Yes, former Conservative Party leader William Hague stating, "Social media is becoming incompatible with a healthy democratic system."
Then, this morning, I caught the following Sargon video, where Carl runs through the latest goings-on in Germany (spoiler: they're being German).
To be fair, I haven't read the linked-to Times article that William Hague was promoting - it's behind a paywall, and I still haven't forgiven the Times for Rishi Sunak. So maybe I'm being unfair. However, the tone of the tweet just suggests a man overwhelmed by the modern world.
To be fair again, it's understandable. There's so much content and opinion online. It's like a constantly churning ocean, and it can be overwhelming. Still, it reminds me of the pope that had all the birds in his garden shot because he was annoyed by their birdsong - whichever pope that was.
(I've just looked it up, it was Pope Urban VIII, apparently. I'm never sure if these little stories are true or not - it could just be an urban myth, *cough* - but my Protestant prejudice wants it to be true, so we'll go with it.)
Given the way current elites are reacting to all the human chitchat, as per Sargon's video about the German crackdowns, it's believable. It shouldn't be lost on people that these things happen on Twitter too. So the Holy Roman Empire has form when it comes to noisy little birds. Let's not remind ourselves what happened when the little birds wanted to read the bible in their own cheeps.
Though, to be fair for yet a third time, the Protestants killed a lot of people too. (I've been reading about Reformation-era Britain recently, and wow, a lot of people lost their heads, on both sides of the divide. It puts my modern day complaints about online censorship into perspective.)
Back to William Hague though. Again, it's hard not to have at least some sympathy. Once was a time when he voiced his opinion and the backlash came from a few newspaper articles. Written by journalists from a similar social sphere to himself. He'd maybe then get some further backlash when canvassing near election time. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands of people voicing their criticisms all day, every day. With added dislocation coming from the fact that public fashion now shifts so quickly as a consequence.
The Internet vs The Continent
I think this feeling is even more pronounced on the continent. We've noted before how the Eurasian landmass countries tend to be a bit more top down and collectivist by nature. We, the Anglo-Viking types, tend to view individual freedom as good. They often view it more akin to piracy.
There isn't fundamentally a right or wrong. After all, there's a fine line between pirate and privateer. Plus, even the wholly well-intentioned use of freedom can come with dangers. If you let your child walk home from school alone there's the danger something bad could happen. So it's natural those at the top of society - that view themselves as the social parent - will lean towards order and restriction.
"Right, the teacher is speaking now, everyone needs to be quiet! No more chitchat."
It's also worth noting how much the advent of the internet has benefitted the privateer. The internet has massively increased Britain's soft power - and when I say Britain I don't mean the British state. I mean us, the mouthy British population. We're a highly verbal culture. We're the chit-chatters par excellence. A lot of the social trends start here (or in the US, our even louder daughter). We also have the huge advantage that English is the world language. So it all happens in our natural tongue. Whereas there's a layer of translation for everybody else.
It's no wonder that other countries, who prefer to sip their coffee at a slower pace, feel bombarded by our constant memes and opinions. It probably is overwhelming for them psychologically. Especially when they're used to a different way of doing politics.
Elon Musk is a champion of free speech over here, but he's a pirate/privateer over there. Where the eyes discern little difference between the one p-word and the other.
What's normal for us maybe isn't so normal for a country like China - that has always been bureaucratic and top-down, throughout its history.
I don't really know what the answer is. I just know what I am. I'm English, and I don't really like being told what I can and can't say or read. Maybe I should be mindful that the rest of the world doesn't always feel this way though.
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