Angry all the time

This isn’t original, just a stream of consciousness wail into the wilderness!

Since 2016 I seem to have spent my life in a cloud of rage about the state of our country. One of the things that makes me the most angry is the ‘culture war’ designed to manufacture anger and grievances against minorities or in fact anyone who disagrees with the bullies in charge and as a side effect, making people like me very angry too. I did my bit too late in the Brexit referendum, believing, stupidly, that people could see through the lies being told to the self interest sitting behind it. Obviously I got that wrong, but not by much, which gave me hope. So, I campaigned and marched my way through to 2020. The pandemic gave another outlet for disinformation, division and hatred on social media, but also seeping into the real world, and this seems to have now become the norm, rather than, as I think some of us hoped, leading to a kinder and more rational world. 

Since then, I deliberately took a step back – banging your head against a brick wall in the end doesn’t make much sense! But of course, I regularly have a look over the parapet and have been horrified all over again at what I see. The last year has seen me shaking with anger every time I look at the news – the ‘dream’ of sending vulnerable people to Rwanda, the trashing of our economy, environment and planet in the name of Brexit and ‘growth’ (where is the grown up conversation except in the Green party about the downsides of never ending growth - isn’t that a definition of cancer?). 

The vitriol that is poured on anyone who speaks out against the right wing agenda is shocking, particularly in social media, although of course in the right wing press too. In the last month, Jack Monroe (food campaigner) was forced off Twitter for a while because of attacks on their family and Graham Norton is now off Twitter for daring to suggest that celebs don’t have much to say about trans issues, and maybe ‘experts’ and trans people should be listened to. The changes in the law against protest and strikes, which demonises people for using tactics of peaceful non-compliance that have built the modern world we live in. I might feel irritated about being inconvenienced, but without any other democratic voice, what are people supposed to do?  To be fair, there are elements in the left who do their fair share of shouting and piling on hatred, where anything other than pure adherence to an ideology is an anathema. The thing is that all of these issues require nuanced thinking none of which is enabled by people shouting over each other. 

It leaks into my real world though. Last week I had an older person (remaining nameless) share a nasty bit of anti-trans propaganda on Facebook. As always these things are cloaked in ‘reasonableness’ and in this case, also women’s rights. Don’t get me started on the sheer gall of anyone claiming to be a feminist trying to prevent others having rights. Anyway, I’m not convinced the person understood what they were sharing, but the fact that it was out in the world spreading hate, ironically (or is it unironic, getting confused now!!) made me really, really angry. And it makes me think differently about that person. Hate begets more hate, always.   

 So where now? I suppose I try to stay proud and own the name-calling that is always thrown at people who are different or disagree. Currently that’s ‘Woke’, ‘Anti-Growth Coalition’, ‘Tofu-rati?’…. Yes please, bring it on. 

 But, I’m going to keep my safe spaces of lovely romcoms, great theatre and fiction, joyful music and dancing in the kitchen as well as the tougher and more challenging stuff too. We all need a rest sometimes right?