To wonder when being a gobshite got rebranded as 'straight talking'

[Revengeoftheseabass]

Trump, Farage and their ilk seem to use the classic language and manner of the playground bully and the pub boor, all swagger and sneers. And yet, in many quarters, they seem to get praised for their supposed 'honesty'.

How the hell have the public come to fall for it? No wonder someone like Ed Miliband never stood a chance.

[IMissGrannyW]

your title is fantastic.

Your OP immediately loses your audience.

Shame. This could've been a better conversation.

Have a bacon sandwich.

[JunosRevenge]

Sorry OP I haven't anything useful to add. I just wanted to say that 'gobshite' is my favourite word

[OliviaBensonOnAGoodDay]

I agree with you. I feel like we're going backwards. Someone on here posted about a 'post truth society' - rejecting expertise and qualification in favour of instinct. I think that's what's happening.

Trump, Farage etc certainly don't 'talk' to or for me, straight or otherwise.

[annandale]

Can't blame people for being fed up with the status quo but what contempt Putin and other fascist oligarchs have for the world, to offer Trump as our dummy to suck while they get on with ransacking all possible stores of power and resources.

[monal]

Can I borrow your thread title for my march sign? I love it.

[UnconventionalWarfare]

Yes yes thats totally why milliband failed it was nothing to do with him being an inept bumbling idiot

[KC225]

Monal - are you re-branding the zodiac signs? I can't wait to hear someone describe themselves as on the cusp of gobshite and knobhead or whatever the March one is

[amispartacus]

People say it how it is. They don't care about offending people or the effect on other people. Because they're other. Not them. And being other is bad, so bad. But if you're us, you're great. You don't care about being PC. You want to hear people who say it how it is. That's what makes you want to listen to people like that.

(*you does not mean you, OP. It means the people who listen to the people who say it how it is and speak to people)

[CripsSandwiches]

The "straight talkers" also usually the same people who are very easily offended by the smallest criticism directed towards them. Essentially they're a load of bullies that are used to getting their own way.

[amispartacus]

It's also an interesting coincedence that many straight talkers who dismiss others as 'snowflakes' happen to be members of privileged groups and who have a massive platform - but seem to get upset when others who don't have a massive platform try to get their message across.

[merrymouse]

People like to be reassured that the world is simple. Farage and Trump don't 'tell it like it is', they tell people what they want to hear. 'Telling it like it is' would be boring and possibly unpleasant.

It's very noticeable that when Trump's actions or ideas are critiscized, he doesn't have the ability to argue his case, he makes a personal attack.

However, some people seem to like that.

[VintagePerfumista]

About the same time as people being told they were being U and a bit twatty decided that meant they were being bullied I imagine.

(am talking about forums though, not nutters being put in charge of the world)

[AllPowerfulLizardPerson]

People are, in increasing numbers, choosing that style of communication to the weasel words that dogged the previous couple of decades.

Why? Various reasons I suppose. Feeling that the political classes were mendacious, were more concerned with spin than substance?

[BadKnee]

The words, whether "straight talking" or "weasel worded", have become what matters now - and it will be our downfall. No-one can be arsed to look at facts or alternative points of view, or do any research.

What do people actually do? Where is their money? What risks are they taking? Who is financing them? What about history?

I find if I challenge either a "gobshite" or a "politically correct, post truthist" I am immediately shouted down as "one of them" - ie "the other side".

In the meantime it allows those who act like shits to get away with doing whatever they want to.