One Week

God, what happened?

There was always the potential of a train wreck, but I doubt ANYBODY thought a week ago they’d wake up this morning to pictures of Lawyers waiting for flights so they could offer their services to US citizens who overnight had become the enemy. No-one anticipated Canada would welcome Asylum seekers with US passports. Most of us never considered the possibility that less than ten days after the Orange Twat came to power, there’d be a petition on the UK Government website wanting to ban him *for a second time* from the UK because a state visit would be an embarrassment for the Queen.

This petition will top half a million signatures by teatime at the current rate of uptake. However, some people have no idea there’s a problem. Many, many people do not see the issues at play here: not because they’re ignorant or stupid, or indeed because they don’t care. Half the planet lives in ignorance of all of this, and most don’t do so by choice. They are more concerned with a meal and a roof over their heads. Internet for them is a luxury that is largely irrelevant if you’re unlikely to live to see the end of the day. We are, like it or not, an entitled bunch of whiny, self absorbed wankers.

This afternoon I had a discussion with someone who told me, in all seriousness, I should advocate the banning of the BBC. On any other day this would have been an interesting discussion to have, but I hate to break it to those people not paying attention that there are more important things to try and get stopped, banned, revoked and removed than an institution that does a phenomenal amount of good amongst legitimate claims of bias and self interest. Yeah, no massive corporation is perfect, this is hardly news. However when you realise that in many countries without our level of opulence the BBC is often the only uncensored or ‘independent’ reporting some people get, and even if you think it’s biased, marxist crap it’s still news. Not everything is a conspiracy when you’re unable to read or write, or don’t have a home that’s your own. Still, people peddle their own agendas without a grasp of the wider world. What we need is MORE objectivity, new reporting mediums, more feedback and not to ban or remove ANYONE who’s trying to educate or inform. We even need the enemy to keep feeding us their crap, so that eventually it can be swept aside in a tide of revolution.

I’ve seen inspiration in a lot of places this week. Good people, doing their jobs. My legal friends have gone silent on Twitter and I hope this means they too are out there at an airport somewhere, pro-bono-ing for all they are worth. Someone asked how you help people in the US right now and all we have effectively is ourselves to offer as raw materials. That means this week I listen to anyone who needs it. I can be a sympathetic ear, or offer words of comfort. I can write blog posts to show that even in the face of overriding terror and disbelief for many, there is always hope if you don’t shut out all of the possibilities. That means you read the stories but you don’t take them as truth until they are proved. You learn to do research. You check people’s Twitter profiles for who they are and and then question why they are saying what they do. You don’t shut out the BBC because they’re marxist, or Fox because they’re fascist, because there is the potential for BOTH to teach you something. You learn to adapt, your skin hardens, and you never forget how fucking lucky you are to have the Internet to begin with.

These are dark days for many people. However, if we all stick together and help each other, we will get through this, and it will be okay. 2016 will be remembered as a brilliant year, the time when all we did was celebrate the lives of good people who left us, and had fun with stupidity that was presented because we didn’t have a fascist madman or genuine threats to world peace to defeat. Nobody expected what happened, and maybe that’s our bigger lesson to learn. Now we’re all in this pit?

Time to start planning our escape.