.

We live in frightening times.  As the mother of two teenagers, I am chewed up by thoughts of their futures.  Trump is, in my humble opinion, on track for a second term - that's six more years legally.  But with a Supreme Court nomination to come, could we see a move for more?  Brexit is going through regardless (note 'fraudulent elections' on the above list - a nice little trial run there with the Brexit referendum).  Countries like Italy are turning to the far right.  And as for Russia...

I leave you with a couple of quotes I have found during my reading this few months.  Read them and weep.

Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it. - Goebbels

The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping.  It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitude. - Aldous Huxley

But when you have wept, remember...

The need for protesting will never end. - China Achebe

Hold On

For the last few months - and for many reasons -  I have been doing some work on myself, for want of a better phrase.  Rest assured, I have not been dabbling in plastic surgery.  It has been more about my general well-being.  Both mental and physical.

One of the strands which I have been pursuing is the idea of being true to how we actually feel about something.  I have not been good at believing in my right to feel angry or upset.  But I am getting better at holding onto and validating my feelings.

The current news climate, though, has caused me to think that we are all going to have to get better at this. We must not allow ourselves to be convinced by politicians or certain news outlets that our initial feelings of revulsion or anger about something are wrong.  We have to hang on to what we know to be true, to be right, to be fair.

In Nazi Germany, the necessary majority of people were gradually convinced - by way of an improving economy and much militaristic posturing - that the disappearance of the Jews, of the disabled, of any effective opposition was a good thing.  That it was for the greater good.  The Nazis didn't have social media but they had stupendous propaganda.  It was the ultimate in fake news, surely?

Meryl Streep's speech at the Golden Globes was a brilliant example of holding on to how something had really and truly made her feel.  And she used that to show the kind of behaviour we are up against.  Not just in the US either.  Brexit in the UK and the rise of politicians like Marine Le Pen in France have allowed all sorts of horrific things to be said and done which are just plain wrong.  To say nothing of our general malaise towards the continuing situations in the Middle East.

I believe in free speech and honest exchanges of opinions.  But no one, whatever their political colouring, should be allowed to use gender, race, religion or other human characteristics to attack their opponents.  If you do not have the wit and intelligence to put together a coherent, fact-based and fair argument, you should not be in public life.


[Not a family history post but one for our descendants maybe...]