“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Friday 21 January 2011

Riot? What riot?

Have you ever noticed how if something is repeated often enough it becomes accepted as the truth regardless of it's validity. We could all think of examples of how the media can manipulate reality and keep on churning out their version of particular events until that version is just a given and a peg that all kinds of other stuff can hang from. In other words, part of the historical background that we use to form our view of the world. I have noticed this recently regarding the G20 protest. The media, and the BBC in particular, have taken to referring to "the G20 riot". The only people rioting that day were the police who cynically psyched up by their superiors behaved in an aggressive and spiteful manner from the start. The day ended with the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson at the hands of the police and the totally unwarranted battering of young climate campers. If ever the old media cliche of "rent a mob" was justified it was that day - but the mob was uniformed and funded by the taxpayer.

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