On a local footpath there’s a gate post with some stickers on it. I’ve walked, cycled, or run past these stickers many times and I finally got around to trying to figure out what they are. There were two and one of them looked like a rave sticker and I couldn’t find any information on the internet about them. The second sticker though . . .
I searched the interwebs to find out what sort of thing or mindvirus had spread its way to Kent. Now, to be honest, I’m well aware that Kent has its issues. It still has conservative MPs FFS and also a Reform led county council who are doing an amazingly shit job at everything. The whole county is, how do we say it, a bit right-wing. I guess I’m trying to make a little difference in this world through attempting to influence people and putting a little money into causes I think are worthwhile. So, I looked for A Stand In The Park and I found their website. The homepage sstates the following:
- No agenda
- No religion
- No leaders
That all seems quite reasonable I suppose but if you are organising a collection of like minded people then you very much have an agenda and leaders. Someone is doing the organising. It looks like the organisation was started in the early days of the Covid Pandemic [or plandemic as ASITP calls it, showing some of their ideology straight away] when some man stood in Hyde Park [Sydney, Australia] because they wanted to connect personally and infectiously rather than online. I guess you’re free to pass on a deadly disease to other people if that’s what you want to do, but were all the other people turning up accepting of the fact they could die or kill others close to them if they became infected?
So, the front page of the website just looks like a group of people who had some distrust about the messaging of the pandemic and they wanted to meet up. I don’t really have too much of a problem with that. They were wrong to do so and they probably ended up killing people through infection but, sure, meet up if you want. There’s a “click here for more” link and I did and the following bulleted list turned up.
What I find really interesting about the list is that there’s some of it that I, a complete lefty, can agree with. There are ideas that I think many people would agree with.
- Cost of living
- Unnecessary surveillance and unreasonable use of force
- Rental crisis and public services stretched and underfunded
- Lower class ignored, rich getting richer
- Media and govt inflaming division
- Justice system broken
- Funding of wars
- Poverty and homelessness at all time highs
- Resources being sold
The things I’ve listed I reckon are probably thought of as issues by many people. I know that this organisation is based in Australia but we have the same issues here in the UK. It seems perfectly reasonable to have the concerns raised about society. My issue is that the best way to fix these things is higher taxation and a wealth tax. In the UK the government systems have been broken deliberately over the last fifteen years by a conservative government underfunding every area of public life. Then we had Brexit which has caused such financial damage to the country that the only way to try and fix it is to re-join the EU but under worse conditions than before. Yes, so many areas of UK are underfunded, but why do you think that is? It’s because of who the country voted for. It’s because we had a series of incompetent liars as prime minister.
So, this organisation attracts you because you think the government has made some “errors” over the last couple of decades along with having an idiot in charge for Covid times. So it would seem reasonable to meet like minded people and stand with them in the park for a while to try and get a point over to those in charge. Standing In The Park attracts you with legitimate concerns but then you meet people who will try and convince you of:
- Wokeness and cancel culture
- Chemtrails
- Excess immigration
- C19 “truth”
- “vaccine”
- Attacks on children’s minds
All of a sudden a group that seemed concerned for freedom too much government control [while wanting a government to fix the things it considers important] now wants us to believe a few extra things that are affecting the world. We are starting to move into the right wing propaganda and conspiracy theory world. This group starts off thinking what I consider to be good things and might attract you because of that but once you are there you will be talked at by people who believe in chemtrails. Here are my explanations of the things in that list:
Wokeness and cancel culture – this is what people who want to be openly racist complain about. “You can’t say what you think these days”. “They cancelled us because they didn’t want to hear what we have to say” etc. Wokeness is about following the evidence and having empathy for people. That’s it. Nothing particularly bad there. I think one of my favourite phrases I heard recently was “reality tends to bend towards leftist thinking”. We know people struggle in a world that refuses to accept them, so if we are more accepting then we can make people happier. Want to be racist? Sure, go ahead but find out the consequences when you do. Being a racist isn’t a protected class so if you are a racist you can go fuck-yourself. If you want to spout hate then that’s fine, go ahead but we don’t have to have you saying that shit in this venue – go fuck yourself. There’s a reason the tory government passed some bullshit freedom of speech law about publicly funded bodies. It because they couldn’t stand the idea that universities were not booking people who spout hate and right wing politics. So, they forced them to have to accept them. Cancel culture is literally just “consequences”.
Chemtrails – bullshit nonsense made up by low-information people.
Excess immigration – now you know when people talk about “excess immigration” what they really mean is people coming to this country who aren’t the right colour. It’s always veiled in a way that everyone could support – problems with public services – but really it’s just racism. We don’t like people who look different to us so we don’t want them here.
C19 “truth” – hey, if you want to know the truth why don’t you pay attention to the various public inquiries going on at the moment. Does it turn out that the PM at the time was an idiot, liar, self-interested cunt? Yes. Does it turn out that had we locked down earlier we could have saved thousands of lives? Yes. Will he be prosecuted and called to pay for his decisions? No.
“Vaccine” – vaccines work. My motto with reference to vaccines is “get that shit in me”. We know they save lives. We know there work and are considered safe. Now, you have to understand what “safe” means. Sometimes people will have a reaction to a vaccine and sometimes it won’t be nice. But overall more people will be healthy and alive than if we didn’t have the vaccine. That’s why there are government pay-outs to people injured by vaccines. It’s best for virtually all of society to be vaccinated so stop being a selfish prick and get pricked.
Attacks on Children’s minds – I don’t know what this is about but I think if you asked the group they would explain how woke gender ideology is damaging children. This is curious. They are saying that by accepting children for who they are and looking after them damages them? I guess first off you have to accept that there are more than two sexes. Then you also have to understand that gender is a different thing. Then you also have to understand that sexuality is different still. It’s a lot to take in I suppose, especially to people who have a very rigid view of the world. Gender affirming care is literal health and metal care. Do you know what happens to kids who aren’t supported? They kill themselves. By being nice and accepting to people we are saving lives.
I had already seen enough on the website to understand that after an initial stand with these people in the park because some of their ideas seem reasonable I would soon be listening to someone who hates the “trans” and blames that on chemtrails and HAARP. It wouldn’t take long, especially if I was easily influenced, for me to be thinking lots of right wing thoughts and attacking the woke. I looked at the Facebook page of ASITP. Just to see what other information I could find about them, the website covered lots but also not much at the same time. I looked to see who ASITP follow on Facebook, some highlights are:
- Turning Point Australia
- The Light Paper Australia
- Stand In The Light
- Wake Up America
- Turning Point USA
These are all right-wing organisations. Yes, I’m opposed to them. I don’t like their ideology. I clicked on a few of the indivisuals that ASITP follows on FB and it turns out that quite a lot of them are conspiracy people with posts about 5G masts, vaccines, and so on. So, A Stand In The Park, an organisation that has no agenda or leaders have clearly shown their true colours by being full of agenda and misleading information that deliberately harms people. I won’t be going along to the park to join them. I also feel bad for those people who are drawn in to this crowd with legitimate concerns for society that I listed at the top of this communication but then get dragged into full on right wing hate.