Zack Polanski and the guillotine

[Everanewbie]

AIBU to be sceptical that much will be done about Zack Polanski's tweet of an image of man wearing a t-shirt depicting a guillotine and the words "making plans for Nigel"?

Now I am not in favour of prosecuting people for words, and I don't want ZP sent to prison. But I would like to see this level of hate stop.

And I am finding the left to be extremely hypocritical with the violent rhetoric while simultaneously celebrating the arrest of Lucy Connelly and Graham Linehan?

Agree with your first para, but I think the implications carried by the guillotine are more far-reaching than just a single assassination - not advocating that either!

The Terror was a fairly indiscriminate extermination of political/class enemies which got totally out of hand and devoured hundreds -thousands?? of people, often without trial or any kind of justification except that Robbespierre didn't like the cut of your silk coat or your wig etc. In the end it devoured a lot of those who supported it.

So it's more scary than just advocating assassination - it's a subtle threat to a much larger group of people...people who ZP doesn't like!

(I'm not suggesting he's really threatening to set up the guillotine - I'm just saying why I think that image carries a particularly nasty threat).

There's no other explanation needed other than a tone deaf mentality at play. What I do find interesting is the depiction of a beheading. Hmmm

Yes, that's a perspective I hadn't seen. Fair comment.

Exactly. That’s what’s underlying all this.

Neither ZP or NF should be leading influential political parties. Both the same type of political activists, agitators with a over inflated egos driven by desire to be noticed and create division than a desire to make life better through politics for the majority

I hope the Green Party members start questioning who is leading their party and where are they going and look to replace ZP. As for Reform they will fold as soon as NF decides to step down

I can't stand Captain Hypno-tits or Farage for that matter.

But he should say sorry, I don't know why he's so afraid of saying it. Actually I can guess. He can't bring himself to stoop to apologise to someone he thinks is so far beneath him, even when he's the one who fucked up. Thinks it will lower him in the eyes of his followers. If it was the other way round he'd be howling for an apology though and that's why he should. What's good for the goose etc.

"Inciting violence is wrong, I should have kept better control of my social media and for that I am sorry"

There you go captain. Just say that. You're welcome.

Just like Donald Trump celebrating Robert Mueller's death.

Or the MAGA lot laughing at the attacks on the Hortman's and Pelosi's.

Or MEGA lot wishing death and worse on anyone they dislike e.g., Great Thunberg, JSO, migrants, etc., etc.

Or Farage and reform refusing to condemn the call to shoot a sittong MP by one of their councillors.

Why do you hold the left to much higher standards than your own side? Is it cause, deep down, you know the left have the morally superior position?

Left and moral superiority 😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆

Anne Widdecombe spoke out very clearly about the decline in the quality of politicians. She said it happened immediately as a direct result of box ticking criteria being introduced for inclusion members. ( Ditch meritocracy, ditch merit. )

it's because "the left" believes they "have the morally superior position". Other political spectrums do not hold such views about themselves, they identify as pragmatic.

I think frequently the left don’t actually have the morally superior position. Nowhere is this clearer than the knee jerk support for “trans rights”.

Which Zack Polanski is an enthusiastic supporter of.

I'm left wing and I don't consider myself morally superior. I do consider myself more pragmatic than some on the right who seem very emotionally driven and allow their personal views of what is 'fair' get in the way of common sense.
Example, benefits.
Emotionally driven right wing view: "we should cut welfare because its not fair that working people pay for others to be idle"
Pragmatic left wing view: "we shouldn't cut welfare because the poorer you make people the less employable they are and the more they end up costing in the long run".

Morally superior 😂

If your morals are dependant on the person and not the action, then they aren’t morals, are they?

Two cheeks of the same arse!

Very apt and succinct.

They throw inane whataboutery and hypocritical accusations backwards and forwards without any self-reflection, and react with fury to anybody who disagrees accusing them of being “the enemy”.

The inability of both extremes to see that they are pretty much indistinguishable is what demonstrates beyond any doubt that neither can be taken seriously and both are entirely unfit to hold any kind of public office.

I suppose that’s why they don’t make “Spitting Image” anymore: who could parody these people better than they do themselves with their own rants?

I see it in reverse to be honest.

Like ‘tax the billionaires’
When the outcome is the billionaires just end up leaving, and then you get zero tax.

But sometimes pragmatism is going to mean welfare cuts can’t be avoided. It’s not either/or. You’re falling into the same trap, everyone else is “emotive” and your beliefs are sensible and grown up.

Although making “Reform sound reasonable” is certainly not achievable! Reform and the Greens are both totally insane, economically illiterate, and endorse appalling, hateful, dangerous and violent behaviour, incite hatred and division and neither has any viable solution to a single one of the UK’s most pressing issues. They are all delusional, dishonest, populist and not very bright, attracting primarily the dregs of society because they try to move the Overton Window and convince people that their brands of hatred are acceptable.

The people leading these parties are only interested in power for their own ends and will say whatever they think will get them votes no matter how idiotic. They have no viable plan and no intention of improving things for the residents of the UK. More people seem to be realising this as time goes on, thankfully.

Of course they aren’t morally superior! But they talk as though they are, and there are a lot of easily impressed, uninformed people listening.

No, I'm responding to the accusation that having left wing views means a person is motivated by their self image as a good person rather than by pragmaticism, by giving an example that disproves it. I've not used the words sensible or grown up at all.
I'm aware of what the evidence shows. That welfare cuts lead to greater costs to other services and have only a negative impact on employability. If the evidence showed the opposite I'd probably support welfare cuts, because its about the greater good, not who's the kindest.

What we need is a Government that stops making decisions based on any kind of ideology and makes evidence-based policy instead.

No sign of any prospect of that though, unfortunately.

Whereas I see that as unproven so far. Because the French model was an entirely different one, targeting much lower wealth levels, the US exit tax seems to work for them, and our economy is large enough to make us attractive enough to stay, even if we tax billionaires an amount they couldn't possibly miss.
On a wider point, it's not pragmatic that a tiny portion of society is rich beyond all reason, making millions in passive income each day while the rest of society gets poorer as a result. Its not sustainable. Its also not pragmatic to allow a whole society to be held hostage to the whims of a tiny minority. Their power threatens our democracy.

I think that’s a rather sweeping, cherry picked view of what “the evidence” shows. Sometimes cuts will have to be made because the money is needed for other things, and “the greater good” is very difficult to quantify, because something always has to give. But not the place for this argument. I do think you’re showing a significant amount of cognitive bias though.

I agree. On all sides there are tribalists who just lap up any old shite because it suits their agenda.

The left are represented by the public sector. It's as simple as that for me. All the same ideology and loathing of the right.