Latest news with #dehumanization
CBC
5 days ago
- General
- CBC
CBC IDEAS explores the rise of hate and how to dismantle it, free conversation June 12
On June 12, Join CBC IDEAS producer Mary Lynk in conversation with a prestigious panel at a free discussion entitled "10 Reasons to Hate Others—And what to do about it". The event takes place at 7 p.m. at Neptune Theatre's Scotiabank Stage. Around the world today, we are witnessing a troubling rise in hatred of the other. Scholars have come up with 10 key reasons why one group may hate members of another group. If left unchecked, this hatred only intensifies, dehumanizing our perceived enemies and allowing us to justify mistreatment and even violence. The conversation is a co-production between CIFAR and CBC IDEAS and includes: The conversation will be recorded for CBC IDEAS and is scheduled to air in June.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
‘Misogynistic' Reform activists depict female cabinet ministers as cows in abattoir
Labour has called on Nigel Farage to take action after an image emerged from a Reform local election stunt depicting female cabinet ministers as cows in an abattoir. The roadside set-up in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, shows deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves and education secretary Bridget Phillipson are all depicted as cows waiting to be slaughtered. The stunt, pictured by a passerby and passed to The Independent, was damned as 'dehumanising' and 'misogynistic.' It has shocked political parties in Westminster, where MPs, including Mr Farage, are having to take extra security measures to protect themselves from potential attacks. The imagery of a slaughter house has brought back memories of attacks on MPs, including the deaths of Labour's Jo Cox and the later Tory MP Sir David Amess. Other MPs have been attacked, including Labour minister Stephen Timms, who was stabbed. And the danger faced by politicians was underlined last week when homes linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were set on fire. A Labour spokesperson said: 'This is a dehumanising and misogynistic portrayal of hardworking female Cabinet members who are delivering change for our country on behalf of the British people. 'If Nigel Farage wants his party to be in any way seen as remotely professional, he should start by condemning this 'stunt' and confirming nothing like this will happen again." A Lib Dem spokesperson added: 'This is horrifically misogynistic and after seeing politicians murdered in recent years, inferring that some should also be sent to an abattoir cannot be dressed up as anything other than an attack on democracy. 'Nigel Farage needs to step in and launch a full investigation and anyone associated with this vile stunt must be expelled from Reform.' The stunt was bedecked with Reform posters during a hard-fought campaign where the party gained 677 council seats and two mayoralties across the country. There is no evidence to link it to any national campaign.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why do liberals like Gary Lineker insist on talking about things they know nothing about?
Poor Gary Lineker. He has lost his job for being too caring, for being so empathetic, for crying at the awful images of murdered children coming out of Gaza. He had to speak up on social media about the humanitarian crisis because 'I think if you're silent on these issues, you're almost complicit.' Gary has been punished for being too nice. Just too brave for the BBC. This is one narrative running about his departure, and I recognise it absolutely because Gary is the kind of liberal type I know very well indeed. I do not dislike the man, or claim to know anything about football. He helped me out once by offering Match of the Day tickets for a raffle I was doing to support JK Rowling's charity Lumos, which was working with institutionalised children in Ukraine. I had to ask him where Match of the Day was. Apparently in a TV studio! Sometimes he would retweet a column of mine from The Guardian. At that time, migrants were being called vermin and cockroaches in our tabloid press, and that disgusted me. These people were drowning, and we were watching it on our TV screens. To call another human 'vermin' is to dehumanise them, to make it legitimate to kill them. It is just this sort of dehumanising, though, that has done for him. An Instagram post that he shared last week featured an anti-Zionist rant by a Canadian-Palestinian professor accompanied by a rat emoji. That Jews are rats, vermin, is an anti-Semitic trope and no nitpicking over the lines between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism excuses it. While Lineker says he is moved to speak out over humanitarian causes, let's agree not to compare humans to vermin for a start. The whole issue here is that guys like Lineker do not know the complexity of this issue and never seem to want to be schooled by those that do. There have been some extraordinary exchanges over the past months where Lineker has been challenged by Simon Schama on Jewish history. Of course, it is possible to understand that this awful situation is complex as well as be appalled at the death and horrific destruction of Gaza. That is where most people are at, surely? How is a two-state solution possible when Hamas remains in power? Those who think Israel should not exist in the first place – and there are many – are going to have to explain what happens to half of the world's Jewish population who live there. Lineker told the journalist Mehdi Hasan, 'I've got no skin in the game… I see it from a neutral perspective.' Wow. This is the ultimate liberal delusion; that somehow one sits aloft, above others who cannot see what is good and what is bad. Those who do not agree with him have had an empathy bypass. This is exactly the kind of polarisation that social media has engendered, I'm afraid. There live the self-proclaimed good and everyone else is, well, a little unhuman. Lineker will be just fine. He is hugely rich and his podcast empire is another echo chamber of guys reassuring each other that they are on the right side of history. Graham Norton, while hosting Eurovision the other night, somehow managed not to tell the audience what the Israeli contestant, a Nova festival survivor, had been through. Silence is complicity? It's always interesting, with these dudes, which issues they choose to be brave about and which they don't. Lineker has chosen Israel/Gaza but has repeatedly ignored pleas from women to say something about biological men in sport. He has refused to take a line. And when challenged by The Telegraph's Oliver Brown in an interview last week came out with: 'It's too nuanced. I don't actually think, in terms of sport, that it will ever be a real issue. Sport, as it's already doing, will sort it out and work out rules.' He made his sympathies clear. 'They're some of the most persecuted on the planet, trans people. You've got to be very careful not to have bigoted views on that. I genuinely feel really badly for trans people. Imagine going through what they have to go through in life. Is there even any issue?'. At this point a lot of us realised exactly who had an empathy bypass. If you are going to make public pronouncements you can at least educate yourself. Lineker is entitled to his views and is an incredibly talented presenter, but I am afraid he does have 'skin in the game' as the BBC is publicly funded. He cannot present himself as 'neutral' in one context and 'brave' in another. Free from them, he can tweet away about whatever atrocities he likes and, I am sad to say, there are places other than Israel in the world where terrible things are happening. Sudan? He has the time to find out himself about what is going on. As he is just a guy trying to do the right thing after all. He just did an anti-Semitic thing by accident. Isn't that always the way? The fall from the moral high ground will be cushioned, I am sure, by like-minded apologists who cheer him on. Some humility would be in order. But these guys never know what they don't know. See Alastair Campbell/Rory Stewart on any issue that involves women's rights and who just happen to be part of Lineker's podcast empire. As I say, it's a type. If only I had their conceit, I could offer myself up as an expert football commentator. After all, I have a lot of empathy with people who score own goals. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
