Insulting behaviour

One of my favourite mantras is: Those who can, debate the issues; those who can’t, insult. Remoaners insulting Leave voters as Little Englanders, is a prime example. Developers dismissing rural communities as Nimbys, is another.

I have to admit that I also resort to insults, most often after reasoned debate has proven to be impossible, because the opposing arguments are so utterly under par that I can’t decide where to start pulling them apart. For example, those who voted Remain and accept (albeit reluctantly) the democratic mandate of we the people, I call remainers. Those who refuse to accept any pro-Brexit argument or think that all Brexiteers are akin to something they’d wipe off their wellies, are remoaners. My penchant for putdowns has been criticized but, if you don’t mind, I’ll answer to a higher power at the Pearly Gates when my time comes; I think I’ll find Him a more challenging and worthy adversary.

One reason for my lack of earthly contrition is that satire, à la HIGNFY and Private Eye, no matter how unclever and unfunny they are, is deemed to be acceptable, whereas my satirical take on things has been labelled offensive. Whatever happened to a level playing field?

Having got that concern off my chest – so by definition not a very big concern – I’ll proceed to categorise insults as either sinister or not. 

Firstly, not sinister. Being called a Little Englander or a Nimby is easily dismissed with facts and reasoned arguments. The facts are that the UK economy did not tank relative to the rest of Europe after Brexit, whatever Project Fear claimed would happen (every economy tanked because of Covid and Ukraine); and many Leave voters are high achievers and/or have high IQs. As for Nimbys, most objectors to new housing developments are justified in their opposition, knowing full well that developers play fast and loose with local and national planning policies, with sneering contempt for residents, existing and newcomers alike, and the natural environment.

Then again, some insults are sinister in that they are beyond being countered by facts and reason, because their intent is not just to insult or point-score, but to endanger. That is criminal. Immoral, in fact. Accusations of bullying or racism or being a climate change denier, for example, might be hard to prove but are much harder to shake off, and the accusers know that. They don’t care about the truth, just the manipulation of it for their own warped agendas.

Take OMG Scoobie and his naming a couple of Royals who he says are racist. It is so not racist to muse what colour a baby’s skin might be. It isn’t wrong to wonder about any other physical characteristics such as hair or eye colour, freckles, sticky-out ears or long legs. But in the absence of any ‘evidence’ to deliberately harm his intended targets, Scoobie contorts an acceptable comment into racism. Most people know this is rubbish, but there are others like him and his Sussex Sycophantees who want to hate, who want others to hate, and who pile in on false charges, trampling on facts and commonsense in their rush to hate and hurt.

A nasty woman I once knew accused a lovely, sweet middle-aged man of being a bully and of threatening her. She knows he isn’t and didn’t, but she got great pleasure throwing it out there – a faeces-throwing monkey. (Is that an insult or a metaphor?)

Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct. He was found not guilty on all accounts in a court of law, but has been vilified and cancelled by some in the luvvy community, who are more hatey than luvvy. They say they are inclusive, despite excluding the truth from their deliberations.

A friend of mine was accused of being a climate change denier, a potentially damaging accusation in his line of work. What he did was point out that many of the wildfires last summer were as a result of arson, not spontaneous combustion, and that the opportunistic panicked rhetoric of ‘global boiling’ would be counterproductive for winning hearts and minds. Of course he was right, but his commonsense fell foul of the George Monbiot Groupies who tolerate no deviation from their prescribed script.

So what prompted this blog, apart from the publication of Scoobie’s hard-backed wet wipes? God knows. I mean He really does, and we'll probably have a chat about it at the Pearly Gates one day.