Getting away from the fear porn merchants, rage baiters, pedants and grifters

I’ve been taking some time out over the festive break to have a think about where this blog and my activism are going in 2025. I’m not one of those activists who is content with plodding along the same old path, doing the same old things for the sake of it and never taking a few steps back to question what they’re doing and why are they doing it. It’s not just because I have a restless streak that cannot contemplate doing the same kind of political activity year in, year out and even decade in, decade out. It’s more a case of always wanting to ensure that the effort and sacrifice I put into activism is worth it.

This is why I’ve always viewed what I do with a fairly critical lens. If something isn’t working out as planned or hoped, I’ve been prepared to take a few steps back to try and work out why that’s the case. If it can be fixed, I’ve generally done my level best to do that. If it can’t be fixed, I’ve been willing to say that’s it, walk away from what I was doing, learn the lessons from the failures, and come back with a hopefully better idea and plan of action. Also, if it means me working on myself and my attitudes, that’s what I’ve done. That means being honest enough to admit to making mistakes and errors of judgement. The problem is that there are some people out there who will never accept that I can admit to making errors and will never attempt to reach an accommodation with me. That’s probably because it would force them to admit that they’re not perfect and like the majority of us, do screw up from time to time.

2024 has been a learning curve for me in quite a few ways. Some of which have been pretty bloody painful to be honest. Having to admit that I’m politically homeless, not just because of the distancing I’ve had from the anarchist movement since 2018, but also because some of the people I stood alongside on the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protests in 2020 and 2021 turned out to be complete arseholes, has been a painful and searing experience. One which on more than one occasion during 2024 has caused me to ask if the best thing I should do is just quit and get on with the rest of my life as best I can. Well, this blog is still here and being updated so, I’ve resisted the temptation to jack it all in...so far…

Painful lessons were being learnt way back in the summer. One of which was the realisation that a sizeable minority of the people I was marching along on the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protests in 2020 and 2021 were only too ready to fall for the promises of false idols and grifters. This is what I had to say about such people: Beware of false idols, grifters and divide and rule merchants 27.7.24.

As I've written a good few times before, we live in 'interesting times'. Ones that demand some agile thinking to understand and respond to them. What we don't need is rigid group think, tribalism, people falling for divide and rule tactics and people falling for false idols. Which is why the two of us behind this project have stepped aside from any movements, becoming independent mavericks who assess each issue on its merits, while trying to relate them to a broader context. It's the only way we can maintain our f**king sanity in an increasingly weird and dystopian world...

The title of this piece is: ‘Getting away from the fear porn merchants, rage baiters, pedants and grifters’. It would seem that what some have dubbed the ‘truth movement’ that arose in response to the Covid lockdown restrictions and measures, and also the vaccine mandates, in 2020 and 2021, had more than their fair share of fear porn merchants, rage baiters, pedants and grifters. If you’re on X (formerly known as Twitter), it can feel like the whole sodding place is populated with them. Yes, there are plenty of people who are making not just sound critiques of what was done to us in 2020, 2021 and to a certain extent, all the way to the cusp of 2025, but who are also offering visions of what a better society could look like. The problem is that on X, their voices of hope and optimism are getting drowned out by the peddlers of fear, the rage baiters and the divide and rule merchants. It’s all too easy to let these hope and energy sapping bastards drag you down their pet rabbit holes, subjecting you to further stress and despair, while having no solutions or suggestions for action on offer.

A significant minority of the ‘truth movement’ never really got the hang of rejecting all authority, false idols and grifters. The inability to do this was the reason for what I would describe as their fall from grace. Particularly with the way some of them are looking to Trump to be some kind of saviour. Seriously? For f**k sake! Anyway, this is what I had to say about this tendency back in the autumn: I‘m back to commenting on the weirdness... 8.11.24.

Then there are the people who think they are part of what some have dubbed as being the 'truth movement' that came into existence in the face of the Covid 'crisis' restrictions, lockdowns and vaccine mandates, who now think that Trump is going to be some sort of saviour. Where do you actually start in educating these people? Is it even worth bothering to try to educate them? Were any of them actually paying any real attention at all to what has been getting done to us over the last five years? Does the phrase 'two cheeks of the same globalist' arse mean anything to them? There are so many questions to be asked... As it will inevitably become abundantly clear whose interests Trump is really serving, I hope that the scales will fall off the eyes of these people and that they'll properly wake up to what's really going on.

That’s not to mention all of the other grifters and chancers hanging around the fringes of the ‘truth movement’ such as Laurence Fox, Russell Brand and even at some points, Tommy Robinson. Grifters and chancers that in retrospect, should have been told to f**k off right from the start. The reason that didn’t happen in the way that it should have done was the naive belief that this was a new social movement that could transcend the old left vs right divide. That’s a naivety that I now bitterly regret ever entertaining. Having said this, I’m not expecting any of my former comrades from the anarchist movement to acknowledge this regret, let alone extend any olive branches towards me!

2025 is going to be a challenge. I’m not one for making predictions but, knowing that 2025 is going to be challenging for a wide variety of reasons is a pretty safe call to make. This is how I summed up the challenge to come: As we move towards 2025... 19.12.24.

So, what of 2025? As I wrote at the start of this piece, prediction is a mug’s game. Things have happened during 2024 that were certainly not on my bingo card! All I can do is highlight trends that will characterise 2025. The biggest one being the myriad attempts to keep us fearful, divided and at each other’s throats. A fearful, atomised and divided population is one that’s easy to control. The powers that be fear a united population that has sussed out their agenda and wants rid of them. That’s why so much effort goes into the culture wars and all the other attempts to keep us divided. From my own perspective, one key task is to do my level best to expose the agendas of the divide and rule merchants.

The agenda of spreading fear and division starts at the very top. These bastards and the numerous useful idiots who willingly become divide and rule merchants have no intention of letting up whatsoever. One major task in 2025 is showing who these bastards really are and stopping them from implementing their malign agenda.

There are positives to come in 2025. If you look on the links page of this blog, you’ll see a number of commentators and activists who are articulating their visions of what a better world could look like and how that can be brought about. They might not always agree with each other but, disagreements are aired in open, genuine and constructive debate. My own modest contribution towards offering ideas and the inspiration needed to help build a saner, more equitable and sustainable world comes in the sister blog to this one - At the grassroots - with this being the mission statement:

It’s easy to know what you’re against in a dysfunctional, unsustainable and increasingly dystopian world. Railing against the world we have to endure may make you feel better but…does it lead to positive change? We know that the political, economic and social system we inhabit is rapidly heading towards its use by date and that we have to bring about radical change if we’re going to survive. There are many ways of bringing about the change that’s needed. What this project is about is what can be done in the here and now to boost sustainability, community cohesion and neighbourhood resilience in an increasingly volatile world. It’s about building the new world we need and want in the decaying shell of the old one we currently endure.

Focusing on the At the grassroots blog alongside the practical work we do with the community vegetable plot in our local park is our way of getting away from the fear porn merchants, rage baiters, pedants, grifters and last but by no means least, the divide and rule merchants. I hope that in 2025, many others will opt for the nitty gritty of building a viable alternative to the dysfunctional and increasingly dystopian world we currently have to endure.

Dave A