Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwanem 3554 days ago
It's an article that tries, not very subtly, to associate conservative political views with anxiety disorders. Pathologizing opinions is a tactic with a long and unlovely history (cf. "sluggish schizophrenia" under the Soviet regime) and one which I find considerably more concerning than the current electoral cycle. The republic is stronger than a corrupt apparatchik and a real estate swindler. But treating dissent as disease can get ugly fast.
2 comments
tajen 3554 days ago
In Europe I've heard a lot of comments after the Brexit that the voters of the Leave camp were "aging", "countryside" or "racist". Very few people view them as possibly having a rational reasoning. "We" try to assign them a reason for being irrational.

Whether we associate Soviet dissidents with "schizophrenia", people we don't agree with with "senility", or associate undeserved moral standards with "leftists", I reckon treating someone's vote as a consequence of their weakness and not as a consequence of their decision is ugly.

link
retox 3554 days ago
What's more concerning is that this comes from the state run broadcaster. If you don't toe the party line there's something wrong with you.
link
JamesMcMinn 3554 days ago
The BBC is not a state run broadcaster, and the current UK government is run by the Conservative Party.
link
retox 3553 days ago
I'll admit this was a provocative and hyperbolic post, I was interrupted before I could polish my though. I'm British and I can recall plenty of times the BBC has bent over to accommodate the ruling party. The only one that springs to mind now is after the invasion of Iraq BBC radio stations refused to play Edwin Starrs 'war (what is it good for)'.
link
throwanem 3554 days ago
As I gather the matter, the BBC is subject to prior restraint under law, any time the Home Secretary chooses to invoke the relevant provision, as has been done for explicitly political reasons in the recent past with the Sinn Fein ban. That's close enough to "state broadcaster" for an ignorant colonial like me.
link
jon-wood 3554 days ago
The ban on broadcasting the voices of Sinn Fein representatives (but not the content of what they said) applied to all UK media, not just the BBC. I'm in no way arguing that it was a sound decision, but it says nothing about the BBC being state run or otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988%E2%80%9394_British_broadc...

link