Bad language

We are not tolerating it though, are we? Lots of protests about the inflammatory language used in parliament. I'm away from home but my husband has written to our MP (an enthusiastic member of ERG) to protest at the PM's tone.

It is very apparent that people on here have entrenched opinions but I would like to raise the point that the EU is evolving and will become a totalitarian state eventually. Our country will cease to exist. Is this what we want for our descendants?

Fake news. Apparent to readers of the Express maybe.

Non so blind as those you cannot see Varian.
Brainwashed by the EU.

Our country will not cease to exist, if you mean not a major power in the world, then we aren’t that now.
Many small countries do well and are perhaps happier for being that way.

Who twists your arm to watch/listen.?when there is little if anything you can do about it?
Sarah; Agreed, but thinking is still allowed, presumably!
As a distant observer with no particular axe to grind, you reminded me of the following
"If you don't like something, change it.

If you can't change it, change your attitude!

Farage said yesterday ' we will take a knife to them' mentionning Civil Servants and politicians. Do you really think this is acceptable, and not inciting hatred- and not very deliberate?

It was a figure of speech which you have taken out of context to further your own agenda. Over 4.9 thousand watching the Brexit Party conference from London last night. So much support to leave the EU with a clean break.

It was a figure of speech very well prepared and rehearsed- to mean what it meant, but that could get him off the legal hook in case it was reported I, and others, have taken it very much IN context - do yu really believe that Farage didn't carefully choose it. He also said earlier he would pick up his gun- innocent? Really?

The saddest thing is that it is reported that the bad language and behaviour, and lying, and fraud - has been picked up even by young children- and causing upset in schools, even primary schools.

how on earth can you claim it was 'out of context' how?

"Clean break" is euphemism for "chaotic messy crash out brexit leading to years of turmoil and decline"

It should be added to the list of bad language.

Nick Cohen, writes in today's "Observor about the effect of inflammatory rhetoric on our society and the way the Tory party has changed-

"It's open season for political thugs and the Tories gave them the pass

if a malign power wanted to push a peaceful country into political violence, it would follow the example of the British Conservative party. For violence to come from the fringe to the mainstream two conditions must be met: the taboos against violence must be undermined and the forces of order weakened. The Tories have met them both.

Political violence needs authorisation from above. Politicians, intellectuals and religious leaders either issue a call to arms or, more usually, find reasons to “understand” and excuse. In the manner of the sexist judge saying women in miniskirts are “asking for it”, they divert attention from perpetrators and say victims have no one to blame but themselves.

The right once condemned the left for “whatabouttery”. Now Dominic Cummings tells MPs who are receiving death and rape threats that it was “not surprising some people are angry”. A member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet hid behind the coward’s cloak of anonymity and told the Times that Britain would have a “violent, popular uprising” if Remain won a second referendum. Both invoked violence as a tactic to frighten opponents into line."

He concludes-

"Over the past decade Cameron, May and Johnson created the conditions for perpetual grievance with a referendum whose result could never be honoured. Johnson has gone further and is fanning rage to inspire his base. His predecessors cut budgets for the law enforcement that might have deterred criminals and failed to adopt protective measures.

Let this be the Tories’ epitaph. Here lies the “party of law and order”. It died invoking mob rule. Here lies the “natural party of government”. It left an ungovernable Britain."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/29/it-is-open-season-for-political-thugs-and-the-tories-gave-them-the-pass

Repeating slogans is not intelligent debate and repeating lies does not make them true.

So why do you keep on doing it, Varian?

What lies eazybee ?

Yes, what lies? How unpleasant and unfair eazybee.

Boris Johnson thinks he's been "a model of restraint"!!!!

Does anyone agree?

Pots and kettles for some members of GN to complain about inflammatory language
Not a thread about a thread but I have been gobsmacked by the vitriol and hatred recently expressed by another poster under more than alias.
What happened to play the ball, not the player ?

I thought at least they'd been swearing at each other. Did any of them actually utter a rude word?

I love that we are all on here giving each other as good as we get; Remainers and Brexiteers; and then I snook off for a bit of respite from the anger and visited the Gardening forum and most of you are on there advising each other on when to plant your spring bulbs and identifying weevils!! As a relatively new member of gransnet... well... Respect!

The serious danger of belligerent language

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/10/surrender

This is an excellent article in how to cope with it.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/03/demagogues-fury-violence-outrage-discourse?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Varian - thx for good article you posted. Had to copy and post in search on New Statesman web page but got there in the end.

'Brexitspeak' growing too fast for public to keep up, say experts

Linguist calls for help to build glossary of Brexit terms and of ‘toxic terminology of populism’

From snowflakes to Spartans and saboteurs to surrender, the vocabulary of Brexit is growing so fast and proving so slippery that the public risks losing track of what people are talking about, a leading language professor has said.

With the prime minister revelling in the use of military metaphors such as “surrender” to deride parliament’s opposition to a hard Brexit and Church of England bishops denouncing the “unacceptable” tone of political debate, Tony Thorne, a visiting linguistics consultant at King’s College London, is calling for help to build a public glossary of Brexitspeak and “the toxic terminology of populism”.

He has already gathered more than 200 terms that chart how political language has bloomed in recent years to close what academics call “lexical gaps”, as older terms were found wanting to describe a shattered political landscape, creating an atmosphere of fear, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD.

“People ought to familiarise themselves otherwise they risk being bamboozled and duped,” says Thorne, a specialist in slang and jargon who also advises the police and courts on gang communication. “For more than a year I have been tracking the language of Brexit and populism we have developed on social media and in the mainstream media to talk about these things. A lot of the language is designed to trigger [emotions] rather than elucidate.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/05/brexitspeak-brexit-vocabulary-growing-too-fast-public-keep-up