Wednesday 11 May 2016

The trouble with the truth



This week has been a bonanza week for VIP's getting unexpectedly caught out by a live mike. I always enjoy it when this happens as it mirrors life of us more ordinary folk.


The Queen has been caught saying the Chinese are rude, Mr Cameron has been caught out saying Afghanistan and Nigeria are corrupt. What makes this better are that these statements are true, but normal diplomatic tact and courtesy would mean these remain known and unsaid.


Of course, the phenomena of The Donald and to some extent Farage, Corybn et al is that they are making a play for saying stuff that a lot of people won't normally voice and are finding there are votes in it.


In my more humdrum world, the best bits normally come when various people from around the world think they have pressed the mute button during a conference call and discover they have not when tutting at the Russkies/Septics/Englanders or comically mimicking their respective voices. Or indeed forget they are on a video conference and not just on a phone call...


I am in two minds as to how things are developing. In the Victorian age of course much more was left unsaid than said; rules of etiquette were everything. Now, an age later, we have a call for safe spaces and worries about triggering - which has many echoes of etiquette really even if it all feels a b it feeble to us now.


I wonder where we will be in the future, will people slowly become more direct and honest or will we regress to saying as little as possible?







13 comments:

Charlie said...

The "safe spaces" brigade aren't interested in manners, just in furthering Cultural Marxism and shutting down anyone who doesn't have the correct views, which are those that match the self-annointed "progressives". Happily, those apparently most fond of this nonsense (your friendly local undergrads) may not quite have fallen for it as hard as one might suspect, given recent events at Lincoln and other institutions.

CityUnslicker said...

excellent....thought it would hit the mark!

Demetrius said...

Lady Bracknell, where are you when we need you?

Suff said...

I'm with Popeye on this one. "That's all I can stands, I can't stands no more"I’ve gone from screaming at the computer screen and preaching to the choir, on forums like this, to being a real life troll. I see it as my responsibility to punch holes in the vapid reasoning of the oppressed (generally take the piss).
My standpoint is the sexist, bigoted, capitalist nazi, homophobe they believe their enemy to be and my opening line is as offensive and patronizing, as can be, to their particular deluded world view….”you should write this down, so you can ask somebody what the long words mean”….”it’s not patronizing to lower ones level of conversation to help the understanding of the audience” …”don’t worry your pretty little head”….”Ah! a socialist, lowering the bar until 120% of the population are above average”….”I think your gaydar’s broken”. The shock factor goes way beyond their reasoning and they always come back with “you can’t be serious?”
Once I’ve explained I’m not the person above but I am the enemy. That there moral crusade, is not some fight of a supressed minority against the system but the Bullying of the majority against a small minority(and that would be me), By putting a face to their enemy their argument dissolves.
In my experience the majority have no true belief in what they are arguing but it’s currently the “In Whinge” and if you’re not with us, you’re against us and that would make you a ___ist.
I have a T-shirt with “shout if your feminist” on the back and “thanks for the heads up” on the front. You wouldn’t believe how many phone number offers that’s produced.
Of course you will always get your radicals, who’s argument have no sense, logic or otherwise With them I close with “You’ve had enough for one lesson, you can go out and play now” and then proceed to ignore them.(which drives them insane)

Weekend Yachtsman said...

A friend of mine was once teleconferencing another office in her employers' company; one of the colleagues at the other end was tedious, boring, and arrogant beyond measure. When the call was over, my friend turned to her immediate local people and held forth at some length on the character deficiencies of said person; my friend is not noted as a mincer of words.

Except of course, the audio was still live.

I don't believe a duel ensued, but it must have been a damned close-run thing, as the fellow said.

CityUnslicker said...

Suff - super rant.

WY - I watched my CEO act out, with accents, the mannerisms of the French CEO who was doing a hostile takeover of our company. When the VC clicked in we said hello.

The French CEO said "Hello, we have been able to see and hear you for the last five minutes, it would appear that facility was not mutual."

Bloody hilarious, we were all rubber ducked anyway...

Electro-Kevin said...

Suff - Top ranting there. I hope you feel better.

I also hope the Chinese *diplomats* feel better after their little flounce. After all, the Duke of Edinburgh was photographed smirking in the vicinity during that visit - perhaps we're only hearing one side of the story.

Loved the Commander's Mum dipping into the conversation telling the Queen how proud she was of her daughter and such. I almost expected an "Oh MUUUM-A !" from the copper - now it's all over national TV. Har har.

"You're only here 'cause my BF's an anti Royalist leftie and wouldn't come - so zip it !"

lilith said...

I love directness. Or rather, I love people who take responsibility for their directness. It saves so much time. And I aspire to directness, but have to put up with not having a decent edit function instead. (She blurted)

andrew said...

The trouble with the truth is that it will out.

Still mentally replaying the BoJo interview on R4 Today on 11/05(?)
He completely steamrollered the interviewer but Jim managed to point out that he was basically making stuff up a number of times.
Boris is right in that the interview is about getting the message out to the public, not combat with the interviewer.
However, completely ignoring the interviewer is just as bad.
Not acknowledging your mistakes (that become lies when repeated) is a bad idea.
Acknowledging mistakes only after repeated pressure, but not regretting them (saying Obama is pro EU and anti UK because his grandad was Kenyan) is no better.

This person is a greater threat to the UK than the EU.

lilith said...

Andrew I had a totally different take on the Boris interview. Even if he was making it up as he went along (which overall he wasn't) there are less lies per square inch than Cameron's angle. He sounded upbeat and positive which was a tonic.

andrew said...

L
I make no claim Cameron is better.
War in Europe if we brexit is his cones hotlines moment.

andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hovis said...

Andrew - "Not acknowledging your mistakes (that become lies when repeated)" Standard Operating Procedure in the Corporate behemoth that is the company I work for - sociopaths float to the top so much easier... seems it is common everywhere