Populism: A Metastasizing Carcinoma

In my last post I considered the possibility of closing Sparrow Chat for good. It’s been a part of my life from when I moved to America in 2002 and still is even though I ‘ve not been writing very much for a long time. The death of my beloved wife in 2021, while she was locked in America by Covid-19 and I was similarly locked down in France, left a grief so profound I couldn’t have written much though I did try once or twice.

That grief still haunts me, though more quietly now. I live very much alone my forays into the vileness of corporate dating sites producing only further additional heartaches when possible future romance is shattered by the woman’s rapid metamorphosis into scammer and fraudster. I resign myself to being alone until this human inhabited, pollution-ridden planet of ours finally claims me back to the place from whence I once came.

But who knows, “Hope lies eternal…” as the old saying goes and maybe one day a new love may appear out of the void to claim me. If not, que sera.

I can’t really remember when I started Sparrow Chat but it was around 2007 that I migrated it from Blogger to WordPress. When it first came into being I had no idea of what it was to become. It never occurred to me it would become a commentary on world affairs, but that’s what happened and in a sense it just took it’s own course.

The world has changed dramatically since those far off times of Blogger and the hope and optimism that was pervasive on the internet in it’s early days. That was long before corporate entities saw the opportunity to increase their wealth and power by commandeering it.

There is no doubt in my mind that it was the piracy of the internet by right-wing power-mongers, Microsoft, Google, Apple and others, that has determined the way this world of humans is moving today. The rise of the “Platforms”; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,  and an  almost endless number of others, between them birthed the algorithmic deformity that spread what’s become known as ‘far-right’ media content. They broadcast inane conspiracy theories and downright falsehoods to billions of followers, all homogenized under the grossly inaccurate title of ‘Social Media’. Has there ever been a more pervasive and harmful means of anti-social communication in the history of media, than this grossly misnamed entity?

Of course many will argue that social media is not all bad. It’s a means of communication like there’s never been before. Like all tools the use depends on the user. Put simply, a hammer can be used to knock in a nail and help construct a beautiful piece of furniture, or it can be used to murder someone by a blow to the head.

We can conclude from this that if social media is a mere tool to be used for good or ill, then there are an huge number of people using it for the latter purpose, and to great effect.

As a British citizen I take great interest in that nation’s politics and my fellow citizens’ response to it. The word ‘alarming’ doesn’t begin to describe my horror at the way UK citizenry are being bamboozled by a combination of social media  and the billionaire-owned, right-wing press.

To be fair, the rise of the Reform UK Party, headed by the silver-tongued but loathsome Nigel Farage, can be blamed as much on the Labour Party now in government as on the British people themselves. Labour’s landslide electoral victory back in July 2024 caused a temporary rejoicing within a large proportion of the electorate. That exuberance was soon to be dashed as Prime Minister Starmer and his cohorts swung unswervingly behind corporate entities and high-flying business executives. A stance that merely continued down a similar path to that which had seen the British public nearly annihilate the Conservative Party in 2024.

Recent polls put Reform UK ahead of all other contestants, meaning is a general election were to be held tomorrow Nigel Farage would become the next British Prime Minister.

“Oh, but that could never happen!” I hear the cry. But it did happen, it has happened. The country was the United States of America and the name was Donald J Trump.

Since Trump’s success in becoming president of the most powerful nation on earth his acolytes are springing up like poisonous weeds in a cornfield. Farage is just such a devotee and loses no opportunity to lick-ass his way into that High Priest of evil’s favour.

Immigration. Foreigners. Those not like us. Blacks; Muslims; Indians, Jews. Differences. All these are words to whip up hysteria for a purpose. They’ve been used for millennia by the unscrupulous power-mongers to raise the ire of their disciples to the point of violence. In a well-ordered society with good living standards for everyone they would have little effect. When the super-rich and the super-powerful deprive the populace of their good living standards, driving them into poverty, then those in control need a scapegoat. Any one of those words will do.

Farage, Reform UK, have gained their lead in the political opinion polls entirely with the use of such words.

I fear for the future of Britain. I fear for the future of humanity. ‘Humanity’ is a word not to be found in the dictionaries of the Trump’s and the Farage’s.

For now, Sparrow Chat stays open. I cannot say how much longer I can continue to write. All I can say is: as long as I can, I will.