Police knocking on your door

I use YouTube a lot, if anyone’s interested (probably not but I’ll blather on anyway).

It’s great for how to fix things - it helped me bring a washing machine and a printer back to life. For exercise videos. For Jay’s weekly pub quiz. For how to construct a Tracy Island cake. And for “what did Paul Heaton - other musicians are available - do again?”.

I’ve never thought to use YouTube for getting news and views. I doubt I ever will now.

I agree with Dickens. It is not a bad girl pile on when the consensus is the OP is nonsense. There are enough issues to criticise the government and opposition parties on without repeating inflammatory nonsense

Good post, Dickens.

Oreo, you may think the OP would be right to leave.
I don't think she should go over what is actually one disagreement on here.

I think all are welcome - including LadyInBlue who has commented on other threads.

NotSpaghetti

*Oreo*, you may think the OP would be right to leave.
I don't think she should go over what is actually one disagreement on here.

I think all are welcome - including LadyInBlue who has commented on other threads.

👏👏👏

I don’t believe a word of it and if you actually believe that well what can I say!

NotSpaghetti

*Oreo*, you may think the OP would be right to leave.
I don't think she should go over what is actually one disagreement on here.

I think all are welcome - including LadyInBlue who has commented on other threads.

Yes I think that anyone would be right to leave, you’re correct on that at least.It’s my opinion, as I can’t have anyone elses opinion but my own.
There was no need for it at all, the pile on, in the way it was done on here.I hope the OP won’t leave but will perfectly understand if she does.

Blimey, I've seen far worse pile ons about far less.
That seems to have stopped, thankfully.

Hopefully the op will reconsider, and come back for a few less contentious chats.

NotSpaghetti

*Oreo*, you may think the OP would be right to leave.
I don't think she should go over what is actually one disagreement on here.

I think all are welcome - including LadyInBlue who has commented on other threads.

I don't think she should go over what is actually one disagreement on here.

I don't think she should leave either.

... but I tell you, it doesn't half smart when you've made a bit of a fool of yourself and been called out on it. Been there, and definitely done that, myself. And it's not easy to admit that you might have made an 'unwise' or rash posting. I know that from experience.

The OP is in "Chat" but it's political... and that's nearly always a bit charged in discussions.

So you had a bad experience on here Dickens? Am sorry to hear you were treated badly was it a political post?I don’t think anyone should receive a rough ride for something they post and want others to comment on unless it’s a foul tirade tbh but that’s my own opinion.

I don't think there was a pile on, just robust discussion about what was obviously ( to me, anyway) a goady post. We have lots of different opinions on here, we are all entitled to comment as we wish, and I stick by my comments that this post was deliberate mischief making and that the poster was rather quick to cry foul and accuse us all of bullying because she was rumbled. While we are on the subject, I object to being called a bully just because someone has been careless in what they posted, and I am being generous in my use of the word 'careless'.

She thought it was bad that people couldn't say what they thought, and then was offended when others said what they thought.

Elegran

She thought it was bad that people couldn't say what they thought, and then was offended when others said what they thought.

😜😜😂😂

Elegran

She thought it was bad that people couldn't say what they thought, and then was offended when others said what they thought.

Brilliant, thanks

Boom boom

LadyInBlue

NotSpaghetti

Also people are being jailed for saying what they think and that is free speech being curtailed by the government.

Oh really! 🙄

Yes really, look at that poor man who hung himself in jail because he was locked up for saying things against the government. His funeral was yesterday.

Paedophiles have been let out of jail early so people who are speaking against the government can be locked up.

LadyInBlue

You insisted you were only asking a 'simple' question in your OP.

Most of us didn't see it that way because of the way you framed your final sentence.

I was initially willing to believe it was a sort of 'wry' comment, perhaps even tongue-in-cheek.

But then...

...look at that poor man who hung himself in jail because he was locked up for saying things against the government.

and this...

Paedophiles have been let out of jail early so people who are speaking against the government can be locked up.

Whilst there is some concern over those being released, back in May this year, the then PM, Rishi Sunak, claimed that no-one convicted of a serious violent offence - such as a sex offence - had been let out of prison early.

Now this was in spite of a report from the prison watchdog saying that a criminal - deemed a risk to children - had been released (from Lewes Prison).

However, this was before the riots broke out over the murder of those three young girls, it was in fact a scheme to address the overcrowding of prisons which had reached crisis point.

The politician challenging the PM was the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, then in Opposition.

Those involved in the riots were, by default, critical of the government, but that is not why they were charged - whether they were charged with actual physical assault / damage to property, or with conspiring with others, verbally, or via social media, to take part in the riots which were - essentially - aimed at asylum-seekers and fuelled by anti-immigrant sentiment.

Inciting others to violence, physical assault, damaging property... these are all criminal offences.

Simply "speaking-out" against the government of the day is not an offence.

So you are still trying to paint a picture of a government intent on clamping down on free-speech, and locking people up on that basis.

It's nonsense. And it's dangerous nonsense.

Thanks Dickens for such a good summary and analysis

Iam64

Thanks Dickens for such a good summary and analysis

Thanks Iam64.

It might seem like I'm over-egging this matter but I think the world is in a state of conflict, against a background of accelerating technological change and economic uncertainty, and this has led to a rise of ultra-nationalist movements of both Right and Left. The European cordon sanitaire is now broken.

Our own MI6 chief, Sir Richard Moore, said Russia would not stop at Ukraine's borders and he said China would "weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous".

Elon Musk is agitating and provoking unrest - or attempting to - in the UK by previously suggesting that "civil war is inevitable" due to migration and open borders.

Although Meta Platforms owns 4 of the biggest SM platforms, X has millions of users. Musk, as the world's richest man, has a huge influence.

It's not difficult to see that mis-information, fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories can - and did - spread like wildfire on social media. Hence the recent riots.

As they say, a lie can be half-way around the world before the truth has even put its boots on.

So, I think we are living in dangerous times, and that is why I feel strongly about the OP's original post.

As CP Scott said in 1921, comment is free, but facts are sacred.

If they knock on my door, I would direct them to the park to deal with the drug dealers who ride around on their electric bikes!

Thanks Dickens
You are right.