Free Speech and Bullying in the Public Domain - thoughts on how to confront this conflict of interest

Free Speech

Free Speech is a Responsibility, it is neither an automatic Right to a free-for-all nor is it a Privilege.

The Responsibility: that when speaking to the commons, the shared space between us all we speak truthfully, transparently and  honestly, we speak to the commons and be attentive to be evidence based, to be as good a listener as a speaker and to acknowledge what is verified, reliable and true as such, and to also acknowledge beliefs as made up, as guess-work at the very best. This responsibility is absolutely critical in any matter that concerns the welfare of millions or billions of people who share the commons. It is a fundamental humane duty of care, and cannot be abrogated.

Free Speech is not a right to promote beliefs over evidence in action on matters concerning the shared commons, the welfare of people and their lives.

Free Speech is not a right to groom, manipulate or exploit others through use of language and various logical fallacies.

Lots of very clever abusive people hide behind Free Speech - the correct way to deal with that is to identify what is being done, name the precise tactic, the logical fallacies, the half truths, twists and spins and show how they inform the agenda that is being driven, and to do so in full transparency.

This blog is a REALLY useful in helping with this.

https://politicsandinsights.org/2015/01/22/how-bullying-works-projection-and-scapegoating/

"Very few people, when put to the test, have the integrity and moral courage to stand up against bullying, harassment, abuse, threats and corruption. The targets of adult bullying are selected often because they DO have the moral courage to challenge; many people will pass by on the other side.

A target of adult bullying is most often chosen because of their strength, not their weakness. 

Research shows that targets of bullying tend to have highly developed empathy, and sensitivity for others, a high degree of perceptiveness, high moral values, a well-developed integrity, a strong sense of fair play and reasonableness, a low propensity to violence, a reluctance to pursue grievance, disciplinary or legal action, a strong forgiving streak and a mature understanding of the need to resolve conflict with dialogue. 

Often, targets of bullying are independent, self-reliant and “different” in some way. Weak people often disingenuously confuse these hallmarks of character with weakness.

Bullies aim to inflict psychological injury more often than physical injury. Their main aim is to control, discredit, isolate and eliminate their target."

It is vital, therefore, that all decent humane people who wish to participate, contribute and engage with the deliberations on how we deal with matters that concern our collective welfare (and our individual well being) are educated to become adept at this process of confronting the tactical arsenal that bullies, ideologues, demagogues, populists and others with malign intent bring when they present their theses in the public domain, such that they are clearly identified, their tactics exposed, their activity inhibited, disabled and prevented in the first instance, thus protecting the commons from avoidable harm. 

Our collective safety and sanity demand nothing less.

Kindest regards

 Corneilius

"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."

1916, 2016, Terrorism and Murder.

1916, 2016, Terrorism and Murder.

I was ‘raised’ to believe that the British Empire was cruel and vicious in it’s treatment of the Irish. The Fight for Irish Freedom!

Stories of oppression were caricatured, and there was only image, polemic, emotion perhaps yet no real feeling, no empathy for the poor as poor people; Ireland in the 1970s was not a good pace to be poor. It was pitiless. In a very Catholic and bank friendly way.

I was also ‘taught’ to think of the British Empire was a good influence on the World and all it’s peoples. Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation.

The British Empire, and all empires are at the core of Human Progress. I passed all my exams.

I was ‘schooled’ in the History of Kings, Queens, Princes, Wars, Winners and Losers and ‘learned’ to ‘celebrate’ their ‘achievements’ an to duly ‘appreciate’ their‘ legacy’

The reality of the lives of those who suffered at their hands was a rare footnote.

Most often their bit part in History was to perform as ‘stout yeomanry’ who fought ‘great battles’ or ‘simple’ folk, who toiled on the land, ‘protected’ by their Lords.

Great movies of great battles with great speeches by well  known celebrity actors, the historical drama, the almost documentary retelling of the myth is the most seductive manner possible. Heroes kissing their female conquests in between bloody battles, often still covered in the dirt of war; the woman soothes the warrior, she does not scold him.

There were a few bad apples, of course.

Just a few.   

People like Spartacus and Robin Hood sorted them out, put them in their place, if only for a brief moment. This underpinned the sense that justice exists, with the subtext that seeking it is futile and lethal alongside the inevitability of Power and Rulers, War and Taxes.

All of this guaranteed by God.

As if it was all ‘normal’ human behaviour.

This is what I was led to believe.

I was ‘radicalised’.

I don’t believe any of it.

It’s all propaganda.

It’s shit.

1916 was a shit thing to do, a shit thing to be involved in.

In consequence many more shit things were done,  guerrilla war,  independence war, civil war, economic war, religious war…

leading directly to the Dictatorship of Church and State in Ireland, a cabal that for 80 years masqueraded as beacon of Democracy on the International ‘stage’, all the whle managing the incarceration hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in religious and state care, where they were subjected to unfathomable, protracted, horrific physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse, which was covered up by people who were not the perpetrators, who were ‘in loco parentis’ and this double breach of trust is still being ‘managed’ by Church and State in Ireland ….

That’s a shit thing to have done, to be still doing. And it’s not like the current set-up has made an effort – what accountability exists, does so because it’s all been driven by Survivors coming forwards and fighting with all their might against a hesitant, obstructive state and resistant deceitful Church. T

1916! The Banks!

1916! The Tyrrelstown evictions!

1916! The Magdalene Launderies!

1916! Mothers and Babies Homes!

1916! Catholic Baby Trafficking!

1916! Enda Kenny!

1916! Charlie Haughey!

Yeah, Right!

1916! LGBT Rights! ????

They don’t go together. Those rights were attained by peace, by struggle yes, but not by the gun. This supercedes 1916 in every way possible,  and they are a maturation of the political process amongst the grass roots of society, and the most effective way in which to challenge and confront oppressions.

They were a recognition of humanity that has been dealt with openly, honestly and with all due remorse and shame for the previous institutionalised marginalisation and bigotry, and a desire in people for human  justice, justice, justice!

1916, 1922, 2016…… look around you, my Irish brothers and sisters. What do you see?

Be honest and fearless, and kind. Be very kind, indeed.

All the men with guns are terrorists, they are murderers. The legal definitions are irrelevant to human flesh and bone, to the reality of that kind of violence, on all ‘sides’.

I will not glorify it. I will not justify it.

I will subject it to a substantial critique based on the evidence, the outcomes.

Tom Clarke, the 'leader' of 1916 was driven by revenge, religion and ideology, not by love. He was a 'radicaliser', he was a 'mentor', a manipulator and he was a 'jihadist' teacher. He was a Wahhabist. Religion as justification for murder. Funding for militia. Training Camps. Those who want to can justify anything, defend the indefensible.

Understand 1916 in the context of 'The Troubles'.

The NI Civil Rights Movement that was about poverty; institutional discrimination and deliberate impoverishment. It was not about Republicanism vs Unionsim. That was injected into the shituation to undermine the Civil Rights narrative. Collusion. Secret undercover 'operatives' working for the British Security State, an all the militia, escalated the violence and the narrative changed. And they have maintained that pretense for decades. A movement of integrity that is seeking Civil Rights is more of a threat to Power than any violent militia.

The irony of the times, the 1916/2016 mirroring shows that whilst the people are growing in awareness, the rulers are becoming ever more blatant about their position, and their media parrots these lies and false narratives because they cannot acknowledge that growing awareness, as it's emergence after centuries of delusion exposes their primary insecurities, which being narcissistic in nature they take very, very personally  and deep within their reactionary violence their souls are charged with fear.

Selfish fear. Lethal fear.

Power has one directive : to retain, enhance and project that power. Everything it does submits to these necessities.  Everything it does can be understood through this paradigm. The Bully, the Institution. They are the same thing, at different degrees.

Bullies replacing bullies is not Freedom.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's Your Gift to Universe