Stupidity and Ignorance

I really should stop reading the comments on articles on my local newspaper's website.  Not only are they, invariably bad for my blood pressure, but they are also profoundly depressing to read - it's the sheer stupidity and ignorance of the sad bastards who post them.  It's always the same half dozen, or so, idiots, all fully paid up members of Reform UK, Restore or the Crapchester Nazi Party peddling the same old bigotry and idiocy.  I mean, I really should, by now, know better than to check out any of the comments but the other day I just couldn't resist - against my better judgement - looking at the comments on an article about rising petrol and diesel prices.  Jesus Christ!  According to these bozos, rising fuel prices are entirely the fault of Andy Burnham because the government is doing nothing to stop them from going up?  So, you guys want the government to implement price controls on the free market?  Nowhere does Trump and hos war in the Gulf get mentioned - it's as if they are completely ignorant of the fact that it is his war which has directly led to rising oil costs.  In their world, it's all down to the fact that so much of what we pay at the pump is actually fuel duty imposed by the government.  Which brings us back to that tax conundrum: as these self same idiots will also rant on about failing public services, NHS waiting lists and the like in the comments under other stories, they presumably want these improved, but how are those improvements to be paid for?  That's right, through taxes - and if you want your income tax cut then the government has to make up the lost revenue from other sources.  Like fuel duty.  Finally, one idiot did mention the huge profits being made by the oil companies, yet they still chose to pass the rising costs of crude directly onto customers at the pumps.  Yeah, that's right!  You're getting there!  If you want villains here, then you should be directing your ire at Trump and the oil companies!

But at least these guys are merely stupid oafs, over on social media, their equivalents are stupid, oafish and mean.   Just this week I witnessed yet another of those 'pile ons', where some individual who is in the news for some reason, finds themselves pilloried online by bevies of self-styled experts and commentators, with the rank and file of social media all jumping in as they smell blood.  Most of the latter are individuals who really should know better, who have probably themselves suffered bullying either online or in the real world, but they just can't resist the opportunity to lay the boot into someone else, doubtless relieved that it takes attention away from them.  In this particular case, the victim was that Cambridge academic who has been accused of plagiarism.  The key word here is 'accused' - investigations are ongoing and nobody knows whether or not he actually has done anything wrong.  But that never worries those internet lynch mobs, who treat even the most innocuous of misdemeanours as capital offences.  In this case, the victim's main crime appeared to be that he is black and from an underprivileged background, which inevitably leads to all the murmurings of 'positive discrimination' and how he obviously didn't deserve his position on merit and had therefore blocked all manner of hypothetical better qualified candidates.  The mob achieved its first objective, as he has now resigned.  So, the question is - are his persecutors happy now?  Or more pertinently, are they proud of themselves?  I mean, how fragile does your own ego have to be, how insecure and inadequate must you feel about yourself and your own achievements if you feel the need to publicly utterly trash and humiliate a complete stranger?  Really, they can all go fuck themselves, from those self-appointed instigators with their bought-and-paid for 'Blue Ticks' they like to use to try and establish that they are 'someone' and therefore their opinion is more significant to yours, all the way down to the shits, scumbags and bottom feeders who travelled on their coat-tails.  Fuck 'em all!  At the end of the day, the guy involved might, or might not, be guilty of plagiarism, I neither know nor care, but at least he isn't a bullying coward hiding behind a 'Blue Tick' on Twitter.  I abhor bullies of all kinds.  So, again, fuck 'em all!