Free Speech vs Hate Speech

Alicia's hateful speech with no right of reply

I've been re-examining my attitude to free-speech in the light of recent court rulings regarding very offensive statements in the public eye.

Whilst fighting a battle to get the recognition of discrimination in the expulsion of my kids from a dratted Steiner School, the opposite critics have turned on us and mauled us savagely on several occasions.  This arose simply from one person, Melanie Byng proposing initiatives that she was unable to take responsibility for and she has then allowed those personal things to bleed into the area of "Steiner criticism", using the social confirmation bias of her friends, to our detriment and also noticably to the detriment of the British campaign to halt State-funding.

Handy Template for Identifying a Cult

Of use to cult-busters might be this handy template, helpfully supplied by Alicia Hamberg. It originally concerned the treatment of Gregoire Perra, whose whistleblowing activities the 'critiques' talk about increasingly, by the Fédération des Ecoles Steiner en France, who are suing him.


But what I found when I looked at it (once I stopped laughing), was that it can apply to any group that mounts an aggressive attack on people with different opinions or ways of approaching matters, and which, in doing so, begins to approximate cultish behaviour.

Dealing with Defamation

If you stand up and be counted, you will experience attack, probably mainly in the form of people smearing you as mad.  That just happens to virtually everybody that takes a stand for justice with any kind of entrenched status quo.  Don't believe me?  Who on earth are you following?

Invisible to Atos

Its so easy to look at an article like this The bunion surgeons who are maiming their patients.and say, oh look at those nasty podiatrists, pretending to be doctors and getting all above themselves.

Yes I had corrective surgery for a mangled op done by a podiatric surgeon.  In fact it was what’s called tertiary surgery (third go), as the podiatrist actually got to try and put it right himself first in a spirit of forgiveness and ...well sheer stupidity on my part as it turned out.

Bullying Comparitors - thanks very much!

Bullying is big in the news.  From “Bully” the movie, to tit for tat about who owns our uteri, and whether rape can ever be legitimate,  it would be hard to say that bullying isn't a feminist issue.

Power-over-others is certain under the microscope, yet it seems hard to get on even ground in even discussing any of these areas.

A Skeptic's Guide to Bystanding

by·stand·er noun \ˈbī-ˌstan-dər\ Definition of BYSTANDER : one present but not taking part in a situation or event : a chance spectator

Intimidation

When I'd published my post on Tuesday, I read it again, and although it was a relief to laugh at some of those things, about how Charlie Kingston went to the police about a six year old's play date, I realised that I had been less than honest in one important respect.

It's all very well being funny and all that, and making light of a bad situation. Finding the humour in things can literally keep you alive I've discovered, as someone living with chronic pain, and it's a habit that I've developed on and off-stage. Humour is quite simply the antidote to all life's ills.

A Skeptical Witch-Hunt

This post title should be a contradiction in terms, because skepticism claims to require proper evidence, and witch-hunts are obviously built on hearsay. But you know what folks? It isn't a contradiction at all because quite a few people who wrongly call themselves skeptics are quite prepared to indulge in witch-hunts forsaking any pretence at critical thinking when there's a chance to get at someone they 'despise', indulge their vitriol and feel part of a groovy gang all at the same time.

Does it hurt to be attacked like that on the inter-web?  Well what do you think?

PTSD and Bullying

When I left University I joined local Theatre in Education company Theatre Alibi, and toured around Devon with a show called "No Heroes No Cowards", about a soldier in the First World War, shot for desertion.  That was in the 80s but it took until 2008 for soldiers shot for "desertion" in WW1 were given a full pardon in recognition of the fact that they were, in fact, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Even once there was an understanding that traumatic events can effect people in this way, the term PTSD was still used exclusively to refer to a single traumatising event evoking “intense fear, helplessness, or horror”, and which continues to cause distress, flashbacks and other symptoms.

Antonio Meucci, Father of Modern Communications

On Monday, bank holiday, I tried to post from MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) in Auckland.


I was just amazed that I could sit there and post to this blog on a tiny hand held device because the man pictured here, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone. He's pictured here in July 1877.

Anthroposophical Plants

There's something wonderful about plants grown with the full force of life-affirming quackery running through them, they look the same, maybe a bit posher, but they taste like something can taste only when is has been thoroughly steeped in esoteric dogma.

But until now Anthroposophical Plants haven’t been flagged up as much of a problem.

welcome to anarchangel's blog

Hello world. This is my first blog post.  I've kept two blogs before.  The first one was a private blog when I was in the neo-natal intensive care unit with my extreme premie.  The second one is public and follows the story of what happened to us when we moved to New Zealand and went to a Steiner school.  Oh no! It was a horrible experience of bullying, mismanagement, dishonesty and mobbing and we're still, believe it or not, dealing with the fallout years later.