A guest post by Samuel Miller
‘The pen is mightier than the sword’
True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself is nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
States can be saved without it!
From the play Richelieu; Or The Conspiracy: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
In short? The written word is powerful. People can be moved to acts of great kindness and humanitarian aid, or they can be moved to acts of intolerance and great inhumanity. They can be motivated to feel true empathy, humour, regret, hope, aspiration even. Or they can be made to feel doubt, uncertainty, anger, fear and hatred. In the hands of a true wordsmith it is a tool or a weapon that can influence the emotions and opinions of individuals and populations alike for good or ill.
The medium of newsprint is a tool, as are radios, TVs, tablets, laptops etc. They lie there harmless to all until someone starts to speak to you through them. It is the intent of the user, the nature of the platform from which they speak, which determines whether they remain tools, or become weapons.
THAT is the power of the media.
To coin a popular phrase from pop culture though, ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’, or in the case of our media, what responsibility?
After the broadcast time and column space filled over the past four years by the Uk’s media, do I really need to post links to every video, front page or quote written about Scotland’s electorate, the YES movement, or the Scottish Government? Is it necessary to point out or remind everyone that the language used across the media has been less than uplifting or positive? The writers and broadcasters know exactly what they are doing. They have a stake in the outcome and it doesn’t matter whether that is corporate, ideological, political, or all three together. They are attempting to achieve a goal by any means necessary that is within their power. The aim of the exercise is to remove a potential or perceived threat to their political view/influence, their world view and quite possibly their livelihoods. To be crystal clear, I actually don’t have a problem with their right to earn a coin or believe what they choose. A ‘right’ is not a serving suggestion. I do however, have a major problem with the ‘any means necessary’ part though, which constitutes a massive grey area and which some elements in the media industry find acceptable and exploitable.
They know that the language they use and the narrative they sell affects emotion and opinion. It is pretty much the day job and they’ve been doing it for a very long time. It also has a very real impact on and very real consequences for people’s lives. That’s the part many in media land don’t appear too big on holding their hands up to. When the emotions and opinions they manipulate spill over into harm for the public, the media are just as quick to fill column space with outrage and… ‘sympathy’? That sells too apparently.
Harm can be realised through emotional distress in terms of manufactured anxiety, fear and doubt, or as actual physical harm as one sector of our society is encouraged to mistrust or alienate another. How many times have we seen our public institutions and services undermined by politicians and commentators writing columns as point scoring exercises, misrepresenting demographics, or mis-stating ‘facts’ in order to affect voting intent? What happens if those who read those columns don’t call that emergency number, or don’t call for that ambulance because they have been encouraged to lose trust or confidence that their needs will be met? What happens when politicians the public have been encouraged to vote into power enact societally disastrous legislation? (see under the current administration’s management of the DWP)
The result in all instances is the same… a very real potential for tragedy. As for the public? Collateral damage, electoral coin and seemingly expendable till the next time their opinion requires influencing.
Oh, and the perennial get out of jail free card is insult upon injury. ‘Its a free country. You didn’t have to buy. You didn’t have to read. You didn’t have to watch. You didn’t have to listen and you didn’t have to believe’. No, no I suppose all of that’s true. So long as you choose to live in a cave up by Cape Wrath and foraged for food, you could quite easily avoid media saturation or those who have been influenced by it in your life. This is basically what’s known as a total abandonment of responsibility, or passing the buck. I sometimes wonder if they realise quite how far the effects of their influence go, or do they actually care what those affects may be? Apparently not. I mean they’re just words and its your choice… right? So what is there to feel guilty about or responsible for?
We are all inevitably influenced by our environment, our experiences and those who touch upon our lives. We all choose to trust or believe in someone or something who has an impact on our perceptions. The politicians and the media movers and shakers know this, they count on it. Using the power of blanket media coverage they exploit this behaviour and you in that order, then wash their hands of the consequences by insisting you had freedom of choice.
This debate, this national conversation of ours has been going on, not just for eight or nine years, but for decades and it’s only now coming to a head. How the next chapter in the history of these islands begins is going to come down to the message and the messenger. Look to the example of both recent referendums. Look carefully at the language used by the campaigns, the media, the backers and the supporters. Assess for yourself, the cause and the effect of the language used to influence your opinion by the media especially and consider the fallout politically and societally in the aftermath of both. Do you like what you see?
The UK that we see today is the end result of the narrative created by thoughtless political strategists and delivered by overly invested and/or compromised mainstream media. This is the UK you get to live in when you use language as a weapon.
Well the way I see it, the YES movement have a very different message and a very different messenger. How we, all of us, put that message across in the future will determine how that next chapter turns out.
A couple of handy links:
Audio version of this blog article, courtesy of @lumi_1984
https://soundcloud.com/occamshaver/who-needs-a-sword-wee-ginger-dug-19th-august-2016
Wee Ginger Dug 
[…] Wee Ginger Dug Who needs a sword? […]
Very well put. The media has a vital responsibility and they should not be allowed to shirk it.
I think there’s also another meaning of the phrase – i.e. a great ruler comes to realise that war (the sword) is limited when it comes to governing and running a state efficiently; for that you need the pen (sound administration so’s people sign up and join in rather than being subjugated by violence).
Of course the pen can be used to subjugate as well (oppressive laws, vicious taxes, unequal resources etc) so then, I guess, if you don’t use the pen properly you might need to go back to the sword!
Ah’ll get ma toga…
Naw, you’ve pretty much got the gist of it all there. 🙂
The point of the piece being the state and media have done exactly that.
Yer toga is fine where it is.
Hence ‘pen pushers’, punklin.
Great piece Macart.
P.S I am giving up on swords and investing in pitchforks.
Reblogged this on Bampots Utd and commented:
The pen is mightier than the sword ! The keyboard is mightier than the sword ! communication is mightier than the sword ! Love not hate ! Peace not violence ! Freedom not oppression !
Paper Bullets!
Very much along the lines I think we have all been ‘getting at’ lately Macart, astutely observed and eloquently expressed as per, by yersel 🙂 .
I took a moment to wander further intae Eric Joyce’s blog last evening, linked to from Wings Twitter to read his latest offering. I was and am encouraged by former No exponents coming over…and am aware that it is ‘welcoming’ in attitude that we should ‘meet’ the ‘converted’. I came across an article he wrote just before the GE entitled ‘Scotland’s one- party state’…and ma dander wis raised.
A wis moved, and please excuse the length of what is to follow…tae express ma annoyance at his prior outlook btl, on that piece, as yet it’s no published, he may well feel ‘whit’s the point’ as it is a year old article, fair enough, but it was important tae ‘say something’ now about what was happening ‘then’. If only tae acknowledge the utter nonsense of his former position and to note that ‘trust’ will not be ‘easily’ forthcoming given the ‘nature’ of some of the language that has/was and is been/being used to attack our ‘still’ legitimate viewpoint.
By resorting to ‘othering’ and the ongoing pejorative name calling that was utilised to undermine faith in ‘ourselves’ as a ‘people’ by these divisionary tactics during/after indyref1, in the lead up tae both the GE/SE and now. Those former more ‘prominent’ players have an important role tae play in reconciling their former position to other no voters by publicly disavowing their own former ‘expressions’ of their outlook during this period. To my mind they should publicly state and apologise for their ‘language’ not their ‘viewpoint’, there is a difference.
It would go some way toward healing the ‘real’ damage that ‘they’ manufactured by creating and disseminating a ‘narrative’ designed specifically ‘to’ divide us amongst ourselves.
This is what I wrote, followed by the link to ‘Scotland’s one- party state:
Can’t believe in the light of your altered position Eric that you fell for all that guff about ‘one party state’. Where’s all the commenters from a year ago now who were in agreement with you, then? (Are you censoring their ‘outrage’ on your new blogging ‘fromnotoyes’?)
This was the type of rhetoric we were facing these past few years: unfounded pejoratives casting half the population of Scotland as ‘mad’. I understand your changed position Eric in light of the EU vote, but you would do well to acknowledge the ‘wrong headedness’ in your output prior to your late conversion to the cause of Scotland’s self determination.
We were many in Scotland all Labour before the ref Eric.There was never the ‘nationalism’ that you outlined above at the core of those who took the Labour (branch) party tae near extinction at the WM level in 2015, never, and how you and others of your ilk could describe vast swathes of the voting public in Scotland as essentially ‘in the grip’ of some form of ‘madness’ revealed more about your own mentality and lack of insight intae the very people you once represented is telling and beyond my comprehension.
I welcome your changed position and commented on your initial article stating that it was a good thing that you were attempting as a former ‘unionist’ and No voter in attempting to swell our numbers to the 60% and above mark and I still hold to that assessment today.
But I have to scold you for your utter arrogance and condescension regarding those of us who having genuinely re aligned our political positions, and many not without sorrow in the doing, were ‘othered’ so relentlessly and still are by those same pejorative terms that you yourself utilised in defence of the union.
You wouldn’t even consider any of the valid counter points that posters made on this article (at the time) as relevant in challenging the ludicrous assertions that you patronisingly considered absolutely as ‘truth’. That’s the trouble with those who have no capacity to really think through the opposition’s reasoning, and counter respectfully and thoughtfully the points that they raise, this reveals an inability to accept the illogic of your own argument and a dearth of any real understanding of the polity to which you belong.
Whilst you get underway in your new project of enticing former No voters to alter their position and whilst you obviously wish the topic not to be about you. You surely must make allowances for any criticism that may come your way especially in light of your own outstanding contribution to the debate which led you to use such language in describing the hundreds of thousands of Scots who chose not to see it your way?
There needs to be some atonement for the part you played in creating that narrative and disseminating the madness of those who ‘think’ in those terms. You were wrong, they were wrong and now here you are entering intae the fray from our side and we have shown you nothing but an open hearted welcome.
But don’t expect tae be trusted ‘whole’ heartedly Eric. Yer fear brought you over…not your convictions. Yer fear’s therefore could very well settle for a ‘fudge’ politically…if they are given succour and ameliorated by ‘events’ dear boy…events.
I wish ye well as I said before. I won’t be reading any more of yer former witterings on the subject cause it’ll just make me annoyed and there is no point tae that as we all have to come together for the sake of the bigger picture of Scotland’s future.
Nonetheless it needed said.
http://ericjoyce.co.uk/2015/04/scotlands-one-party-state/
Something else you might like to peruse.
http://newsnet.scot/archive/podcast-ex-mp-eric-joyce-scotland-england-labour-independence/
A did, a stand by ma point 🙂 (retrospective criticism on his ‘language’, still valid, never addressed)
I reckon there’s a few out there regretting past actions and words by this point. 🙂
Ye couldnae tell given the latest shit stirring fest by the ‘unrepentant’ media storm in a teacup pish that is being spouted today from the likes of Tomkins et al over poor wee Daisley …the very term ‘one party state’ is back with a vengeance as we speak! It’s people who were ‘former’ and are now on side who should be taking up the fight wi these ‘ex’ pals in arms…put their money were the mooth is, imo. Ain’t seen any of that on ‘social media’…yet… 😉
Yeah, been catching up on some of that nonsense. People aren’t paying attention anymore, cue stroomphmageddon.
When you look at what’s been levelled at the independence movement without reply or redress in the mainstream media. What those people did and said against those helpless to reply, who didn’t have a megaphone, a publisher or a broadcaster behind them?
Now its prams, toys, bathwater and babies because people can tell them directly what they think online or on social media.
You can’t demonise, troll or other a significant section of the population and not expect an equal and opposite reaction.
Ye cannae break the laws of physics.
Aye tae that, Newton’s third law of motion there Macart 🙂
Their lofty realms are being breached by the hordes below! Heaven forfend! 🙂
Quick follow up, Eric Joyce did get back to me on that article I referred to in my first post, above. So credit where it’s due, at least he is consistent and states no ‘censoring’ on his blog. He eventually got the point I was driving at regarding his ‘former’ witterings on that particular article. I want the former No voters to come out and fight alongside us against the river of putrid outpourings from the usual sources in Scotland’s public life and disavow their former ‘language’. Else we are dealing with the exact same shitey ‘othering’ and divisionary tactics being deployed, as they have and continue to be right up to today, when the time comes for Indyref2.
The ‘new’ Yessers need to step up and disavow their former rhetoric as well as articulating their changed views post Brexit. That’s ma point 🙂
One of the first posts I made on this site was to hold my hands up to being brought up in Labour heartland and voting accordingly. Though that was a few decades ago and back in the days when I had a hairline. 😀
Sometimes the journey to another viewpoint is gradual and takes many years, sometimes it takes a massive single occurrence and happens overnight. Its the destination that counts. You can’t ever change the past, though most of us wish we could, but you can hopefully use it to make better choices for the future.
A ‘feel’ ‘slightly admonished Mac?
I’m ‘not’ talking about the ‘past’ Mac. I’m talking about healing division. Truth and reconciliation is a ‘process’. You put your ‘hands up’ in your example. You are talking in terms of the ‘conversion’ aspect of those who have altered their political position, I’m not.
I’m talking about the ‘use’ of language. I rather feel I am not able to convey my meaning through the ‘written word’ on this occasion.
For the record Mac, I’m not one who ‘wishes’ I could change the past. I’m merely attempting to ask that those who used those phrases/terminology which inflamed the debate and still does to this day, disavow those ‘terms’ now and stand up against those who they know are still at it…now.
Now Mac. Not then. Present and future. 😉
I’ll leave it at that.
My only reservation is that Joyce is peddling a second Referendum after a 2020 UK GE. Don’t think so.
Is he a Corb in Independence clothing? Eric Joyce, UK Labour are not gonna govern for another 15 years at least. We’ll be up to out knees in WM Tories for decades to come.
This thought is as a death.
We go soon, not after another 4 years of May Fox and Johnson.( and another 5 years of Brexited Tory Ultras destroying Scotland).
Without the catastrophic brexit result I’d have reckoned on 2020 or thereabouts. With it? I’d say a damn site sooner would be likelier.
My view too, Sam.
Brexit, the gift that keeps giving.
The self combustion of UK Labour in September is the next staging post on the Road to Self Determination. Labour for Independence should pick up not a few new members when UK Labour splits in two and Corbyn’s Militant Tendency takes over the asylum. I’m ordering my hessian Mao uniform now.
Great piece, comme d’habitude, BTW.
Will Kezia still lead the Unionist Newer Still New Labour but ‘almost autonomous’ (a little bit pregnant) Party Up Here?
Will Murray join the Blairites in a breakaway Liberal Democratic Labourish party, leaving Scotland at last without a traditional Labour MP?
Lovin’ it.
‘This way of life has to end’.
This is a quote from an activist from Montgomery, Alabama, late 1955.
As most are aware, public transport in the US Southern Sates was segregated, with a ‘coloured section’ at the rear of ‘buses, with the front of the ‘bus reserved for whites only.
When the front seats were full, African American passengers on the front rows of the ‘Coloured Section’ at the rear were obliged to give up their seats to white passengers boarding the ‘bus.
On the 5th of December 1955, Rosa Parkes, along with three others were ordered to give up their seats to white passengers.
While the three others complied, it was in fact a city ordinance, Parkes refused, was arrested, and fined $10 plus $4 court costs.
This momentous event is credited as the beginning of the modern American Civil Rights Movement.
75% of public transport users in Montgomery were African Americans.
The Boycott which followed, soon spread across the South, and lasted 381 days, despite a Montgomery Federal Court finding in June 1956 that the segregation violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. (What a good idea: a written Constitution.)
Car pools were organised, black taxi drivers charged the 10 cents equivalent of the ‘bus fare, and folk just walked to work.
Although the City held out for over a year, money talked, and the ‘buses were eventually desegregated.
Oh, yes, and the young 26 year old, elected to head this Movement? The Rev Martin Luther King, who 8 years later, in 1963 would deliver his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech to the throngs in Washington.
‘This way of life has to end’.
I have instigated my own humble boycott of Unionist MSM, and Big Businesses who have suppressed and distorted the Independence message Up Here over the past 4/5 years.
I will no longer sit at the back of the ‘bus, and give up my right to express pro Independence opinions on social media sites, because the Unionist/ Brexit /White Man demands that I vacate the space to give them even more room and advantage on the overcrowded platform than that which they have now.
After 50 years, I have stopped buying the Dead Tree Scrolls. The play on Dead Sea Scrolls is deliberate. Crumbling papyrus, spouting ancient myths and warnings of damnation if we stick to our evil ways.
Last time, Asda, M&S, RBS, Barrhead Travel, Standard Life, and a whole raft of the Elite Ruling Class were ordered by No 10 to put the frighteners on the Northern Horde, if they voted for Self Determination., and our Fourth Estate Fifth Column, being part of the US Dominated World’s Elite, duly obliged.
I have never set foot in, nor would I give my custom to any of the merchants’ and Money Men’s stores , nor will I ever again.
I’d urge others to join me and boycott firms, supermarkets, Money lenders, and media outlets which continue to pound us with threats , lies, and distortions like this.
‘God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more fire, no more water, the fire next time.’ Spiritual quoted by James Baldwin.:’The Fire Next Time’. (outstanding BTW)
No more Mr Nice Guy.
No longer do we give up our seat at the debating table.
The Fourth Estate is the Unionist Fifth Column.
You may recall in the movie ‘Jaws’, Quint, Chief Brody and the terrified oceanographer Matt Hooper, aboard the fragile ‘Orca’ hunting the Great White rogue shark.
Buckets of bloody chuck were spooned into the ocean to lure the shark towards the shallows.
While taking his turn Chief Brody turns to be confronted with the triple rows of sharks teeth and the beast’s giant head emerging from the water and almost boarding the craft.
‘We’re going to need a bigger boat!’.
Well, the blatantly Unionist MSM , particularly on line, are casting ‘bloody chuck’, in the form of the now quite ridiculous ‘opinion pieces’ , SNP BAD piffle, and Kezia is orgasmically wonderful crapola, into the troubled waters Up Here, in the hope that we, who support Independence will ‘rise to the bait’, and access their pathetic little sites, and earn another 1/2 cent click for the Imperialist US and London media owners.
I commented last week that I shall never mention that bespectacled bearded buffoon who deranged juvenile Unionist junk via HS again; well that goes for the whole tawdry bunch of hacks and TV talking heads out there in YoonLand.
You have run out of bloody meat chuck and fish heads. We are a still circling your pathetic little craft, ready .
You’re going to need a bigger boat, next time, come Indyref 2.
Our ‘pen’ on independent media has grown exponentially in relation to your pathetic clickbait nonsense shrinking into a laughable and ugly SNP Bad Hatefest shrivelled peanut.
We no longer have a dream. We are living the dream now. Our pen is mightier than ever.
Independence is now an inevitable reality.
Selling Advertising Space for the Auchtermuchty Gazette is a noble profession, or so I hear.
.
,
Aye, Franco would have been proud of the “Fourth Estate Fifth Column” Jack.
Edit: ‘God gave Noah the Rainbow sign: no more water, the fire next time.’
I really must get the anger out of my typing.
That archetypal Scot on the make [I’ll get to London and loudly decry everything to do with my homeland], James VI, used to boast that he could rule Scotland by a stroke of the pen. James VI was a disgrace to Scotland. The britnat media thinks it can “use” James’ pen; but it’s about to run out of ink.
The only part I would disagree with Mac is the fact that these downright lies, disinformation, and the sometimes deliberate omission of reports which show Scotland, and its people, in a good light, have been going on for hundreds of years. It’s certainly not a recent phenomena, but unfortunately, and not unexpectedly, a lot of people have been taken in by this propaganda to the extent that they really do believe we are incapable of running our own affairs.
Of course it’s utter tosh and you only have to compare the competence of the S.N.P Scottish Government with the shambles that passes for a U.K Government at Westminster. Not forgetting her Majesties loyal opposition, whom you wouldn’t trust to run a menage.
They, the M.S.M are never going to change, and it doesn’t matter to them that their sales, listening or viewing figures are going down the swanee, because they either have public money, in the case of the B.B.C, or they are backed by billionaires who have their own agenda, and certainly don’t give a toss about Scotland, or its people.
The bare-faced robbery of our assets have been taking place for a long, long time, and is still continuing to this day. Promoting this theft are of course Westminster’s placemen, and women, ably assisted by the media, who always insist, “it’s for our own good because we are incapable of making our own decisions”.
I doubt that even after we gain our independence the abuse will cease. It’s ingrained in them to such an extent that they just can’t help themselves, and the opprobrium will continue, but I hope by that juncture most of our people will have come to realise the truth of the matter, that we are more than capable of running our own affairs, and making a far better job of it than Westminster ever did.
Hear, hear , Alex.
We already give the Tescos, ASDAs, and Sainsburys, literally hundreds of millions in hidden bungs in the form of Gordon Brown’s WFTCs. See New Labour: see the ‘filthy rich’: whit ur they like?
New Labour Yoons, while taking credit for introducing the NHS, and State Pensions ( a mind- blowingly wretched £119.30 a week, the sixth lowest in Europe from which we are being forced to Brexit), which of course is anachronistic New Labour Neo conservative nonsense, boasts of introducing the Minimum Wage, which they failed to increase over the years, topping up the low pay of Supermarkets and zero hour sweat shop with our taxes in the form of Tax Credits ( social Security in work), thus allowing the Big Boys to continue paying the minimum. No wonder they’re out there touting for the Union.
Money is no object. The losses at the Herald, Record, Scotsman, and so on, will be underwritten by the Oligarchy,
The SNP and Independence Movement delenda est.
We must be smashed, our views, hopes, aspirations, and true wealth and ability to thrive as an outward looking independent nation must be crushed underfoot stomped into the scorched earth of our industrial wastelands, our commentators and politicians discredited by lying hacks, no matter the cost.
Well, as I observe above, ‘they’re going to need a bigger boat’, if they mean to destroy our Movement.
We no longer ‘rise to the bait.~
Our Fourth Estate is indeed the Fifth Column.
I no longer tolerate the mock surprise and feigned hurt of these Peddlers of Subjugation. They are paid by the Man; they are propagandists who have sold their souls.
I will deny no one the right to fight and defend a UK, but I draw the line at lies, threats, intimidation, and bad mouthing Scotland in which these sinister little hacks indulge.
RBS are already at it. Why don’t they just go?
‘This way of life has to end’.
Well met on the Road to Self Determination, Alex.
In the run up to the first Independence Referendum I found myself working beside a lovely Russian lady. She was married to a Latvian with a toddler taking his time about speaking as he was surrounded by three languages. They were making a home for themselves in this country.
In the light of all the negative propaganda being thrown at the Yes side I took the opportunity to ask her about Pravda and the propaganda in Russia. She confirmed that of course the population knew that it was all propaganda, but added that the propaganda in Russia was different to that we were experiencing. The Russian propaganda was there to make the population feel good about themselves. The Russians wanted a happy population that would not cause any trouble for them.
The UK could not even get that right!
Ace, Ealasaid.
But what use is the power of the written word for union, if it’s been reduced to being used as a mop for the puddle of pish that passes for UK politics in Scotland?
What use is it when it can’t deal with the elephant in the room? England. This is the nation that voted for Brexit, largely through misinformation by angry people who thought their votes didn’t matter and campaigned for by people who genuinely didn’t think they’d win. These are the people who are listening to the yoons constantly going on about how Scotland is “greece without the sunshine”. Who are dealing with austerity and hearing yoons go on about the GERS report that proves we are subsidised by England.
When Salmond challenged Darling about this, Darling dismissed it as just a joke. Salmond missed a chance to skewer Darling on this. Because that’s what Britishness is to these people – a joke. A pretty sick joke about a Scotland that’s so poor it needs to be subsidised to pretend its British. It’s just a joke, just a wee bit of banter. Where’s your sense of humour…jock, says the monobrowed Accountant who desires most of all to be a proud Scot but.
The problem is England doesn’t think the likes of Torrance are joking when they say we can’t afford a Scottish six because there sun doesn’t shine here anymore. Torrance, like so many are pedalling a unique Scottish cringe, but to the English, they’re hearing how they are paying for it and how that makes us “better together”
I can’t think of anything more destructive to a Union than brag about how the other half supports you because you’re too poor to handle a 1 hour news programme.
Look upon these prophets of pish as they try to eat soup with a knife and realise that these are the last days of union.
It goes further than that, David.
Davidson Dugdale and Rennie announce to the world and its uncle that Scotland, our proud, wealthy outward looking nation, is a backwater, that we are the Hill Billies of England, and our precious land is too poor, too thick, and too weak to stand on its own two feet.
We rely on handouts from England is their message.
And they extend this the message to anybody listening in the rest of the world. Scotland is basket case.
They don’t give a flying feck about the damage which they do to their country, the venal cascade of lies deliberately calculated to undermine its self esteem, cripple its efforts and ability to attract inward investment, tourism, and smearing Scotland’s international reputation.
They lie, and distort, just so they can hold on to their grubby little pay packet, and of course, while mouthing dribble like ‘a fair Scotland’, act as willing puppets for a SE Oligarchy, and its political Wing, WM, in smothering our social democracy, and sucking our wealth and talent Down There.
I am not allowed to call them , ahem, Kwislings, or traytors, so I’ll refrain. But Wullie, Ruth, and Kezia will do until a Fifth Column comes along.
They are hell bent on destroying their own country, Scotland, and that suits them just fine.
Sad, Realy.
They’re going to need a bigger boat.
Join the Boycott.
Also Jack I wonder what the hundreds of thousands of our people employed in our public services think of the lies being told about them by these people, whethet it be the media, or unionist politicians seemingly determined to denigrate them at every opportunity.
And on a wider theme, millions of us being told we are rubbish, and only fit to be used as cannon fodder by high heid yins at Westminster.
When will enough of us waken up and realise we’ve been taken for mugs for centuries, by the establishment, who only have their own interests to protect.
O.K, we’re getting there, and it can’t come soon enough for me.
I’d venture that there are several thousand HMRC employees, whose jobs are to go when the new Centre at Crawley opens will perhaps vote YES next time, if they didn’t the first time. Likewise BAE workers in Scotstoun, Govan and Rosyth.
Rennie, Davidson and Dugdale are shameless liars and contortionists on many occasions, and supported enthusiastically by a compliant MSM.
They disgust me, frankly. They are third rate, and it shows.
as for their List bench fillers? What do they do all day?
I’m not sure how, but this will probably be SNP badness by the time it gets through usual meeja channels.
http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Record-number-of-Scottish-students-gain-university-entry-2900.aspx
‘SNP Education policy in tatters as universities struggle to cope with record number of students.
The SNP were today forced to admit… (yawn)’
It’s not journalism. Its laziness.
Its Unionist puff piece. And its simply propaganda.
Maybe some journalists don’t mind this. Maybe some journalists are keen supporters of SNPBad. Maybe some journalists console themselves that by doing a few SNPBad articles for their editor they can get to do other articles of their own interest. Maybe some journalists feel stuck in a rut as most of the MSM has an anti-independence stance and there’s no way out. Maybe some journalists will write anything for money.
The sheer desperation of the Unionist voice is open for all to see. Impartiality has long since been silenced.
With each SNPBad shrilling piece comes more evidence that there is a consistent and growing voice for Scottish independence that can’t be ignored. Try as the media might their shrill propaganda can’t stop Scotland’s independence narrative.
Can’t be long now till they realise that they are on the wrong side of history; Scotland will be independent.
Some of them surely already know this.
Their shrill cries now only a response of habit. A pained response reflecting how history will judge them.
Without substance now, merely echoes.
‘The pen is mightier than the sword’
Well yes!…. Unless one is a gladiator ⚔🖊
DEFINITION
prop·a·gan·da
NOUN
1. information, ideas, rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
The other side of the John Nicholson story.
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/john-nicolson-a-political-editor-who-airs-their-personal-views-is-behaving-unprofessionally.21416
@K1
There’s no need to feel admonished. 😀
I’m agreeing with you. Its why I used myself as an example. I also agree its a vital part of healing division to own responsibility for previous actions and disavow those who would continue to act in that manner yesterday, today and tomorrow. What I’m getting at, probably poorly, is that some folks, especially in the public eye, also need to explain the why of it all and be loud about it. That can be of great benefit.
I reckon that without a full explanation of a person’s past language and behaviour and the circumstances which brought about their change of position being crystal clear, they’re going to have a helluva job convincing anyone on either position of their sincerity.
As for the regrets I mentioned? Although it was a generalisation in human terms, it wasn’t intended for you believe me. When it comes to regret, I was thinking only of my political choices in a ballot box upon a time. Again part of my own conversion experience. 🙂
Just saw this Sam, I think we are saying the same thing in a different way, cause that’s what I want too: ‘…is that some folks, especially in the public eye, also need to explain the why of it all and be loud about it.’
That’s what I was getting at wi Eric Joyce. His advice: to ‘best/just ignore’ what he had written before.
I ‘thought’ you were saying the past is the past and that we have to move on because ‘it’s hard for people to change their views’ and that maybe we shouldn’t ‘pursue’ this angle as we need aw the people we can get on side. (kinda)
So apologies for my misunderstanding. Also your reply to me wasn’t under my last post else I would’ve responded sooner 🙂
Just out of curiosity, I can’t get to Eric Joyce’s site even from the link on my first post, I’ve tried from my bookmark and through browser search engine’s, his site/article’s is/are on the results but when I click on any link it’s just completely blank?
Strange…maybe it’s being upgraded…
Anyways…thanks again for your replies to me Sam, much appreciated. 🙂
This is part of an article that I wrote a few years ago concerning the manipulation of the media; which may be of some interest (sorry it is a bit long). It was ignored by the UK media at the time; but was used later in a discussion paper for the EU ISS (Institute of Security Studies).
A simple explanation of Information Warfare
Basically Information Warfare can only be successful, if 2 normally stable states co- exist, i.e. in this case Good and Bad, along with a 3rd flexible or unstable state this could be called “maybe or could be, or more usually confusion”. This depends on 2 things, human gullibility (something everyone on earth suffers from) and short term memory of events and situations, even more applicable today with Social media and 24 hour constant News and demand for instant results and definite outcomes which makes this system very easy to use , there should be no opportunity given of raising any doubt, this plays to people always wanting answers to everything in an instant; no one wants to wait even minutes to be told something is true, whether positive or not. The positive thing these days is that even if something is proved later to be totally wrong; it does not matter, because people will not care and the first initial impression is the one that people remember. This means that the 3rd unstable state becomes the prominent state and causes confusion and doubt. This will remain the ongoing state, until the crises or situation is over; when this happens, the 2 stable states return to a normal stable state, but both will be at different levels, i.e. one state, in our example the Good one will have gaining an advantage over the Bad state; the vital thing for the Good state, is that the Bad state has no knowledge that they have been under a deliberate attack and puts it down to various possibly totally randomly series of unconnected events; the effect of this attack, is that the Good state has gained a possible permanent or semi-permanent advantage and the Bad state has lost advantage without understanding what has happened, which has the added advantage of putting the Bad state in state of confusion, thus aiding any further attacks in the future, therefore it then becomes self perpetuating and can have a very long term impact, without the Good state having to do anything at all, because the attacks are not at any defined time period or even of the same type of attacks. This is a very efficient and cost effective system, because all the elements required are all ready in place, only possibly requiring a few changes to be made to deal with immediate or short term use, meaning it can be initiated almost immediately, adding to the supposed intensity of the so-called random event or crisis. In this case, I have shown the USA as the good state and Russia as the bad state, but of course these terms are fully interchangeable, depending on your viewpoint. Due to the resources involved, it only normally involves actions between individual nations, or between groups of nations, such as for example NATO and the Russian Federation, China, or the EU; just to give some examples. TV companies are especially useful for quick instant results and print media, for a more long term sustained effect, are also very useful, because even if they suspect the information they are being fed is suspect, due to deadlines, they are forced to respond, thereby aiding and supporting the “story”, but even more importantly they are used to continue to support the original story, because they do not want their viewers or readers, to begin to suspect they are not telling the truth, say compared to their direct rivals, so it becomes difficult to be the one who is first to breaks ranks and suggest, that they are deliberately being fed incorrect stories, or in fact downright lies. The icing on the cake is to have either a compliant, respectable state run TV, or tame press, who will do your bidding; it of course helps greatly, if either are actually on your side and are happy just to act as your uncritical mouthpiece, just repeating everything you say, without any criticism; but every so often one will report a positive story of the Bad state, but by putting a slant on the story, by saying simple things, “as reported by” or “we are unable to verify, or confirm”; this particular statement is useful to both Good and Bad states, because if a story is definitely proved to be false, they can always say for example “we did our best to provide an accurate story, but we were prevented by, saying “we were not being allowed into an area where fighting was taking place”, this has an added benefit if you can lay blame on the Bad state for “preventing access in the first place”; this implies that if said access had been provided by the Bad state, never mind how impractical this would have been to provide in for example in the middle of a war zone.
Here is something else to have a think about!
How to destroy an Free Independent Country
Deprive people of their private conscientious
Treat them as a tribe and not a nation
Dilute their national pride
Do not teach their history
Propagate their language as inferior
Imply they have a cultural void
Empathise their customs are primitive
And dismiss their independence as a barbaric anomaly
Written by
Reinhart Heydrich
Nazi Propagandist 1933
AKA Theresa May 2016
Reinhart Heydrich Wikipedia Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich