Everyone is so offended.

[markyb_lcy]

768 said:

I think the offence thing has been obvious for a long time now. I'm not sure it's not getting worse though and descending into something else.

I can't quite put my finger on it but after Caroline Flack, which seemed totally unrelated, some of the words from Yorkshire Tea made me think all this madness is part of the same trend.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51621812

I don’t personally think Yorkshire Tea is tapping into the Caroline flack “be kind” thing. I would say the BBC have made the association themselves.

The concept of “being kind to other humans” existed long before Caroline Flack.

The only real “madness” in the story above is the frenzy of people abusing a company that makes tea just because the chancellor (who is somewhat of an unknown quantity anyway at this stage) shared a photo with the tea, of which the tea company had no part.

What an absolutely ludicrous situation.

[otolith]

It has been discovered that Tories like oxygen. Clearly a boycott is in order!

[Johnnytheboy]

That's an excellent ad. Really want to buy Yorkshire Tea now.

Every time someone vocally protests against something like this, it has an entirely opposite effect on me.

[andy_s]

markyb_lcy said:

The only real “madness” in the story above is the frenzy of people abusing a company that makes tea just because the chancellor (who is somewhat of an unknown quantity anyway at this stage) shared a photo with the tea, of which the tea company had no part.

What an absolutely ludicrous situation.

It's psychologically uncomfortable to betray your groupthink yet gratifying to raise your status within your twitter-peer group by being the most vindictive.
Monocular vision has no depth perception and such proffered 'commentary without consequence' is just rhetorical illusion-promotion.

Out in the real world, people intuit this quite well, hence the disconnect between complying with the twittergeist but being shipwrecked in the polling booths.

[Not-The-Messiah]

Johnnytheboy said:

That's an excellent ad. Really want to buy Yorkshire Tea now.

Every time someone vocally protests against something like this, it has an entirely opposite effect on me.

I don't think this will be a bad think for Yorkshire Tea it's free publicity. Only a very few idiots will not buy the stuff if they ever did in the first place.

[Digga]

markyb_lcy said:

768 said:

I think the offence thing has been obvious for a long time now. I'm not sure it's not getting worse though and descending into something else.

I can't quite put my finger on it but after Caroline Flack, which seemed totally unrelated, some of the words from Yorkshire Tea made me think all this madness is part of the same trend.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51621812

I don’t personally think Yorkshire Tea is tapping into the Caroline flack “be kind” thing. I would say the BBC have made the association themselves.

The concept of “being kind to other humans” existed long before Caroline Flack.

The only real “madness” in the story above is the frenzy of people abusing a company that makes tea just because the chancellor (who is somewhat of an unknown quantity anyway at this stage) shared a photo with the tea, of which the tea company had no part.

What an absolutely ludicrous situation.

I think the #bekind hashtag is a good thing - if it is used simply say, treat other people as you would wish to be treated, then it's clearly not misappropriation.

YorkshireTeaGate shows the 'woke, offended left' for the shower of hateful bds they are. Please not, for anyone on the left, I am not tarring everyone with the same brush, because that's just as ludicrously, crassly stupid as the hate piled onto said teabag manufacturer.

[markyb_lcy]

I don’t think this current trend is a preserve of the left at all, and I don’t think it should be used to criticise the left (or “hard left”) specifically. Fact is there are narrow minded social media sheep across the whole political spectrum. The alt-right for instance are somewhat famous for it (granted much of it is foreign interference and fake accounts used for sharing etc, but there are real people being sucked in).

It’s a problem with modern society, not a politically-aligned section of it.

[andy_s]

markyb_lcy said:

I don’t think this current trend is a preserve of the left at all, and I don’t think it should be used to criticise the left. Fact is there are narrow minded social media sheep across the whole political spectrum. The alt-right for instance are particularly famous for it (granted much of it is foreign interference and fake accounts used for sharing etc, but there are real people being sucked in).

It’s a problem with modern society, not a politically-aligned section of it.

Absolutely.
The more extreme views are, the more wary and dismissive of them we should be.

[R Mutt]

768 said:

I think the offence thing has been obvious for a long time now. I'm not sure it's not getting worse though and descending into something else.

I can't quite put my finger on it but after Caroline Flack, which seemed totally unrelated, some of the words from Yorkshire Tea made me think all this madness is part of the same trend.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51621812

This makes it clear who is less tolerant.

[smn159]

andy_s said:

It's psychologically uncomfortable to betray your groupthink yet gratifying to raise your status within your twitter-peer group by being the most vindictive.
Monocular vision has no depth perception and such proffered 'commentary without consequence' is just rhetorical illusion-promotion.

Out in the real world, people intuit this quite well, hence the disconnect between complying with the twittergeist but being shipwrecked in the polling booths.

[markyb_lcy]

R Mutt said:

This makes it clear who is less tolerant.

No it doesn’t ... it’s one example of a lack of tolerance.

I could pick out another example of a lack of tolerance from my political “enemies” and say “ This makes it clear who is less tolerant.”

Neither of us would be correct.

You’re just appropriating something for political gain... much like those throwing abuse at a tea company to show their dislike for a politician.

Edit: I think this is the thread for you...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Digga]

markyb_lcy said:

R Mutt said:

This makes it clear who is less tolerant.

No it doesn’t ... it’s one example of a lack of tolerance.

I could pick out another example of a lack of tolerance from my political “enemies” and say “ This makes it clear who is less tolerant.”

Neither of us would be correct.

You’re just appropriating something for political gain... much like those throwing abuse at a tea company to show their dislike for a politician.

You might think that, put it's not quite how it is playing out. I see a new term out in tttersphere: LeftWaffe.

That YorkshireTeaGate episode aside, offence is neither necessarily left or right, but you start to notice when it's used.

[markyb_lcy]

Well of course it’s playing out that way on Twitter (which is likely where this whole thing started).

Twitter is the home of said sheep, all rabidly searching for literally anything and everything that can be twisted and weaponised into ammunition for criticising their political enemies.

Meanwhile in the real world there are people who still prefer to think for themselves.

[Digga]

markyb_lcy said:

Meanwhile in the real world there are people who still prefer to think for themselves.

Indeed. Most people can see the issue for what it is.

It's quite interesting to read the comments on page 1 of this thread.

[andy_s]

smn159 said:

andy_s said:

It's psychologically uncomfortable to betray your groupthink yet gratifying to raise your status within your twitter-peer group by being the most vindictive.
Monocular vision has no depth perception and such proffered 'commentary without consequence' is just rhetorical illusion-promotion.

Out in the real world, people intuit this quite well, hence the disconnect between complying with the twittergeist but being shipwrecked in the polling booths.

Ha - well, better than the originally funny but now tired 'Park Life' I guess

[R Mutt]

markyb_lcy said:

R Mutt said:

This makes it clear who is less tolerant.

No it doesn’t ... it’s one example of a lack of tolerance.

I could pick out another example of a lack of tolerance from my political “enemies” and say “ This makes it clear who is less tolerant.”

Neither of us would be correct.

You’re just appropriating something for political gain... much like those throwing abuse at a tea company to show their dislike for a politician.

Edit: I think this is the thread for you...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

No one reacted like this when Corbyn was pictured with the tea and no one is boycotting it on the basis say of Sunak's ethnicity.

The only comparably ignorant and hysterical reaction on the other side would be Katie Hopkins' to the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree and she was alone in that.

[Halb]

markyb_lcy said:

I don’t think this current trend is a preserve of the left at all, and I don’t think it should be used to criticise the left (or “hard left”) specifically. Fact is there are narrow minded social media sheep across the whole political spectrum. The alt-right for instance are somewhat famous for it (granted much of it is foreign interference and fake accounts used for sharing etc, but there are real people being sucked in).

It’s a problem with modern society, not a politically-aligned section of it.

So people are annoyed at Yorkshire tea for people using their products? That is madness. ON a lesser madness scale is thinking this behaviour is peculiar to one political area.

I think the internet/web enable a certain type of sociopathy.

[eldar]

Halb said:

So people are annoyed at Yorkshire tea for people using their products? That is madness. ON a lesser madness scale is thinking this behaviour is peculiar to one political area.

I think the internet/web enable a certain type of sociopathy.

It’s tttery like this this that gives me hope that Long-Bailey will be the next leader of the Labour Party.

[768]

markyb_lcy said:

I don’t think this current trend is a preserve of the left at all, and I don’t think it should be used to criticise the left (or “hard left”) specifically

Except that this didn't happen for Corbyn photographed with Yorkshire Tea.

The right has their faults too, but I think this current trend seems to be a preserve of the left. Not that it particularly matters where on the political spectrum this is coming from, it seems like utter madness to me regardless. I've no idea what this fix is for these people. I'd suggest education, but something tells me there might be a blind spot there.

[Tuna]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d70h

Worth listening to - The Purity Spiral, dealing with the psychological factors that push community groups to extreme reactions.