20th April - Dangerous new world


Several developments make me very concerned. 
Firstly this cartoon (unknown origin so maybe apologies for using).
I had mentioned exactly this concern a few days ago:

Yesterday, the opposition leader Keir Starmer was challenged by a publican for not opposing. 
Starmer subsequently (via his disciples) :

On Twitter, Labour’s press team said: “A clip circulating online shows Keir Starmer being confronted by someone spreading dangerous misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic. We will not be amplifying it.”

This comes to my main point.  The public has been brainwashed by mainstream and social media.  Of course Covid-19 is nasty and can kill.  But so can many other things.  Yet when outdoors, (if you can find the small print that the authorities don't want you to see) the risk of transmission is minuscule.  But I still see people stepping off the pavement onto the road (then at far greater risk from traffic or tripping) to avoid another person.  They have been brainwashed into believing that Covid lurks on every lamppost: behind every tree: we all breathe out Covid 'fumes'.  They have lost the ability to think for themselves.

And now the headline stores are about a breakaway football league.  I don't know enough about football to say whether this might be a good or bad idea.  But now that 'pundits' have said it's bad, every man and his dog (including the Prime Minister) says it's bad.  Yet another example of the power of the media to influence.

Back to Hitler.  In his day, he was the equivalent of today's social media.  Not even his fiercest critics will deny that Hitler was a charismatic orator.  The gullible public believed every word even when he spouted lies.  I don't for one moment suggest that we are heading towards a Nazi State but the way so many follow the media like unthinking sheep really worries me.  Governments (authorities) are controlling our lives in a way that would have made George Orwell proud.

Jack

Afternoon

I calmed down later in the morning and went 'twitching'

Birdwatching and twitching are not the same.  
Twitchers get excited and travel - sometimes long distances - to see one scarce or rare bird.
Birdwatchers (or 'birders') are much more sensible. 
 


That's a Slavonian Grebe in Burghead Harbour

I then went to Cawdor Castle Lake for Mandarin Ducks.

The female is the more sensible colour.

Jack










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 Friday 14th May 2021 I arranged to meet Bruce who I had 'known' on internet via our common interests.  The weather did not behave quite as forecast. Initially it was just light drizzle and produced this 'rain shadow' effect. It got heavier just before I set off. The loch where we met wasn't at its most colourful in the cloudy conditions.    Photography was challenging as the lighting was very harsh . The loch is a breeding locality for some extremely rare and protected birds, Slavonian Grebes. It has to be called Loch X as while not secret, the locality is best not advertised. The birds never came very close. In north America - where apparently they are not particularly rare - they are known as "Horned Grebes" You can see why. I then came across some very different 'wildlife'. There has been a shortage of Gnomes since that ship - with a cargo of them - got stuck in the Suez Canal. This Highland Loch bears a remarkable resemblance to the Broads of
Read more
Image
25th April I had waited a long time for yesterday finally to happen.  Comma butterfly in north Scotland. One hundred years ago it was a very scarce species and virtually confined to the English/Welsh border where the caterpillars fed on cultivated hops.  Then (perhaps under insecticide pressure) it began using nettle and the Comma's range expanded.  I saw my first one in Great Yarmouth in 1947 when I was eight years old.    They have been reported in north Scotland for the past two years so yesterday was inevitable.  The one in the picture was at Cawdor near Nairn. On Sunday while my wife went for a significant walk (my bad knees limit my mobility) I chased the long-staying Slavonian Grebe, one of Scotland's rarest birds, in Burghead Harbour.  This one has been photographed by all and sundry countless times, but I couldn't resist one more shot. I end on something bizarre.  A light switch. Spectrum from a hanging ornament just happened to light the light! Jack
Read more
Image
 Thursday 6th May 2021 Early snow but it soon melted.  Then a dreich (bleak) wet day with very little sun until evening. Lochindorb and the ruined castle.  The speckles in the picture are sleet. Distant brightness that didn't reach me. This was more typical of the conditions. Even this Oystercatcher got it back wet. And the [Common] Gulls were reluctant to fly. However, a little late sun. Despite the cold 6 degrees Celsius, there were some reminders that it is May. Better forecast for Friday so hoping to see the rare Slavonian Grebe on a breeding loch.
Read more