Swarms of people at Calais... Take 2

[LazyLouLou]

yes, I was an extremely rude and a bad poster. I called some people nasty names and didn't take into consideration that mentioning their race alongside my ire would be breaking the rules. However... Sunday Morning Live...

IABU to think that one person, A, ranting on about a politician using the word swarm, as though the word itself was in some way racist, is to miss the point about the refugee situation at Calais?

IABU to think that another person, B, telling A that they were being unreasonable and were missing the point was entirely reasonable?

AIBU to agree with B that likening the journalists in the camps to literary genius is ludicrous - B did not say anything, just looked stunned when A said "they are literally recreating Pilgrim's Progress".

AIBU to allow As woolly lefty utterance to derail my own usual left leanings so much that I have been shrieking at the telly in an almost deranged right wing manner: sticks and stones you stupid person? Get a grip on reality...

I know I was VVU in the way I first phrased all of that. But A was so very, very bereft of common sense and was so very, very full of pious mewlings.

The Calais situation needs action, not to be derailed by the use of one damned word... that has been suddenly redefined so as to give offense!

Pah!

So do you think the word swarm does that?

That is the point here. Not that all similes and metaphors are bad. Or we would have to start burning books, poetry being full of them!

The examples you have given are hate filled, fuelled by violent experiences and would not be used out of that context or by people who had not had those experiences. I too know ex soldiers who use such terms, it is sometimes a defence mechanism. Highly unpleasant, but somewhat understandable and nothing like the example here.

I am sure you would not hate lyrical writing of all sorts just because it might include a simile or a metaphor, would you?

Emeraldkitten: "making a nuisance of themselves"shock. Check your head

Why?

They are making a nuisance of themselves. What would you call it?

Well to be fair Dawndonna "disability hate crime" was pretty much an unknown term until it became fashionable a couple of years ago.
I think you mean acknowledged.

Well, they certainly swarmed over and through that fence last night.

So do you think the word swarm does that?

Yes as do the actions of his government

Why talk so much about a word when there's a much bigger problem to fix?

why indeed.

Why talk so much about a word when there's a much bigger problem to fix?

I'm actually wondering whether its (a) part of a psychological condition and/or (b) part of a political ploy adopted by supporters of a certain persuasion to derail discussion. The word in itself, or even in context, isn't so vastly offensive even to the most imaginative interpretation (equivalent to "during the first Gulf War a US army pilot referred to bombing civilians as being like the Fourth of July", I don't think so).

You could actually get worked up over just about any word if you tried hard enough, if you linked it to a past offensive usage.

I recall when David Blunkett was Home Secretary he got into trouble for using the word 'swamped' when describing a large influx of migrants to the UK. How ridiculous that people can get so uptight over usage of an everyday expression, then and now.

BTW, I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this has already been pointed out.

We should have a proper immigration system set up at Calais and we should let these people into the UK under immigration law.

This situation is not going to go away just be the government cutting benefits to immigrants here. People will keep trying to cross into the UK.

We need to start dealing with thus properly instead of just pontificating like David Cameron. We need to recognise that as long as the world is unstable, people will want to live in peace and they can do that in the UK.

Swarming can just mean things moving in large numbers, not necessarily insects. That is one of the dictionary definitions and it was used correctly in that sense. Like swarms of shoppers, swarms of photographers, swarms of soldiers, swarms of travellers, swarms of guests, swarms of visitors.

It's just the ol' technique of crying racism to shut down debate.

Swarm' was chosen by Tory PR team for obvious reasons and with the desired consequences: to create a lot of moral handwriting about the use of the word 'swarm' as a smokescreen for the next month while the government goes on holiday.

It really wasn't. It was an off the cuff remark made by a human being under pressure in response to press questioning. No conspiracy or hidden agenda at all.

Get a grip.

Tabby at all which I'm sure you know. IRL pretty much everyone would agree with you. But trying to address the professionally offended on mumsnet will only exacerbate the hand wringing I'm afraid.