Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Apathy, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Complicity, Culture, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Diversity, Dysgraphia, Education, Empathy, England, Fatherhood, Hope, My Fatherhood, New Zealand, Otis, Perspective, Relevance, Resonance, Respect
OK … so yesterday I said the posts this week were all superficial shite, but that was until I read an article that has pissed me off.
Have a look at this headline:
On one side, it’s from the Daily Mail – so this sort of divisive headline is to be expected – but what made me especially angry is the daughter in question is not ‘rebellious’, she has dysgraphia and dyscalculia … so she finds writing, reading and maths incredibly difficult.
NOT because she isn’t smart or capable, but because she has a neurological condition so she learns in a different way to the one the education system is set up to teach.
To be fair to the school in this article, it sounds they tried to help … but it also sounds they were so stretched that the way they approached it was more about giving them time off school rather than adapting their approach to schooling.
I’ve written about this in the past given Otis has dysgraphia and his school has been active in trying to adapt to help. Even then it’s not been easy – or perfect – but at least Otis knows he’s seen, heard and valued … which is more than the woman in this article probably feels.
Imagine being neurodivergent and having a national newspaper refer to you as rebellious and having your own Mum be OK with that.
Worse, the Mum makes it all about her and ‘her struggles’.
Yes, it can be hard … and yes, it can be stressful … but it’s a fuck-of-a-lot worse for kids going through this sort of thing. They feel stupid. They feel left behind. They feel discarded and useless. So the last thing they need is a parent – and an education system – labelling them rebellious or lazy when what they’re dealing with is neurological. To make matters worse, this neurological challenge doesn’t impact their capacity to learn, just the way they do learn … so they have huge amounts of potential but with too few people wanting to see it, recognise it and liberate it.
This article could have been about the need to relook at how we educate. It could have been about the importance of needs rather than standardisation. It could have been about progress rather than judgement. Instead this ‘newspaper’ decided to write a piece that shows they view compassion and encouragement as weakness and unfairness.
Shame on them.
Shame on the mother for allowing this headline.
Shame on the people who commented negatively without understanding.
You have to be pretty fucking vile to be jealous some kids need special attention from their schools.
It’s not elitism you pricks, it’s dealing with an issue not of their making and helping them stand a chance of having a life that is bigger than the one people like you want for them.
Fuck you. All of you.
You’re welcome.
Have a look at this …
What the hell?
Now don’t get me wrong, if this was a story about the insane sacrifices people have had to make to survive in the economic crisis created by a government who have the audacity to claim they’re the ‘financially responsible party’, then I’d get it.
I’d be advocating for it.
But the reality is there are many people in the country who have to survive on ridiculously low food budgets but I never see the Daily Mail write about them … which means they chose to write about this TikTok wannabe influencer because they think what she is doing is newsworthy in its own right.
OH. MY. GOD.
I read the article 3 times and was shocked at it’s horrificness, with highlights being …
+ The Daily Mail writing about her like she’s some sort of shopping people champion.
+ That they completely ignore the fact the real reason she did it was for TikTok followers.
+ That everyone is acting like it’s a fucking surprise she found it ‘extremely difficult’.
And then, after all that, she isn’t even living off a £1 because ‘day 5’ amount shows a total of almost £4. Yeah … yeah … I get that may be food for a number of days, but before you start on me, let’s remember who started this whole stupid post.
I’m looking at you DM and TT woman.
Filed under: America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Corporate Evil, Culture, Cunning, Daily Mail, Egovertising, England, Fear, Government, Honesty, Imposter Syndrome, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Politics, Professionalism, Relationships, Relevance, Research, Resonance, Social Divide, Trust, Truth
Recently I was reading an article on Brexit when I came across a comment that stopped me in my tracks.
The reason for it is that in a few words – literally a few – it not only highlighted the issue with many of the shortsighted fools who voted for leaving the European Union – and likely voted for the election of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – but also could be used to explain the decline of so many companies, institutions and individuals.
This is it …
What a perfectly constructed sentence.
A devastating set of words that places you perfectly in a corner you can’t get out of.
It’s almost a Hollywood movie line it’s so crafted in its underlying viciousness.
But of course, the people it challenges won’t accept it.
They will continue to refuse to acknowledge their complicity in the situation millions now face.
Because as I’ve written before, people has difficulty understanding something when their credibility and reputation depends on them not understanding something.
It’s why they will continue to cast blame on everyone else.
Why they will continue to claim the opposition are more dangerous than the government they voted in … the government that has brought an entire nation to its knees.
But let’s be honest, the reason for their attitude is even uglier than not wanting to own up to what they contributed to. Because for all their claims of wanting a ‘better Britain’ … the real reason behind their choice was to create a barrier between them and people they think are beneath them.
A way to feel socially, morally, professionally superior to those around them, while conveniently choosing to ignore they were either given great advantage from birth over the vast majority of people or seek to mitigate their situation by blaming everyone else for what they have not achieved, despite starting from greater advantage.
I get it. It’s kind-of human nature. It’s also the unspoken truth of democracy – where the reality is we tend to vote for what works for you rather than what’s right for the nation.
Of course the unspoken truth is still better than the alternative … however given the way politics and business are increasingly allowing spin, vitriol and lies, it seems we’re seeing ‘post truth’ as an accepted and embraced business strategy.
And that’s why the independent voice has never been so important.
Not just in the public domain, but within organisations, governments and individual groups.
Not to attack, destroy or dethrone – as is the current trend – but to protect.
To ensure the people making decisions – or the people asking to decide on the options – are aware of the range of possibilities and outcomes that could occur rather than just blindly following a blinkered promise of what will happen.
Not delivered with hyperbole or exaggeration, but with quiet, informed context and facts … delivered by an individual or organisation without political affiliation and respected for their independence.
It doesn’t mean it will stop things like Brexit happening, but it will ensure people who knowingly bend the truths to suit their own agenda or were deliberately ignorant to the choices they made are held to account. Because without that, we carry on down this sorry path where governments, organisations or individuals can choose to ignore previous choices they made, ignore the passing of time that changes the context of everything and ignore the realities others may have caught up and left us behind.
I am under no illusion that the truth hurts, but delusion damages us forever.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Comment, Culture, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Embarrassing Moments
I hate the Daily Mail.
I hate what they stand for.
I hate how they conduct their ‘journalism’.
I hate the way they fan the flames of hate under the guise of revealing truth.
And yet I read it every day.
Every bloody day.
Not for the ‘news’, but because I enjoy the hate they ignite in me.
Of course, by me reading it, they are benefiting from me – and that drives me nuts – but there is something in understanding the depths they will go to appear relevant that is addictive.
They go on about news they have broken.
They go on about justice they have driven.
But the reality is the entire rag is dedicated to letting white middle Englanders, feel superior, which is why I love how they think they’re cutting edge without realising they continually revea how out of touch they – and their readers – actually are.
Recently, they printed an article that was pure gold.
This was the headline.
I can just imagine the horror on the faces of James and Margaret in Tunbridge Wells – spitting out their Earl Grey tea over breakfast – as they worried their darling grandchildren may be being assaulted by sex pest foreign perverts via endless aubergine and peach emojis.
What makes it even better is the article has been written as if the Daily Mail had just conducted some Pulitzer winning, investigative journalism.
No doubt there will be an article coming up in the next few weeks stating the Daily Mail is committed to eradicating emoji filth from our young children’s phones … conveniently ignoring the hate they continually perpetuate towards the young, the poor or the people who question the actions or behaviour of the British Government or Royal family.
Like this blog, the Daily Mail are about 10 years too late to cultural topicality which is why I leave them with this, safe in the knowledge they won’t work out what I’ve said till 2030.
Filed under: 2025, America, Comment, Daily Mail
Just when you think the World couldn’t get more batshit crazy, it has.
Of course, at the heart of it is mainly privileged, old, white men … but it is reaching new levels of insanity.
First there was this:
The President of the United States said this.
And then the Whitehouse reposted it.
What the actual fuck?
That’s the sort of shit a tinpot dictator would say. Or a criminal.
Which kind-of is perfect given he’s both.
Using lies and excuses to justify his own ego and control.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous, but after basically sending his puppet, Vance, to tell Europe they are a greater threat to the World than Putin … you can see we’re in for a very rough period-of-time. And yet we will continue to see the Republican party back his every move because for all their claims of being ‘American patriots, they will always choose power over truth.
Don’t get me wrong, the Democrats have a lot to answer for all this too given they had years to get their shit together and yet couldn’t be bothered – signaling they were either complete delusionists or egotists.
I’m just waiting for Richard Nixon’s estate to demand a pardon for Watergate under the guise he was simply trying to protect his country and it is only because the rest of the country were too stupid to realise it, that he went down for it.
And if you think that’s not mad enough, then there’s this.
Yep, the Daily Mail – who continue their claims of being a newspaper – wrote this.
Hell, even The Onion wouldn’t try and pull that off, but here we are …
What’s scarier is they’re not even doing it under the banner of ‘alternative truths’ … under Trump, they feel they can just state it as truth.
We not live in a time where we value:
Dogma over facts.
Force over fairness.
Ego over consideration.
Which begs the question, ‘what the fuck is the point of having strategists these days, when anyone can just say or do whatever they want?’ Same with market research. Then there’s more important shit like scientists and law.
Of course we are, in some way, all complicit to allowing this situation to happen.
It wasn’t something overnight, it has been building up for years and years.
I just hope that the wake-up button isn’t what has been required in the past … not just because I don’t want even more suffering, but because I don’t want to see countless posts on Linkedin from people saying:
’10 things you can learn about negotiation from war’.