Sunday 16 October 2022
Freeloaders
Home Secretary to crack down on 'disruptive' protests with new bill
The home secretary has unveiled plans for a major crackdown on disruptive protests carried out by environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion.
Suella Braverman says the new Public Order Bill will stop demonstrators holding the public "to ransom".
Environmental groups including Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have staged various protests and demonstrations in recent months, causing disruption to commuters and traffic in central London.
It always strikes this observer that 'protest' and 'protester' are not the best words for the kind of 'look at me' activity given as examples here. We'd expect the BBC to use the word because it carries a note of approval, but the egoistic, virtue-signalling, self-approval aspect ends up being omitted.
It is yet another aspect of our cultural decline that we do not see stronger and more accurate language in the media when political approval lurks behind the narrative. Of course, if we were to use a word such as 'freeloaders' as a standard term, even the BBC may begin to feel a little uncomfortable.
Freeloaders it is then.
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8 comments:
The words that spring irresistibly to mind are ‘sulk’ or ‘tantrum’, depending on the volatility of the situation.
There's an important issue about language here. A protest is not disruption. You can make your disagreement known without preventing people going about their business. Most of what passes for protest is simply low-grade terrorism: "We'll carry on harming you unless you do what we say".
Macheath - yes, 'tantrum' seems to fit well with the childishness of the wilful damage and from what we see, 'sulk' almost always suits their facial expressions.
Sam - I agree, these activities are not protests. As well as low-grade terrorism, they could also be described as low-grade protection rackets on the same basis.
Cam(paign for)
S(tronger)
a(nd)
M(ore)
A(ccurate)
L(anguage)
Sign me up.
I love the French word, 'manifestation'. Like an Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove.
James - more accurate would be a good start.
DAD - and as it is, we only have the velvet glove.
I notice in today's paper a picture showing the "protestor" smiling at the police, and the police smiling back at her. Who's side is who on?
I suppose it's a good sign when you can risk smiling at a policeman, but only up to a point; at the point we've reached now with these selfish entitled comfortably-off timewasters, I'd be a lot happier if they leapt up and ran off in fright when the police appear.
Peter - the police don't look good in these situations, but don't seem to care either.
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