Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Coalition of Wrong All the Time

No links, no sources, no references, no quotes.

How much longer must we listen to media sources telling us that those who have been wrong about everything so far are right this time?

It's an unfair question I know.

The central dilemma facing the media is that for the past quarter century or so, since the Reagan-Thatcher years or thereabouts, it's been de rigeur to belittle and shame anyone whose political opinions don't fall ever so slightly to the right of Benito Mussolini. If you weren't in favour of having the trains run on time during the eighties you were obviously a commie and now, in the early years of the new reign of terror, you're obviously a suicide bomber.

I'm not particulary willing to concede that either the Iron Lady or The Gipper were even sentient let alone perspicacious but nevertheless some dirty little bits of their perverse and antediluvian world view appear to have evolved into particles of accepted wisdom, always a dodgy notion even at the best of times. (If you need examples of accepted wisdom being a dodgy notion you should return your computer and tell them you're too stupid to own one.)

So today, in 2007, the public generally accepts the idea that some dweeb on the right of the fictitious spectrum is more deserving of trust than some dweeb on the left.

Who do we have to thank for this?

I'd like to send them a fucking card.

Of course I can't.

They're almost all dead.

Yet still the media cling to the idea that those who've been wrong about everything are the people to go to in order to ask about what might happen next .

When you think about it, I suppose we should be satisfied that our sun is referred to as the centre of the solar system in most of the media.

Not all, mind you, merely most.

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