THREAD
1/2
This is what I meant this morning when I said knowing has a terminal limit. One of the things that happens when we pass that limit is normalisation.
There’s something deeply fucking off (understatement of the century) about how calmly this is presented. Friendship with a paedophile is not a neutral biographical detail. And neither is ‘late paedophile', for that matter.
What the fuck is going on?
@kristiedegaris can't believe Times would be foolish enough to run that this weekend given todays search warrants and further developments, talk about being on the wrong side of history ...
@craigmorgan All part of the same big club.
@kristiedegaris Unlucky? He has TWICE resumed a political career after scandals that Profumo would be ashamed of.
That seems to me to be very lucky indeed.
I wish I had been so lucky in my working life to have been so successfull falling upwards.
@SteveClough Best luck of all is being part of an elite club who haven't been morally (and otherwise) blacklisted for hanging out with a known predator. I do not understand how this is so casually presented.
@kristiedegaris Yes - I was going to put more but couldn't quite think how to express it. He thinks he is now unlucky for having lost a job, because he was hob-nobbing with known rapists and people traffickers.
He is "unlucky" because he got caught. And has had to suffer some embarrasment.
And no sense in this of shame for enabling abuse like this? It is all "Poor Peter".
@kristiedegaris Wow. The photograph is quite something! The harsh lighting, the facial expression of someone caught, the black loafers/jeans/white shirt combo that try to signal casual but look out of place in the kitchen (and don't get me started on the Aga or whatever it is). Presenting fake domesticity it is very revealing or is that only me?
@sista_ray I mean that's the most 'normal' and inoffensive thing right?Making eggs in yoru kitchen. I'm so furious about every single part of it.
Caught breaking eggs?
The photo editor and the photographer are making quite the comment here.
(I'm waiting for the picture where he spills milk)
@kristiedegaris I am only willing to accept the behaviour from the Times if it's actually a trap and as he enters the interview a cage comes down and he's dragged off to prison. won't hold my breath
@ASprinkleofSage I laughed pretty hard at this. Funny 'cause it's true.
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The choice of words and tone, ‘friendship with the late paedophile’, centres biography rather than harm — the literal sexual abuse of children. It turns an abhorrent act into a simple descriptor, real atrocity into a neutral-seeming attribute. And it makes proximity to abuse sound like a regular social choice rather than something that should be morally disqualifying. This isn’t neutral language!
@kristiedegaris Yes - treating damning links to Epstein like one of life's little predicaments
@kristiedegaris Yeah, exactly. This use of language is a clear example of why I reckon we could all do with a little primer in critical discourse analysis – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_discourse_analysis – to spot and maybe, in our own writing, guard against reinforcing power dynamics.
@miblo This is such an excellent point. Absolutely we must be aware of this.
@kristiedegaris Cheers. Yeah, it's one of the two bits of my English Lang & Lit degree that have really stuck with me, and I'd love to have got earlier. The other being a little mantra in creative writing: "postpone perfection".
@miblo I'm very interested in it. Is there a book that's easier for beginners? They all look quite dense.
@kristiedegaris Aww I'm honestly not sure, sorry! Been trying to see if one of the OU's free courses might cover it – amongst https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/free-courses?filter=date/grid/70,17/all/all/all/all – but with no joy.
I have, though, stumbled upon the OU profile of Dr Laura Paterson – https://profiles.open.ac.uk/laura-paterson – whose interests are right in our wheelhouse here. I wonder if she could help…
@kristiedegaris Ironic that the man who 'kept diaries' and ran a political dirt database (operator: Gordon McSweeney) should fall foul of diligent record-keeping.
Nasty little man.
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