I always wonder whether using the word discombobulated is fair. It does, after all, have little common usage. It is cumbersome. And it usually refers to being confused, which is a perfectly good word. And yet, there are moments when it seems right.
This is a moment to be discombobulated.
Keir Starmer is praising Thatcher and now warning that Labour is planning on yet more austerity - because balancing the books matters most in this country, apparently.
Meanwhile, the leader of the UAE and president of COP28 says there is ‘no science' behind the demands for the phase-out of fossil fuels.
And, back in the UK, the Tories are singing the praises of cuts at the BBC as indication that there is realism in the corporation because less news coverage is clearly the foundation on which all democracy is built.
It is as if we are living in an alternative world where the truth must be denied and nonsense must be spoken in its place.
When our children were small, we had a game like this, played at mealtimes, which we called 'silly talk'. The whole purpose was to talk nonsense. It was fun at the time. It gave our boys the chance to be active participants in the conversation because they got to be good at it, very quickly. But we all knew it was exactly what we described: silly talk. That was the fun of it.
Starmer, the UAE and Sunak are not playing silly talk. They're playing dangerous talk. What they are saying is wrong, but they are pretending otherwise. They must know it is wrong, because they are sufficiently educated to appraise the evidence. Yet, they are saying it anyway.
This is deeply dangerous.
And when people talk dangerously deliberately to suggest that you might be confused in response is to understate matters. Then, to claim to be discombobulated is appropriate.
I am just that. What are these idiots playing at?
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I have never is 50-years known politics to be in such a poor state with such weak leadership. I have been a Labour Party supporter and member for many years, seeing this as the party of social justice, but Starmer is losing my support on his chaotic journey. I even think that Labour could now blow this supposed ‘shoe in’ at No.10. When my brother passed away from cancer last year, I got a new insight on how important benefits and the NHS are in the fabric of our society. I feel lost as a voter as there isn’t a clear choice on improving society.
Might they be indulging in those ever present temptations which are seeking selfish power and following the fashions of the powerful?
Reference to the laws of stupidity should now be taken and emphasised to the General public or we will end up being in a more catastrophic situation than ww2.
You are right to describe the sense of confusion.
But after acknowledging the symptoms, we must now turn our attentions as to why?
And the only answer to this can be money; lots of money. It is self interested wealth that is supporting/FUNDING the lying going on right now, whether the denial of climate warming via the COP-washing of the UAE, Starmer’s conversion to Thatcherism and the Tory party’s authoritarian attitude to political discourse.
You are also right to describe matters as very dangerous. But the ‘f’ word is definitely FUNDING. That is the root of all of this.
Agreed
Robbing us.
In Scotland we have another term for “silly talk”. James Robertson writes about it here:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eeK2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT570&lpg=PT570&dq=james+robertson+talking+pish&source=bl&ots=ZXQGm4eU31&sig=ACfU3U2davtkST-wyoBw1kaISclE7iuCvA&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwjaka_evPWCAxWZUUEAHU1QAacQ6AF6BAhMEAI
Talk can be discombobulating, but when the speaker is doing so deliberately, it is gaslighting. It is a crime, criminalised in December 2015 under Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act (2015), which provides for the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour (CCB). It should apply to politicians and the press.
Good luck with that
Well…indeed, Richard and in addition to your examples. we can now add the hair-raising Guardian revelations on cyber non-security ar Sellafield which are being met with emolient misdirected bromide-speak by the nuclear authorities. Dear old discombobulated doesn’t really do any more.
If there are any parallels that have preceded this era of dangerous and dishonest nonsense in public affairs, I’d suggest the old ‘pre-fall of the wall’ regimes of Eastern Europe. Try Czechoslovakia in the 50s and 60s…. but where are the heroic truth tellers and ironists of Hrabal, Kundera and Skvoresky in Brextania today? They had Havel to look forward to; we have ….Starmer!
The Sellafield disclosures are staggering.
Not forgetting the fact that the US deputy defence minister has been to RAF Lakenheath in order to prepare for stronger nuclear weapons to be stored there, and a 144 bed dormitory for those personnel who handle nuclear weapons which is going to be constructed next year. That’s scary, too.