Tag: Discussion

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“Let the Mad Dog Bark!” – On the Social Media Ban of Alex Jones and InfoWars

Backlog: this article was written August 23rd 2018

An issue which has been doing the rounds recently online, but which has so far failed to attract much mainstream media attention in the UK, is the decision by three major tech companies – YouTube, Apple and Facebook, to ban the controversial content of Alex Jones and his site InfoWars. Those unfamiliar with Alex Jones and his work should probably take a few moments to count themselves lucky.

InfoWars is an online hotbed of frenzied political rhetoric and elaborate conspiracy theories, which in the past have included claims such as that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, that Barack Obama is the global head of Al-Qaeda, that the U.S. Government is using juice boxes to “make children gay”, and that the U.S. Air Force has in the past created weaponized tornadoes in the Midwest as part of an enduring geo-war against the American people. Come to think of it there may just be a H.G. Wells-style short story in that last one…

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Boris and the Burka: discussing the Danish Ban

Backlog: this article was written August 12th 2018

Update: 29/10/2019 – As Boris Johnson is now our new Prime Minister, there is clearly more reason than in August 2018 to be talking about him. However, if Boris’ polemical style hadn’t been so effective in boosting his popularity over the years, then this article likely wouldn’t have needed to be written. It remains to be seen how Mr Johnson handles his position – complex and insecure as it is right now. But, if the first few months of his leadership have been anything to go by, it looks like there will be quite few substantive issues to call him out on in the coming years. Strap in my friends, it looks to be a bumpy road ahead.

A lot has been said in recent weeks about the controversial comments made by Boris Johnson in an article he penned for the Daily Telegraph, concerning the recent law banning the burka in Denmark. In the cacophony of noise, rage and moral panic surrounding his article, in which he compared Muslim women wearing burkas to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”, there has been shockingly little discussion on the actual substance of Mr Johnson’s article.

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