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?

The US government might do all kinds of things behind the scenes, but the quite blatant, shameless boorishness and boldness of Trump and Vance is new, I think. It shows that they think - maybe know? - that the population will let them get away with it, and that's not good.

They have been emboldened and the leader of the Western World now behaves like a third-world dictator with no pretence to statesmanship or dignity on the world stage.

Trump may not even be the worst POTUS ...

James Buchanan oversaw the arming of the southern states and weakening the federal army ahead of the US civil war

I really agree about the change in calibre of politicians - certainly those who are very in the public eye. I think a lot of it is to do with the extraordinary, horrifying amount of abuse modern politicians (across the political spectrum) are expected to tolerate as part of the job.

So, personally, I think it’s less to do with any box ticking and more to do with why on Earth would anyone want to do the job?! If you were an intellectual, critical thinker - on either the left or right - with a genuine desire to make the world a better place, you may very well not see party politics as the way to do that.

I think to survive politics now, you need an extraordinarily thick skin and a kind of bullish self belief and I don’t think that necessary lends itself to intellectual rigour, critical thinking and an ability to see a bigger picture.

Isabel Hardman’s book Why We Got the Wrong Politicians is very interesting and touches on some of this.

Agree, @Visiblyabove25 especially in the political landscape we now inhabit with social media driving misinformation on all sides.

I've had that sodding song in my head ever since this first hit the news. Bloody XTC have given me the worst ear worm ever.

Or Farage and reform refusing to condemn the call to shoot a sitting 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?

To be fair, the councillor offered a full explanation and apology. From the Guardian link posted last night;

“Yesterday, I shared a post featuring Natalie Fleet MP highlighting how she voted on the grooming gang inquiry. As many of you know, this is an issue close to my heart and something I have been campaigning on tirelessly even before I was elected,”

“Unfortunately what I did not notice was the accompanying text of the Facebook post that was created by an unknown user. As soon as this was pointed out, I immediately deleted the post. I would never intentionally call for or wish violence upon anyone, regardless of their political beliefs. This sort of rhetoric has absolutely no place in our politics.”

“I would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Fleet and anyone else for the offence caused. This was completely unintentional and was a genuine mistake that we can all make from time to time, especially on social media.”

Do you think Polanski should be held to the same standard and 'sincerely apologise' to Farage?

I know. Me too.

Yet you have many Reform supporters here advocating for bringing back hanging.

Like another poster aptly observed, the Greens and Reform are “two cheeks of the same arse”.

Yes, I’ve been an opponent of the death penalty since I was a teenager and have made exactly the same observation about the Greens and Reform many times.

The irony about the death penalty continues. Now we've got posters moaning they can't get the song out their heads. All downplayed. It's not far right to be outraged at heinous crimes and your emotions tell you to wish the worst on child killers, for instance.

Luckily we have justice not vengeance then, isn't it ?

Were you thinking of the capitol being stormed by MAGA supporters or when it was stormed by Gaza supporters?

Unfortunately we have a soft criminal justice system supported by Liberal luvvies.

Yet ZP has stated he wants to remove all restrictions on Iran despite the IRG killing over 56,000 Iranian citizens including hanging a load more the last few days for doing things like being a doctor treating injured protestors.

Thinking of madam guillotine, hopefully ZP hasn’t taking up knitting recently….

You prefer vengeance then ?

Trust you, me , you wouldn't You really wouldn't

Surely the alternative to soft justice is firm justice not vengeance? Vengeance is what happens when people don’t think they have justice - cf soft justice.

Not vengeance but adequate punishment.

He's a useful idiot who only manages to fool a minority. He's working on behalf of Islamic extremists who don't have the west's interests at heart.

I do not support Reform at all. But you don't have to support a political party for you to think it is disgusting that people joke about executing them for holding beliefs which don't align with their own

NFA’d. Unsurprisingly. It’s not the Met’s job to referee bickering politicians.

Bickering politicians. If only that line was held consistently.

In recent years I have found the authoritarian/libertarian axis of the political compass more informative than the left/right axis.

https://www.politicalcompass.org/

Hahaha 👏

I think ZP is just a very stupid man. He said he could make women's breasts grow by hynotis, then he said he didn't say it, then they showed him on film saying it and then apparently it was a joke or something. Stupid man, grifter and running a very anti semitic party that thinks men in frocks are more important that bilogical women.

The current green party are a bag of odd sorts and nothing like the Green party of the environment of old. I voted for them years ago, now they are awful but seem to have pulled the wool over the eyes of some.