Not content with infecting a huge swathe of the population of the planet, COVID19 has achieved something quite extraordinary as a result of the lockdown of most parts of society; it has taught people how to HATE with passion.
Brexit, Donald Trump and now Coronavirus have conspired to drive a wedge through society that basically amounts to an Us versus Them mentality; a You're Either With Us or Against Us world where compassion is a sign of weakness and believing in the truth is considered a form of mind control - even if believing in something completely bonkers probably puts people in the la-la-la-la woop woop woop category of madness (in the eyes of others).
I thought for many years that it was just the UK that was fucked - mainly because of Brexit, but then Trump came along and Bolsonaro and then Boris and his band of six form wankers just to remind us that it can never be as bad as you think it is.
When the Donald said, during his Presidential campaign of 2016, that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, that wasn't an idle boast, it was in many ways a clever strategy created by the team behind his charge to the White House. These people had been looking at social media over the previous few years and seen that hatred and abhorrent behaviour and vile opinions were on the increase and they decided that a Presidential candidate who actually said the things that some of the people wanted to say - in an open space - was a vote winner and as a result we now have a social media that is full of as much hatred and hostility as there is hope and kindness, more so in many ways because the latter is now considered 'leftie' and weak even if some of the people bandying the term around would never have considered themselves as 'right wing'.
If you care about people; if you care about the environment; if you oppose hatred you are left wing and yet being left wing is also a new term for social terrorism; it's always the left wingers that cause insurrection; it's always really them doing the violence and the hatred to frame the god-fearing right wing and make people people they're all horrible people. It has actually gotten so worse that people trying to stop the spread of hate are now branded as enemies of free speech. This is a world where a group of anti-fascists are considered worse than people who would execute unbelievers and have them hanging from telegraph poles to emphasise the point.
Essentially the humanity is fucked and I can't really see a way of fixing it. The end of civilisation as we have known it may well be starting its final descent. As a result, I also can't see how the divisions that exist now are ever going to be healed. Once upon a time, death was always a good way of building bridges between warring factions, but not any more; you would have thought a pandemic would have been a good, if slightly extreme way, to bring people back together. However, there appears to be nothing more than a barely noticeable nod of sympathy towards the people who have died during the pandemic, because the pandemic deniers all believe it is just some intricate controlling mechanism put into place by the same people they think are doing their best for the country...
WHAT?
There is nothing more unsettling than seeing people accuse Boris Johnson of being at the forefront of a global conspiracy while simultaneously thinking he's the best thing since sliced bread. When you're faced with this kind of illogic you have to start admitting that whatever dwindling hope you might have had for humanity is dying faster than a covid-infected granny.
Lockdown fatigue is fuelling this fire of hatred. People are growing bored, fed up, disillusioned and desperate and as a result are beginning to turn on each other. Point out that Brexit isn't really going the way the Brexiteers wanted and instead of contrition you get blame thrown at everyone and everything apart from the people who caused it. It's remainers fault because they were so negative; if only they'd been more positive we'd be the world's largest everything by now... Or the people who aren't Americans who seem to think that Trump was the best president EVER because he said it how it was. Once I would have expected some of 'these' people to be shocked and appalled at the horrendous language and actions of the massive orange shit gibbon, now they celebrate pussy grabbing like it's something they've all done and women just like to moan about everything...
Misogyny is rife; sexism is on the rise and let's not talk about racism, mainly because one would have thought such a barbaric form of prejudice would have been long gone by the 21st century rather growing larger and more violent every day. Denial used to be a river in Egypt, now it's common place just about every where. Don't like something? Deny its existence/relevance/credence; dismiss it as left wing, as weak, as the reason for the breakdown of society or even worse make sure the rest of the world believe their lies by shouting them loud enough and often enough for them to sink in through osmosis.
In the last couple of weeks, as Trump shuffles away from the White House and cracks begin to show in the UK's Tory cabinet, you would have thought that objectivity would have found its foothold again, but instead of sanity we have the insanity of extreme subjectivity. I've banged on about Belief Politics for a few years now, but I don't think I've ever seen it so passionate than it currently is. Everything and everyone is now fair game; Brexit brought divisions between family, friends and neighbours and over the last 4½ years that division has turned to contempt, hatred and aggression. The art of discussion seems to be dying, replaced by passive aggressive statements designed to belittle and devalue another person's opinion.
There's never any proof offered up by these believers in bullshit; instead they use arguments like: I don't need to prove I'm right, you prove I'm wrong. Or the, in many ways worse, refusal to even acknowledge a question by simply going on the offensive in a different way. Make unfounded accusations; ridicule opinions and act stubborn and obtuse when challenged for facts. And then go on very carefully worded attacks so that social media algorithms fail to spot it until they've driven some decent person into calling them an idiot and have then banned for bullying or harassment. The right wing is a well oiled machine of competence and incompetence; they coalesce into a united front whenever they are threatened with having their lies and ridiculous beliefs questioned. The fuckwits have taken over the asylum without even needing to be in a majority.
In recent days, I've given up trying to get a covid-denying arsehole to at least think of other people and got mercilessly (and tactfully) attacked for being 'weak' 'leftie' 'cowardly', for being a 'sheep' a useless 'follower' for believing everything I read by people who believe everything they read... I've also seen my local community start to tear itself apart with an Us and Them mentality that I wouldn't have dreamt possible and would confound psychologists. I've seen young attack old; strong attack weak and people turn into 21st century versions of the Nazis we condemned so much but now have people who think they might have actually been onto something. And the saddest part of all of this, these hate filled, society destroying morons actually think of themselves as nice people, as good and honest and even as Christians despite being the absolute opposite of their beloved Jesus.
What is the point of ignoring it? I mean, there were literally millions of Germans, or Italians, or Russians who didn't agree with Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin, but fear prevented them from saying or doing anything until it was too late. You can't stand in the way of a tsunami of hate and then hope to stop it with wise or kind words or science and facts, not when people have BELIEF on their side. Not when people claim every rational thing is fake news and every irrational thing makes perfect sense - you cannot fight that kind of cognitive dissonance without maybe an extinction level event and then is the collateral damage worth it?
It's all fucked and I don't know how it will stop.
