To wonder if any of you read the Daily Mail as a 'guilty pleasure'?

[Dolcelatte]

I am new to MN and have noticed the repeated references to the DM and readers of it as being bigoted, racist and generally beyond redemption. This surprises me as my impression of MN is that its membership, whereas diverse in some respects, mainly comprises those middle of the road, middle class females who work hard at their careers, marriages, families etc: in short, exactly the sort of people I would expect to read the DM.

The DM has a huge circulation and somebody must be buying it. So hands up all those who have this 'guilty pleasure'.

Btw, I confess to buying the DM on Sundays, as I really like the mag.

Aitch, Internet. Serious business.

NO

It makes me vomit and shake with rage

not vomit with rage. separate reactions.

Don't you just get the vapours Hully.

Getting the vapours sounds more elegant. Vomiting with rage is very frothing berserker

I do, it's the only online free newspaper I can navigate successfully.

I am ashamed.

Although, it does at least give me the advantage of knowing WTF my Mum and Dad are on about when they are having one of their regular rants.

Excuses, excuses.

it's one of the few things that does provoke the frothing berserker from deep within.

at least the sun, express shite etc openly say, Here we are, a total pile of racist sexist xenophobic unpleasant raddled old shite WITH TITS!!!

whereas the DM does it with net curtains and a naice car on the drive.

And I had years of visiting my step MIL (who is lovely) but who would inform us that all asylum seekers lived in Hampstead mansions and took all the jobs etc and that it was true because she read it in the DM.

I do have the odd peep at the sleb bit of it online. It is like crack. Nasty but strangely alluring. I now know more than I ever needed to about TOWIE - a programme I have never watched! - and have seen enough pictures of Kim Kardashian's bum to last a lifetime.

I don't read the 'news' bit or the ghastly Femail because they both make me feel murderous.

It's hateful, in both senses of the word.

It is also very readable and dense- I picked up a free copy on a long haul flight. I sat down and checked out smiled at my neighbour; he smiled back, then saw the paper and put the screen up.

I read it online - it's my way of catching up with the sleb gossip. I have also been known to leave a green or red arrow, as some of the comments just cry out for them

I don't buy or read it, I don't buy the Express either which in my opinion is worse and I don't read/buy the Sun. The Guardian is full of twaddle as well . In fact not a fan of newspapers in general , but I don't much care for naice ham either and I'd be bereft in a word without coke and fruit shoots and of course prepacked, washed and sliced veg.

at WITH TITS!!!

You think it is the acceptable face of racism/sexism/otherisms?

I can absolutely u derstand anyone who says they won't read it, can't stand it etc.

It is the hysterical tone by some on here that makes me batty, with alerts in headings and yet endless, endless links. If they stopped linking all the fucking time. And the really sneery 'i don't read it so I am better than you' stuff

I read "femail" on line, together with MN it is my bit of "entertainment" for the day

What is interesting is the number of posters who refer to the DM being read by parents or parents-in-law. It seems that children who have been to an extent socially upwardly mobile want to distance themselves from their more 'humble' backgrounds, of which they are in some way ashamed. Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but social groups generally tend to most hate and despise the one immediately below them - perhaps because they are too close for comfort! It's just a theory, but it as though some MN posters are sufficiently socially confident not to be concerned by readers of the Daily Express or the Sun whereas they find readers of the DM more threatening in some way.

The received career counselling is that you should dress for the job you aspire to, not the one you already have. Perhaps it is the same with newspapers.

yars pag. The net curtain face of frothing berserkery.

Dolcelatte - Or......

it could just be it's a plie of shit WITH TITZ!!!!

Oh, not TITZ!!! because it has pretensions.

I read it to feel that warm feeling of horror, disgust and utter rage, of a nice morning. Don't like feeling 'happy' for too long, makes me nervous, so reading the DM sees to that.

I read the 'sleb bits because I have a tendency to deviate from my University work at any given opportunity, plus I like reading the comments for shits and giggles.

DDad read/reads The Times and the FT. DMum reads the DM and the Telegraph. DDad is marginally more rational thand DMum. Probably, because he doesn't instantly believe anything he reads.

DMum is a fully paid up frothing beserker. If she had nets and neighbours she would twitch. Fortunately DDad was kind enough to the village to make sure there are no neighbours within sight.

I do enjoy a good red/green arrow session. And I will confess to leaving comments. I enjoy putting them right, and correcting their spelling/grammar.

I didn't know there were comments and such and that you could leave them. I haven't seen the online one apart from a glimpse of all those people down the side I've never heard of.

Oh no, a whole new world beckons...

Dolce,

I think you are spot on. I am completely open about reading the DM, even though some of my friends are openly aghast , especially those who are very aware of class (and they think they are probably "above" DM readers class).

A friend told me I "get away" with things like this as I'm foreign and therefore not part of the English -caste- class system.

Through I cannot read the DM political views as they basically want people like me OUT of the country, so I just read the celeb stuff, and the fashion stuff (makes me laugh) online.

I find it helps me understand how English people think. (MN is another great source)

It is fascistic arse-gravy and I wouldn't sully my cat's litter tray with it. The fact that they give Liz Jones a platform from which to spurt forth her crazed ramblings is enough to make me fantasise about it going the same way as the NOTW....

I occasionally read it in coffee shops in a sort of 'know your enemy' kind of way.

Oh Hully, but it so much fun, whipping the beserkers up into an uncontainable rage of froth. The aim is to fuck up the red/green arrows as much as possible. Or to collect menny, menny little red blobs of shame yourself

Oh, the Express is a hideous rag!

My MIL loves the Express and Mail. She brings them over and pours over them at the kitchen table, believing every word as if it were Gospel Truth and commenting loudly on stories and expecting me or DH to agree...

e.g. 'Did you know that there is a mass Eastern European gangster mugging spree happening in London? It's terrible isn't it, these Eastern European mobsters coming over here and robbing those poor, innocent, British old ladies?' or 'Did you know that you would be better off if you gave up work and went on benefits? This story says this fat, poor, drug-addled 14 yr old sponges a grand a week from the government while innocent, British working people are starving. Doesnt that make you angry?!'

She is an immigrant from the Caribbeans herself, which infuriates DH.
She once offered the paper to my dad when she had finished reading it and he thanked her and joked that it might come in handy later when the loo roll ran out. She didnt laugh.