‘People are too busy being outraged by everything and it’s out of control’

Okay, that’s enough. It’s time to stop with all the fake ‘ism’ isms. You’ve taken it too far and it’s is out of control. Racism, sexism, classism, ageism, anti-semitism, ableism — give me a break.

It’s got to the ridiculous stage where everything anyone says is examined for an ‘ism’. People are losing their jobs, being fined, ridiculed, called out and shamed for being an ism-ist.

What happened to freedom of speech? What happened to funny jokes? What happened to Sticks and Stones?  What happened to turn the other cheek? I’ll tell you what happened — we all got too precious.

We have nothing real to worry about — like our country being taken over, our homes bombed, shortage of food, lives lost, no money, no work, just trying to survive. The reality is the outrage is coming from people who think the ‘suppressed, minority’ groups should be aggrieved — and talk them into protesting for the ‘good of others’.

Everyone is on their own little bandwagon to do good in the world, but they cannot do it without nastiness. Instead of saying, “This is what I am doing to help the cause”, they are saying, “You are wrong because you don’t support it”.

Then when you tell them why you don’t see it the way they do — my goodness! — you are racist, sexist, classist, ableist, anti-semitic or just plain evil. The world has gone stark, staring crazy.

I am going to collect the old shows like The Morecombe & Wise Show, The Benny Hill Show, Steptoe and Son, Kingswood Country, Are You Being Served?, even The Black and White Minstrel Show, so I can show my grandchildren what real comedy was. It was a time when people could laugh at themselves and with others about the idiosyncrasies of people and races and religions and sexual persuasion.

In this pre-ism-istic world, bad language was frowned upon, innuendo was king and we rolled with laughter. These days comedians can only talk about themselves and their private lives – anything else leaves them open to accusations. Bad language is almost compulsory and innuendo can only be hinted at with a raised eyebrow or asking if you understood it because they didn’t.

Radio and television are heavily censored and woe-betide any commentator who says anything that can be construed or misconstrued as an ‘ism’.

These days we are all very careful about what we say in public, but we are rapidly getting to the point where we will no longer stand for being oppressed by minority groups and their puppeteers.

There remains a strong underground movement — in our own homes. There we are free to say what we want and be as ism-istic as we were in the good old days before the world went crazy. We will rise again.

Do you think people are too caught up with trivial issues and lose sight of the things that really matter? What do you think can be done to resolve this issue?

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