Tag: left-wing

A Burning America

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

There was once a time when I was mulling over the idea of going to America for a friends summer wedding. Summer has been and gone and the wedding became a tiny event with just a few family. I think we all know which virus we can blame for that change of plans. I was thinking too about maybe visiting him at some point later this year or spring next year and going on a road trip somewhere. He’s good for road trips. In another unrelated plan I thought about going to Seattle and completing a coding bootcamp course. Coding because I want to learn how to write it, bootcamps because they’re intense and good ways to learn and Seattle because it’s apparently quite a cool city and it’ll always be synonymous with Nirvana and the grunge music scene in my mind.

None of these things are probably going to happen. Partly I don’t want to go too far from the UK at the moment considering we have no idea what will happen with this virus over the winter. With the American government responding worse than ours somehow it doesn’t look like the most appealing place right now either. On top of that though it really does look like the country is descending into what can only be described as the early stages of it’s second civil war. Am I being hyperbolic? Perhaps. But taking a look at current events with another person being shot dead it does make you take notice and raise an eyebrow. A few days ago some little seventeen year old right-wing kid shot three people protesting on behalf of Black Lives Matter, after another unarmed black man was shot dead by police. Today, or maybe it was last night, a man was shot dead but this time he was marching with Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group taking part in counter protests.

A year or two ago these two sides of the ideological divide in America were squaring up to each other wearing armour and carrying bats. A few people turned up carrying guns but more to flaunt they could and as a warning that they had them than to actually use. Now they’ve started using them. This is currently an incredibly heated situation in a country awash with guns. At the moment, to say this could unfold with further violence and shooting is not an overly dramatic statement to make. It is an election year with an unstable leader willing to push and step over the boundaries of common practice in his determination to hold on to power. I’m not suggesting he’s about to lead a fascist military coup or become a dictator but he’s likely to incite an already incited populace. Really this could go anywhere. For the time being I know where I won’t be going.

Left, Right Or Corkscrew

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

In sperm related news it turns out that the seventeenth century microscopes that first determined the movement of our little fellas were not entirely accurate. It was believed they wriggle their tales back and forth twenty times a second giving off the impression of a very fast and very small eel. Interestingly enough sperm are also lopsided and wriggle predominantly on their stronger side. Thankfully they don’t move in a circle as would be expected with lop sided force, think of a canoe if you paddle on only one side. Instead modern microscopes have managed to capture their movement in 3D and it turns out they seem to use a strangely corkscrew like movement instead. From above this looks like a wiggle hence the original confusion. There is a video below to clear up this confusion. Thank god for that.

I got that story from the news channel Russia Today (RT). I had hoped to fine some other stories worth going into but that was about as good as it got. RT is an insight into the world as seen through Russian eyes but more often as you delve deeper through the articles, it is clear that many of these stories are following the same line as those parroted by the right-wing media and the alt-right. They are generally pro-Trump which is clear without even having to read between the lines, they attack ‘left-wing Marxist cancel culture’ as well as Black Lives Matter, LGTBQ and Antifa. While I am not saying these different groups, movements or approaches are always in agreement they do arguably represent one particular side of the fight.

On a geopolitical scale these groupings as such can be seen coming together in the form of Trump, Brexit, Marie Le Pen of France, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Matteo Salvini of Italy. When you take a step back and observe everything from a distance it becomes very clear that what we believe to be a localised issue such as Brexit, is in fact a smaller part of a larger battle being played out on the international stage. Taken by it’s individual parts these are merely a series of unfortunate political incidents, mistakes or leaders but observed together we can really see the threats the world currently faces. The Covid-19 Front is the current battle ground as both sides put forward arguments of varying levels of credibility and persuasion. Although tempting, this may be a moment not to jump into one corner or another and observe this for what it is. It is hard to accept being played as all affects us but perhaps we need to see we are just being used as pawns, play our own game and do as the sperm and corkscrew.