Words

One day and TWO followers! Wow, if things keep going like this, in TWO days, I should have... I can't even imagine!
(Four- we are aiming for four...)

I was just on a video streaming site and came across the category:

Common Videos.

And this made me, to some degree not want to watch the videos. The connotations of the word common lead to me thinking "Err.." for a few moments before even making my mind up based on the videos themselves.
On a similar streaming site, however, I often find myself skimming through the section:

Popular Videos.

Which, ultimately means the same thing as common- videos that have been seen a lot. And this just got me thinking about how particular words, depending on the context, it can be seen to mean so many different things.

People have things in common; often a good thing.
A commoner; not quite so good.
Common sense; again with the good...
common ground; one more for good.
Common; not quite so much.

This all ties in with a TV show my two year old niece was watching where the character's went to a magical land where everything was wonderful and fluffy and made of fairy dust.

In this world, there was a LOT of candy. And what is that telling my little niece? Candy good.
Candy nice. Me want Candy.
She's not exactly old enough to consider the implications of excessive candy consumption and while her mother isn't one to let her at the sweets cupboard without supervision- I'm just worried with regards to the implications this kind of imagery has on her developing (and increasingly greedy) mind...

And in the same vein, while watching Question Time on the television last night, I was perplexed to see that Nick Griffin got away with making false accusations about Muslims (regarding women and their rights in Islam) and furthermore claiming they were quotes from the Quran. The fact that these were not refuted on the whole, gives rise to the possibility that people ignorant on the matter could take away from watching the show that Islam actually upholds those views.

Which it doesn't.

Considering people take away chunks of information from shows like that, to have Nick Griffin bashing Muslims and then have Baroness Warsi bashing extremist Muslims (in a sort of attempt to battle the Muslim corner) it just seems that many people may take away from this particular debate that Muslims are people it's OK to hate on.

I was in two minds about if having Nick Griffin on Question Time was a good idea. The idea that he was being considered a legitimate politician in such a popular TV show (on a side note, this episode in particular hit THREE times the regular broadcast figures) was- is disgusting.

Though, isn't he already?
Hasn't his party got two seats in the European Parliament? The fact that he is seen as a credible candidate by our leaders and is being "humoured" to some extent means that the BBC aren't in any wrong for letting him on the show.
Ultimately all I could hope for was that he would make a larger fool of himself than he did of the viewers. In my opinion, that's what happened, with his inability to answer questions directly, his uncomfortable demeanour, the way he was treated by the audience and the other panelists, it all made for some enjoyable viewing. But then, the fact that he got away with having some of his views publicised to such a large audience leaves me worried and with a bitter taste in my mouth.

What if, by humoring him, and by playing along with his game, we allow for Griffin to rally enough votes through his new, more seemingly "tolerant" approach. In a distorted rendition of the tale of the tortoise and the hare. With Nick Griffin being the racist tortoise. (He DOES look like a tortoise... It's the eyes.) And though many people will be capable of seeing through his thinly veiled fascism, the support he will have (and has already) garnered is undeniable. While to some extent, it is within the power of our leaders to bar Nick Griffin and his party from politics at present, if they are allowed to spread their hate campaigns and to fester within the population, I fear that eventually, within the shadows, their support will have exceeded the precipice of socio-cultural degradation.

Where the national front, the BNP, the UKIP had handfuls of followers from around the country, they have managed to amass (be it through frustration at other parties' policies or anything else at all...) hundreds of thousands of votes to enable them to decide on key issues in Europe.

In his acceptance speech during the EU elections, Griffin said:

"liberal elite which has built a dam, a wall of lies which has grown ever taller and ever thicker over the years to stop ordinary people protesting about the removal of their freedom."

When Nick Griffin uses the term "ordinary people" I for one, and I'm sure countless others don't include themselves in his warped definition of ordinary. Though there are those that do.
It goes back to what I was saying about the way a word is used. The phrase indigenous British or White or heterosexual or Christian wouldn't have looked as glossy in that speech, yet it is this ideology of THEM and US that lies at the core of everything he says and his party represents.

We all fall victim to things like this. Commercials regarding alcohol sold through the imagery of women. Perfumes again using women. Fizzy drinks using fit, healthy men.

"Get pissed on WKD and you'll be loved up by them birds..."
No, you'll be at home washing the vomit from your shirt tomorrow.

"Lynx chocolate will have women biting your arms off..."
It's actually Lynx Africa that smells the best... And chocolate hasn't ever worked for me.

"Drinking Pepsi is as cool as riding a skateboard on rooftops"
I don't think they quite nailed it at Pepsi...

Buying a crap computer from Dell- with double memory, double gloss and double the hard drive capacity until the 4th of november- sucks, but it's not life altering and it won't affect the world at large. Having a party like the BNP gain more seats will have long lasting ramifications for Britain- which is a big international power.

This post has to end somewhere and it's gone past 2.45 in the morning...