March 22, 2016

No, a "SMEAR" isn't the same thing as criticising someone's position.

A smear is a suggestion of meaning that has no basis in reality or a logically unwarranted inference.

Directly objecting to someone's actualy political positions or statements of their position isn't a smear.

Thanks, carry on.

March 20, 2016

Sigh...So.... "Cybernats"...(zzzzz getting really bored of this stupid bullshit)

During the Scottish Independence Referendum an interesting thing happened. The term "cybernat" appeared, mysteriously.

"What's a cybernat, sibelian?!"

Snuggle up, my dears, and I'll tell you.

CYBER is a shorthand for "Internet" and NAT is a shorthand for "Nationalist." Ho ho! Geddit? Not "supporter of independence", mind. "Nationalist". I had many looooong online conversations with people in the South of the UK informing them that the SNP stood for SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY not SCOTTISH NATIONALIST PARTY but that was apparently me being disingenuous because deep down I secretly hated English people. My mother's from London, incidentally.

Anyway... within a few short months of the term cybernat appearing one would see long screeds of arguments being typed up earnestly by supporters of independence on comments sections in newspaper articles all over the place only to be responded to with "meh, cybernat." It was pretty successful. Fairly soon there wasn't a word coming from the mouths of anyone genuinely interested in discussing the actual pros and cons of Scottish Independence without their being followed around by a whole bunch of entirely politically unengaged label-slappers slobbering uselessly all over otherwise interesting threads wittering on about cybernats and refusing to respond to simple points with anything other than things like "well you would say that wouldn't you, you natty, cybery cybernat you" and equivalents thereof.

It wasn't a new experience for me. I'm gay. I've been a "faggot", "shirtlifter", "chutney ferret", "fudgepacker", "fairy", "pansy", blah blah frickety blah for a VERY long time now. But many of my online compatriots interested in actually discussing the prospect were obviously somewhat taken aback as nothing like that had ever happened to them before.

There weren't really any "cybernats". They didn't exist. All it meant was "person whose case I don't want to address as I'm satisfied with the status quo". That's it. It was a very effective way of portraying many thousands of ordinary Scottish people as being weird and geeky and obsessive and USING A COMPUTER and having a propensity to write lots and therefore of no consequence.

"BUT WHY ARE YOU TELLING US ALL THIS, SIBELIAN?"

I actually don't know anymore. I don't really know if it's worth the bother.

But, Anyway, So. There you go. Just thought I'd let you all know, dear cousins.

Have fun!