Colleague made sarky comment about me re. GB News

[OneStepBeyondd]

Discussion at work earlier - does anyone watch the news. Another colleague and I said we don’t mind GB news on occasion to which someone said (directed at me) - ‘I didn’t have you down as one of them’ in a judgemental tone.

Is it me or is that a bit rude and unnecessary?

Not when it's applied incorrectly.

Look at how many net dependents are being brought in the last few years. These are all reliant on the state. Our demand on services have gone up massively without enough net contributors to pay for it. You can either have a homogeneous, higher trust society that provides welfare or a diverse, lower trust one that doesn't. Look at "progressive" Denmark and Sweden which have both massively reduced immigration in order to protect public services.

"I've read the Guardian on occasion so I know what it's like. So I know what people who read it are like. Empty-headed, easily led, and anti-Semitic."

How do you like your logic now?

you say “we”. What group of mumsnet users do you represent? Can you not just own your own views without making yourself part of a group?

Yeah I suppose I was claiming membership of the set of MNers who have an opinion about GB News as a result of having seen it rather than of having not seen it. Our views could all be very different. I don't like being called biased when I've taken the time to come to a reasonable judgement, which is quite different. My own view is mixed and I haven't mentioned it. I like some of the coverage of sex-based issues but not much else.

That's a perfectly fair post.

I'd be judging you as well I'm afraid... Nasty, right wing, biased, misogynistic organisation. I believe they've been in breach of ofcom impartiality rules more than once. Maybe find a less biased news source.

Oh My God! Right wing! That's Wrongthink.

Bingo!

Iliberal political agendas are not restricted to GB news and most media has political opinions that reinforce their viewers or readers beliefs. Most of the so called progressive left wing media have more entrenched and less tolerant views than GB news, but it's easy and lazy to label people who might watch it as some threat to modern society. There has been a successful campaign by the left to label anyone that has any view not held by them as extreme right wing and facists. This is extremely insulting to those that have or do live under proper facist regimes and is counter productive as it devalues the meaning.
The judging of someone's character and value by whether they watched a news channel is just a way some people make themselves feel superior. Their judgemental intolerance that seeps into every aspect of our lives is a far bigger threat to our society than GB news.
It's not a surprise though, OP, as you can see from this thread.

This. All day long 👏 👏

Blimey. It’s probably not just Islington anyway.

If you can't critically think, then you can't critically think. I don't think watching something, to 'know thy enemy' is going to sway you. I always thought people like Boris Johnson are dangerous. Unfortunately a lot if people, including on here, read/watch stuff to confirm their bias.

Do you read and watch stuff to confirm your bias?

I wouldn’t have said anything to you but I would have thought it. Whether it is true or not, I would automatically assume that you have completely different values to me. I would not want to be friends with someone that supports giving these right-wing, misogynistic and racist viewpoints a platform. I would be civil to you at work of course but I would not put my time and energy into a relationship with you.

As a Tory myself I don't judge people who read the Guardian

I would pick up on your negative energy vibe and realise you weren't very good at your job. That's low level correlation that matches yours.

You're admitting you're a Tory on MN? Good on you. It's like putting a chicken in a foxes' den.

"Automatically assume".

OK, so you have insight into your bigotry which is the first step in addressing it. Do you think there might be any advantages in learning more about people instead of dismissing them on the basis of prejudices, which you admit might be wrong, which you form on a TV programme that they say they sometimes watch?

Proud conservative

Me too, except I'm an ex proud Conservative. It looks like it will be a while before they win me back.

Andrew Doyle, a gay comedian and free-speech supporter who has just written a book on old-fashioned liberalism, suggesting that liberalism is the way forward, used to have a really good show on GB News called Free Speech Nation, which I used to watch. I'm an active member of the Labour Party, have volunteered with asylum seekers and an very active in the women's movement.

But if I mentioned I'd watched anything on GB News you'd decide my lifelong liberal-centre-left values weren't good enough for you, and that I was misogynist and racist? Have I got that right?

Do you have any idea of how blinkered and authoritarian you sound?

Re distribution of money to the rich??? When did this happen? It's the other way round!!!!!! Rich and workers distribute their money to the poor/vulnerable/lazy!! It's called tax.

Im EXACTLY the same, I want to be won back, so far nothing has happened....

https://www.jrf.org.uk/narrative-change/changing-the-narrative-on-wealth-inequality#:~:text=Wealth%20inequality%20is%20high%20and%20rising%20and%20more%20marked%20than,World%20Inequality%20Lab%2C%202022).

the divide between rich and poor is bigger than ever

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/evidence-base/billionaire-britain-2025/ the rise of billionaires

Do you understand what tax is?