Support our Nation today - please donate here
Opinion

Eating Dogs

17 Nov 2024 4 minute read
Photo by Anja from Pixabay

Ben Wildsmith 

I’ve been ill this week, floating through the days on a river of snot and self-pity, so my customary iron grip on the political narrative might have slipped a little.

‘They’ seem to be up to their tricks again, though. Only a couple of weeks after Donald Trump revealed their habitual feasting on American pets, our own purveyor of libel-adjacent outrage, Andrew RT Davies, reckons they are banning our doggies from the outdoors.

‘They’ can be quite difficult to pin down. A shifting coalition of hostile foreigners and the university-educated, their animus is wide-ranging.

Firstly, they hate our freedom, they also hate poppies, Christmas, the late queen, and freedom of speech. They can’t stand the motorist and have a downer on aspiration, farmers, pubs, the armed forces, common sense, and hardworking families. The bastards!

If it weren’t for the monotonous regularity with which all this is proved to be fictitious, we’d be in real trouble.

Wokelord enforcement teams

As it is, though, dogs continue to enjoy the countryside without interference from hungry migrants nor wokelord enforcement teams. Perhaps, the imaginary migrants have eaten the imaginary officials, thus unwittingly saving our patriotic dogs?

It’s as plausible as anything needs to be to make the papers these days, so let’s go with that.

Dispiritingly, though, the veracity of claims like these is irrelevant to their success in gathering people around them as causes. If stories turn out not to be reliable, we find that people who want them to be true are sanguine about that.

Instead of being dismissed as worthless, these tales are refashioned as parables for the faithful. OK, so nobody is actually eating the dogs, but the fact that it’s believable tells us something about the people we are accusing of it.

We wouldn’t just accuse anyone of being a dog-eater, only wrong ‘uns could plausibly be accused of such barbarism…and so the spiral continues.

Bluesky

But let’s not kid ourselves that this is confined to the outer reaches of right-wing batshittery. During short breaks between hacking up sputum on to my tartan pyjamas, I’ve been navigating pressure to open a Bluesky account.

All my ethically minded pals are abandoning Elon Musk’s X/Twitter bear pit in favour of this more moderated platform. There, I’m told, I’ll find a community of tolerant folks who want to conduct debates according to the strictures of reason and fellow feeling.

No doubt I’ll end up there pretending to be reasonable myself, but really, what is the point? Unless unreasonable people agree to stop voting, then having a policed talking shop where nobody minds driving at 20mph seems a touch self-indulgent.

Right-wingers may have grown conspiracies and confected grievances in airless greenhouses away from scrutiny, but their opponents haven’t had to.

Despite decades of Democrat and Labour governments pouring bombs on to everything that moves whilst supervising the rich becoming the super-rich and snuffing out self-determination on their own shores, they still seem to enjoy reputations as the nice guys.

Martin Brundle

The racing driver Martin Brundle described confronting Ayrton Senna after he’s been run off the track.

Berating senna for breaking the rules, arrogance, and cheating, Brundle noticed confusion in the Brazilian’s eyes.

‘But…I am Senna!’

Ask Labour about widening inequality, unflinching support for genocide, or sabre rattling against a nuclear power and the same reaction kicks in.

‘We are Labour… we’re the moral ones…’

We are all retreating into our own fictitious worlds in which enemies are absolute, and loyalty is the highest virtue.

We’re now at the point of conducting debates on separate platforms, insulated entirely from each other’s points of view.

How do we imagine each other in such conditions? Eating dogs, I suppose.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
12 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
TJ Palmer
TJ Palmer
12 days ago

We should ban ART Davies from the country and put the dog in charge of the Conservatives.
I for one support The Assembly plan to roll up the Bannau Brycheiniog and have it brought indoors for more people to enjoy.

Tim Dominic Peterson
Tim Dominic Peterson
12 days ago

It’s interesting that the trope about migrants eating pets was aimed at the first wave of Irish immigrants in the 18th century. I agree that withdrawing into your own moderated echo chamber is a bit cowardly. If everyone is agreeing with me, I begin to expect a) they lack sincerity or b) they misunderstand what I’m saying

Alun
Alun
12 days ago

I don’t think there’ll be much debate on Bluesky, it’ll be a hangout for left wingers who all agree on things.

Cigoch
Cigoch
11 days ago
Reply to  Alun

The ‘left’ can never agree on anything!

Doctor Trousers
Doctor Trousers
11 days ago

I’m wary of the tendency to use the term “echo chamber” for any online community or platform with a basic set of standards for discussion and interaction. I’ve previously helped to create and admin a small online community with just a couple of very basic standards for engaging in discussion. Be willing to back up any claims you make with evidence, and be willing to clarify what you mean, if a statement you make is found to be ambiguous. Just expecting people to stick to those two very simple standards has resulted in a predominantly left leaning, liberal consensus, for… Read more »

Cigoch
Cigoch
11 days ago

Well said. If debate could revole around fact rather than opinion we’d all get on a lot better.

Rob Pountney
Rob Pountney
10 days ago

I have been admin of a Failbook group on Welsh politics for the last 7 years there are almost no right wing people there at all, the simple reason being that they were unable to comply with 2 basic rules, no lies, and, no personal abuse, in the beginning I gave warnings, but that was completely pointless as it generally led to a doubling down on the lies but then with a heap of personal abuse directed at myself… It does seem to be the problem of the moment, the political right has absolutely no interest in having sensible debates… Read more »

TenLogicCommandments
Doctor Trousers
Doctor Trousers
10 days ago
Reply to  Rob Pountney

absolutely. and then they’ll accuse you of not being able to handle different opinions.
I can handle your opinion just fine, sweetheart. but when you express your opinion publicly, it’s going to be held up to scrutiny. I’m exercising my freedom of speech by challenging you on what you say. that’s how it works.

hdavies15
hdavies15
10 days ago

You obviously included the lines : …”right wingers, and their natural allies of conspiracy theorists and alternative medicine grifters, are utterly unwilling and unable to stick to them.”…. to appeal to other inhabitants of your favoured echo chamber !!

Doctor Trousers
Doctor Trousers
10 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

No, I include them because they all behave in the same way, utilise the same bad faith arguments, regurgitate the same tired, disingenuous talking points, get all their (dis)information from the same dodgy sources, and all seem to believe that being disagreed with, or asked for evidence to back up their statements, somehow amounts to being deprived of their right to an opinion.

Doctor Trousers
Doctor Trousers
10 days ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Actually mate, why don’t you explain something. Go ahead and utilise your right to free speech that you’re not being deprived of in any way here, and explain something to me. Let’s say that something I said was intended to send out a signal to others of a similar political persuasion. Let’s say I was, if you must, “virtue signalling”. Where, exactly, is the echo chamber? I am expressing my position. You can read that, disagree with it, and then express YOUR position. We are both being exposed to opposing opinions that we disagree with. No one position is being… Read more »

David RJ Lloyd
David RJ Lloyd
9 days ago

great piece BW ; all the better for exposing ARTD for continuing to be a total **** ! sadly it doesn’t make any difference at all to him at all. using your words “ If it weren’t for the monotonous regularity with which all this is proved to be fictitious, we’d be in real trouble” just sums him up a treat. thanks & hope you’re feeling better

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.