Sunday 6 September 2015

The Great Media Manipulation


I've postponed publishing this topic for a long time because i just KNOW it's intention is open to being totally misconstrued.   why take the risk now?   because it's been burning for expression, events of the past weeks have provoked a response and......an anodyne blog  is a waste of writing and reading.   

Before  i  attempt  to  articulate these thoughts P~L~E~A~S~E    know
it is absolutely NOT a comment on the rights and wrongs of the west's ambiguous approach to immigration, nor my personal view.    i simply don't have sufficient insight or knowledge to make that judgement. no.......it's the cynical behaviour of politicians and  media and our gullibility in the face of their manipulations, in a multitude of areas, i'd attempt to address.
Until the heartbreaking picture of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian child drowned on a beach in Turkey, washed over us what were the images our newspapers and TV's spoon fed us every day for weeks, and what emotions were those photos provoking?   Almost without fail we were shown boats crammed to the gunwales with young, predominantly male, dark skinned, hungry looking "migrants"........take note of that word!!!........MIGRANTS, usually prefixed with "illegal" or "economic".   We saw lorries and ferries at Calais being "breached," "boarded,"   "hijacked,"  and heard stories of "armed thugs" and "ruthless raiders." ahhh don't you love the restraint of the press?

We were told they  were a "horde,"  "swarm,"  "invasion,"  "influx," "danger,"   "destabilisers."   we were told there was "no room on our little island."  we were told they would "overwhelm" our housing, hospitals, schools, services.   we were told they were the equivalent of Attila The Hun at the gates.    and guess  what?.......up to that point all the polls showed we believed it by a huge margin, 82% by one estimation.    at this point deaths had reached many thousands.......we didn't much care.......

............then Aylan died........what a difference a day makes!
Gone are the threats of invasion and illegals storming our borders, instead we are talking of "refugees".  women, children, elderly appear in photos alongside the  men, condemnation  has turned to  compassion,   social media is being used to organise aid and previously antagonistic newspapers are crying crocodile tears. Dire warnings at Calais have morphed into donations and the polls have experienced a swing worthy of Tarzan.     fickle aren't we?   we were played weren't  we?     before or after Aylan?

Let's think about a home grown hobgoblin that our wonderful media and politicians would demonise........the disabled and  sick.   the welfare changes mean that when Disability Living Allowance turns into Personal Independence Payment......notice the absence of "disability" in it's new name.... everybody who has a claim.....and i mean EVERYBODY......has to reapply yearly.    that includes the terminally ill, those with an illness that will become progressively worse, those who will never recover, the learning disabled.   they will no longer be covered by an "indefinite claim".   annually they need to fill in a 20 page booklet and undergo assessment to see if they just might get better.   when did terminal cease meaning..........?

A few days ago i posted two items on Facebook, a cartoon about a book and an e-reader,  and the petition below.   the cartoon had twenty two likes and comments,  the petition........5......five.... FIVE !!!   

https://www.change.org/p/iain-duncan-smith-mp-iain-duncan-smith-stop-the-change-to-indefinite-claim-on-disability-living-allowance-benefit

OK some might have signed it elsewhere, i hope so. or......maybe........possibly.......the dialogue about benefits cheats, scroungers, undeserving  fakers etc. etc. etc. has placed us up there with the original unworthy bogey men in their leaky boats.    i wonder how many of the sick and disabled will have to die before a heart rending photo pops up to save us.








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