Reality Blows....

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane” – Phillip K Dick

I can't stand reality television. Seriously - it gets on the very last one of my nerves and for me, is the laziest form of entertainment in contemporary culture. It reminds me of the stories I read about well-to-do Victorians taking their kids to the lunatic asylums for thrills, or the human zoos in which 'primitive' colonials were displayed as articles of curiosity.

But what really irks me is the banal cult of celebrity that has in large part been the bastard child of this cultural slop. The list of talentless dweebs who are literally famous for being famous is endless. Sex tape online? You're a source of fascination and worship. The more outrageous and perverse the behaviour, the greater the fascination. And no matter how you rationalise it to me, I see no value in television programmes that pretend to be anthropological studies but actually demean the people they are 'observing', or pit 'ordinary' people against each other in attempts to see just how much of their soul they will sell for a bit of media exposure.

That's how we create the modern cult of personality. That's how we become so fucking lazy that we end up worshipping imbeciles and rewarding stupidity. And yes, that's how we end up with people like Orange Hitler, the Pussy Grabbing President (PGP) himself, Donald Trump.

Okay, it's not that simple and I won't pretend to be wise enough to articulate the mechanics behind this seemingly insane turn of events. But one thing is clear. All over the Western world - and to a great extent the industrialised world - the messages about universal human rights, diversity, equality and tolerance have been falling on deaf ears. Identity politics, religion, colour, economic uncertainty and nationalism have fuelled the anger of a disenchanted and primarily white working class. Actually, that's unfair to the white working class because a LOT of wealthy, educated white people were/are angry as well. And in such situations, demagogues exploit the primary emotion that is generated - fear. The Giuliani's. The Farage’s. The Bannon’s. The Palin's. The Boris Johnson's. The Hannity’s. The LePen’s. And the rest on the endless list of human shitstains.

I don't know about you but I'm pissed. I was hopeful that the days when I had to take the long way home from school to avoid the racists were gone and wouldn’t be inherited by my children. The undercurrent of hostility that was a staple diet of my youth was surely something that my kids would never have to endure. More fool me. But I refuse to be cowed by small-minded (and small-handed; see what I did there?) twats who are upset because now they only have most of the power instead of all of it. I say **** 'em. Despots hate ridicule and a mirror showing them just how ugly and stupid they really are. And hopefully, through this site and your feedback and contributions, we can help make the PGP and their ilk feel as stupid as they make us feel impotent and disgusted. Because although PGPs are out there in abundance I like to think there more of us than there are of them.