Thursday 14 November 2019

Dumbed down England

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The British are very ignorant these days. I think it is because people are not interested in anything before the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP.

I know an Englishman in Bucharest with a PhD in history who never heard of Carlyle and one with a PhD in Political Science who had not heard of Dr. Johnson.

When recently it looked as though Boris might beat George Canning's record of being the shortest serving English Prime Minister in history, Tim Shipman felt he had to explain to readers of the Times, who are or used to be the people who run the UK, who Canning was. 

He was a momentary PM who died shortly after taking office, but I thought the man who called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old was one of the most famous foreign ministers in history, comparable to Metternich.

Yesterday, briefed that Boris intended to accuse Jeremy Corbyn of onanism in his speech at an electric taxi factory, the papers had to explain to readers what the sin of Onan was. My ungodly countrymen do not know Genesis. 

In fact Boris didn't mention Onan but he got the message out there without doing so, which sounds like 'classic Dom' to me.

Asked to explain what had happened, Boris smirked and said that ‘a stray early draft’ found its way into the newspapers by ‘a process I don’t pretend to understand'. 

By the way, this does not count as lying - he was joking, people.

I'd like to make a  list of things the papers get wrong and would start by misunderstanding titles - for example, calling Sylvia, Lady Hermon, M.P. 'Lady Sylvia Hermon' as if she were an Earl's daughter, not a knight's widow. I wonder if the people who write for the papers even think the distinction important. 

Perhaps it's because of diversity training, making people think social distinctions bad form.

Another bugbear would be referring to the Republic of Ireland as Ireland. That annoys me a lot. I shall add more.

2 comments:

  1. I think you heard about Renaud Camus, the author of the theory of the "Great Replacement". He posits that the said replacement wouldn't be possible if it weren't preceded by the "Grande déculturation". Quote: "Un peuple qui connaît ses classiques ne se laisse pas mener sans révolte dans les poubelles de l'histoire."

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  2. yes, the MP candidates of all parties insult us daily with half truths.

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