Nov
Mike Newell Is A Twunt
Friggin' nora, two days without Interweb and I feel like someone's cut off my daily intravenous custard supply. [Yeah, I was helping do out the folks' place again, and BT still have their thumb up their rassgat.]
It seems there's no great rush for the blog-hosting idea, so that's that knocked on the head. Perhaps fair enough; I've already got a list of webby things to do – including improvements and extensions here – which have slipped into the usual "ooh, I'm sure I'll do that when I get the opportunity" singularity.
Interesting show on telly tonight: 100% English. Get a group of bigots together, then prove to them through DNA analysis that there is no such thing, scientifically speaking, as a pure "English" person – nor a pure white, nor a pure European, nor a pure anything – and that they, themselves, contain a large element of the "ethnicity" they fear the most. Then film them as they receive the results, either having a Damascean revelation or going into complete denial.
I'm not quite sure of the science behind this – I thought it was proved some time ago that "race" is a social construct, with absolutely no basis in genetics.
From what little hard data I've been able to find, it seems that the DNA analysis gives you few facts, but quite a bit of very broad generalizations, not about the race but about the geography of your origins – which could lead to an argument that just because Norman Racist has x% "Africa" in his make-up, doesn't mean they were actually black guys, they could have been "proper" white English who just happened to be there [probably complaining, like a large amount of British expats in Spain1, that they don't make the tea properly and you can't buy Rice Krispies2].
However, any programme where you sit bigots down and explain to them, utterly and conclusively, that they're talking absolute bloody bollocks has to be, by definition, a good thing.
Now, if only they could do the same thing for fundamentalist believers…3
shoenotes:1 It's noticeable amongst a certain strand of English lower-middle-class how in one breath they'll complain about all the "bloody immigrants", then in the next express a desire to emigrate to Spain to retire. Wonder how they'd like it if the Spanish started their own version of the BNP?2 British footballers who are bought by clubs on the continent mainland are famous for not adapting to life abroad – for example, the great Welsh striker Ian Rush; "I couldn't settle in Italy – it was like a foreign country."
3 Except that you can't prove anything rationally to them, because they don't accept rationality. Which will come in handy next time I drop a ton of rhino shit on their head and then say "ooh, you don't believe that heathen gravity theory, do you?"
November 13th, 2006 at 14:19
I imagine that most of the bigots on that show will choose denial…. I do think that the show could enlighten other, less entrenched, folks so it does serve a purpose. (At least it is worth a shot!)
November 13th, 2006 at 14:23
Mike Newell is a twunt indeedy. Problem is, most women in Luton are too stupid to think to vote with their feet and not go to the games….
November 13th, 2006 at 22:02
November 13th, 2006 at 22:53
I enjoyed the programme, though I'd quite like to slap Jane the mad, suing after being told you might be related to gypsies. wtf.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:10
I didn't watch it but it seemed quite interesting on the advert. Personally speaking, we have a large part of my mother's family which is 'culturally' Indian – they were born there, speak Hindi/Hinglish, cook authentic food etc etc, and yet have probably more 'English' DNA than a lot of others. Bizarre, really.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:14
I found it hilarious in places – I shouldn't, but I did. Did you see the Anglo-Saxon woman who said you had to be able to trace your ancestery for 1000 years – at which point I yelled at the telly "That is NOT POSSIBLE!" well, unless you're so well-heeled that you have some ancestral monarchy somewhere, as those were the only people who kept decent records. I was also yelling "The Saxons were invaders you stupid woman, they scalped all natives of this country that they came across – those who wouldn't assimilate"… How far does she want to go back, to amoeba (not that far in her particular case)?! hehe
Did you see the bit where she sued them?
November 14th, 2006 at 12:07
Good point above about the Saxons; I wonder how many of the people who go on about their Anglo-Saxon Englishness are the same ones who make aggressive remarks about "krauts" when Germany plays against England. Idiots.
November 14th, 2006 at 15:16
All good points, people; the "gypsy" woman did indeed make me want to slap her with a wet haddock.