What’s a British Term for Bat Shit Crazy?

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4069
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Badder Thoughts

Britain has arrested a teenager for a tweet.

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of sending a racist tweet aimed at Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck.

The post was made after Welbeck netted the winning goal during an FA Cup quarter-final clash against his former club Manchester United on 9 March.

Manchester-born Welbeck joined the Gunners for £16m last summer.

The 15-year-old boy, from the Salisbury area, was arrested on suspicion of racial abuse and released on bail until 13 April, Wiltshire Police said.

I’m not a a free speech absolutist. I think people make a fetish over so-called free speech in order to avoid discussing freedom of association. I argue that freedom of association solves the modern problems of speech. In this case, the people who found the speech of the teenager offensive should have the right to ignore it. Problem solved.

Given the hysterical nature of anti-racism, it is no surprise that it leads to the policing of thought and speech. Anti-racism has been called a theodicy by some on the DR, but that is not quite right. The proponents are not trying to reconcile their conception of the supernatural with reality. They are trying to reconcile Rousseau-ism with reality. We need a new word.

That said, the religious become more fanatical when faced with dis-confirmation or an existential threat. Islam has lurched into lunacy in the face of the cultural encroachment of the West. Anti-racists have a tough time because humans are biologically racist. We are hard wired to cling to our kin and then those who resemble our kin.

The communications revolution has accelerated the decent into madness because it brings the anti-racist in contact with a tidal wave of reality. Rather than reconsider, the fanatic sees dis-confirmation as proof they must re-double their efforts. If that means rounding up children for the crime of hurting the feelings of a sports star, so be it.

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Comments (Historical)

The comments below were originally posted to thezman.com.

4 Comments

Walt #4481 March 19, 2015 8:44 am 0
Poor old England. I couldn’t imagine being the policeman who knocked on this kid’s parents door to tell them their child was under arrest for a Tweet. They probably needed an explanation as to what a “Tweet” is.
james wilson #4453 March 17, 2015 11:18 am 0
The social media are even more destructive to the mind than is television. As one great Frenchman wrote, the more that people are free to be as they are the more they will strive to be alike. Add Facebook and Twitter and the collective mind is a self policing force which even makes it’s victims smug in their wretchedness.
UKer #4449 March 17, 2015 9:13 am 0
Probably ‘Bat Shit Crazy’ would be understood on this side of the pond, though there are dozens of phrases that might be used — some of which however may arouse the ire of the Social Media Approval Authorities.I was intrigued by the fact that the arrested youth lived in Wiltshire, which for those not familiar with UK geography is (in terms of the British Isles) quite a distance from both Manchester or where Arsenal play in north London. It is long said by football (soccer) fans in England that almost all Man Utd — or ManUre as they are called by many — fans do not live in Manchester. I once had business dealing with a man who would undertake a 400 mile round trip to watch Man Utd home games. Every home game, and while he was not a Mancunian he would make the journey from his home in London. The joke is that Manchester people can’t get in to the ground for all the non-Mancunians packed in.Anyway, if the lad arrested had been a ManUre fan he would have cheered Welbeck prior to his transfer to Arsenal and would not have cared a fig for the player’s skin tone. If so, he couldn’t really be racist, and for all I know could have tweeted prodigiously how great Welbeck was when he was scoring goals for ManUre.If the lad had never attended a football match then he could be tweeting about all sorts of people with possibly a darker skin than his own. (By the way, if he tweeted something about the colour of someone with lighter skin than himself — and I always note how pale the lovely Nicole Kidman is — would he have been in trouble? No, wait, I think I know the answer already).Arresting the youth for not obeying the rules also sparks the question who grassed him up? I actually doubt if a bobby happened on his tweet, so the lad in Wiltshire may have friends who, er, aren’t very friendly.
thezman #4450 March 17, 2015 9:58 am 0
That’s the thing about authoritarianism. It turns everyone into a weasel. In North Korea, children will turn in parents, even knowing it means certain death for the parents.


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