Welcome to ‘The Scroll’
I’m going to try something new and we’ll see if it’s popular or not. Each morning as I scroll through my X feed I’m going to clip out the events that stood out to me and comment. This will be my first look, first reaction and if I’m wildly incorrect about stuff then I may update the over the next few days. Sometimes it’ll be longer than others, but generally will be a quick toilet read.
I’ll link to the profile of whoever posted, doesn’t mean they were first or that I follow them/support them and all that shit, just means that’s where I saw it. If you’re a listener to Horizon Scan then you’ll know where my worldview currently is, so you can expect to see that reflected in things I comment on.
I’m happy to take any feedback on this content so we can make it better, assuming it’s useful/entertaining. I’ll probably make it free for all Substack subscribers for the first week or so, then it’ll move to paid only.
Ok let’s start with this idiot, ‘which one?’ you might say and you’d be right. But in this case we’re talking about Dawn Butler the Labour MP for Brent East. She’s typical in many ways of the lack of seriousness many people now accept from their representatives. Name calling and point scoring like they’re a social media influencer instead of doing an important job. I’ve got to be honest I fully expected her to be gone after the election, but then I’ve never been to Brent so that was just wishful thinking.
I’m sure it’s obvious to you why I chose this post. Imagine the opposite, that’d be unacceptable and Dawn would be the first to cry racism and leverage it to get clout online. I could not be more bored of talking about the colour of peoples skin or who they sleep with, I watch your actions. If you want me to obsess about something other than your actions, I question why and will likely disregard you as a serious person. Like much of where we are in the World now, this will continue until you publicly say it’s unacceptable and stand by your words.
Not much to say about this one is there, are you surprised? I tell you what is surprising though, where are the IRA now Ireland is actually being invaded? I’m fairly sure Sinn Féin are all for the current influx of migrants turning up in towns. If it was the British being moved into camps, housed and fed, you’d expect them to be on fire pretty quickly. Odd that that’s not happening.
If you don’t have it within yourself to ensure you have some sort of acceptable photo ID in order to prove you are who you say you are when trying to vote, then I’m not sure your capacity to process the world around you is sufficient for you to have a vote. That goes for ‘look at me’ veterans taking a card they’ve been told won’t work too. Worth remembering that the reason this gets pushed so much here and in the USA is so you’re so pissed off about it that the ‘create problem-cause reaction-provide solution’ loop leads to support for Digital ID, uncle Tony’s pet project. We’ve spoken about Digital ID ad nauseam on Horizon Scan, but for those who don’t listen here’s why that isn’t the solution for this problem. It won’t just be an ID app, it’ll be an all in one solution to your daily life. It’ll integrate with your health records, credit score and banking and your passport. In a benevolent world this will be super convenient and will probably make much of life better, I’m actually not against much of it as a technology. This issue I have is how easy it will make it to punish descent from government policy, just look back a few years and think how things would’ve been different with this up and running. Yes you can have your banking stopped, you couldn’t get it places or travel during covid without proving vaccination etc, it’s not that they can’t already do this stuff, it’s that when they do it’s ‘a thing’. People react to it and push back. When it’s common place and normalised into a generation that knows no different, that’s less likely to happen. Your kids reaction to £20 being deducted from their pay/benefits/UBI(?!) will just be ‘ah shit, shouldn’t have shared that post about Dawn Butler being a racist’.
Buy candles and firewood, Beaker wants you poor and cold.
You’ll notice I’m linking a fair bit of Government policy stuff today and I don’t want you to think I’m being partisan, Labour are in Government, Labour will endure the crucible of public opinion. For those non Horizon Scan listeners, I don’t actually give a shit who’s in power, provided they’re competent and make things better. If I’m paying taxes I think that’s the least I should expect. I wanted the Tories to get zero seats because they betrayed those who voted for them time and time again. Brexit was an anomaly that we’ll see Labour continue the Tories work of watering it down through alignment.
I’m not a fan of the above policy. I’d prefer more sensible sentences in the first place that people carry out in full. A friend (ex BT Police and Para Reg) pointed out that it’ll only be non violent offenders etc, which obviously doesn’t seem so bad if that’s the case. But these things never stay sensible, the goalposts shift at Government convenience once you allow them to. You only have to look at the USA to see what the left have done in blue states with criminals and the results. The cynical would say it’s a deliberate policy to keep the middle class off balance and demoralised by creating Anarcho-Tyranny - linked is a good piece on what that is.
Anarcho-tryanny is better understood, or defined, as a method of oppression in which a political regime facilitates civil disorder, and uses social and state power to pathologize or criminalize any independent resistance to that disorder in order to terrorize its political enemies and to manipulate the rest into supporting the regime and its political goals.
Sound familiar?
One final thing on Labour now being in power in the UK, pay attention to how they work. They implement what they want unashamedly. They just do it without the explaining and excuses for why that you’d see if this was the (unfortunately not dead) Conservative party. There’s lessons to be learnt there. What will be interesting and may potentially tell you a lot about the state of the UK establishment, is when Starmer pulls the leavers of power, will they move? Or will the Civil Service decide to block him as they did on many occasions with the Tories.
El Salvador isn’t perfect, but it was a basket case prior to 2019. You may not like the optics (I do) but you cannot deny that Bukele is a man of action who has vastly improved the lives of many. That’s his job and he’s good at it. Plus who doesn’t want to bring back capes?
Worth having a read of the clipped parts of the speech. I think she’s certainly correct that the political symbols shouldn’t fly over any national institutions, just the national flag. It’s not harmless, it’s divisive and exclusionary. I also suspect that many of her Tory colleagues didn’t truly support any of it, they were just too weak in character to object.
The Gay rights battle was won many years ago now and no one really gives a shit anymore. What I find very interesting is the attitude of many of the prominent gay and lesbian figures who fought through the hard times of the 70s/80’s/90’s and who are largely responsible for the ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude of most of the public. Many of them completely disown the ‘T+’ of LGBT+, they want nothing to do with it or any of the ‘treatment’ offered up. They’re also disillusioned with ‘Pride Month’ etc and rainbow symbols everywhere. These people know their own community and you should pay attention to their opinion.
That’ll do for today. If you have any feedback drop it in the comments.
See you tomorrow.
Good read I think.
This was good. I enjoyed it.