Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Anti-vaxxers are oddballs and at this stage people who are vaccine hesitant aren’t much better.

I don’t care if they don’t want to get the vaccine, that’s their choice. However I do care that they’re a minority and are setting the tone for the country opening up.

[Bairnardo]

25 minutes ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Anti-vaxxers are oddballs and at this stage people who are vaccine hesitant aren’t much better.

I don’t care if they don’t want to get the vaccine, that’s their choice. However I do care that they’re a minority and are setting the tone for the country opening up.

Why is it being allowed to become the narrative that opening up is being held back by the miniscule amount of non-vaccinated, when the number of vaccinated has wildly exceeded even optimistic estimates?

[ICTChris]

Independent SAGE had a special guest on their zoom meeting, a 13 year old talking about how terrified he was of going back to school due to the risk of Covid. Absolutely disgraceful, dragging out children to reinforce their talking points.

I won’t link to it but it’s on their Twitter. As well as iSage the boys parents need their heads looked at, so many people see their kids as a way to filter out their views to the social media world. Utter narcissism.

[Abdul_Latif]

17 hours ago, NotThePars said:

What are the numbers here? Genuine question because the SNP have just scooshed their way into government again.

Anecdotal I realise here, but the bbq I was at yesterday had at least a couple out of say 25 or so folk that have had enough of the SNP. All in favour of independence, but sick of the constant failures, controversial bills in the last few years and now failure to deal with coming out the end of Covid.

The rest of the folk were mostly absolutely oblivious to what is going on in politics and really just vote SNP cause they think it’s the right thing to do and “Nicola is trying her best”.

If that is a representative view countrywide it could see support for the SNP dwindle and membership down even a couple of percent which would be concerning for them, given the narrow margins of victory they achieve in a lot of seats.

[SANTAN]

11 minutes ago, Abdul_Latif said:

Anecdotal I realise here, but the bbq I was at yesterday had at least a couple out of say 25 or so folk that have had enough of the SNP. All in favour of independence, but sick of the constant failures, controversial bills in the last few years and now failure to deal with coming out the end of Covid.

The rest of the folk were mostly absolutely oblivious to what is going on in politics and really just vote SNP cause they think it’s the right thing to do and “Nicola is trying her best”.

If that is a representative view countrywide it could see support for the SNP dwindle and membership down even a couple of percent which would be concerning for them, given the narrow margins of victory they achieve in a lot of seats.

I'm guessing they're frequent posters in the Politics section on here then. 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

Independent SAGE had a special guest on their zoom meeting, a 13 year old talking about how terrified he was of going back to school due to the risk of Covid. Absolutely disgraceful, dragging out children to reinforce their talking points.
I won’t link to it but it’s on their Twitter. As well as iSage the boys parents need their heads looked at, so many people see their kids as a way to filter out their views to the social media world. Utter narcissism.

This is when we really need stacey from denny to counter that it’s all a load ae shite cause her two huvnae hud it

[Suspect Device]

5 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Or perhaps even wafer thin.

I think you have to except that you've not read the thread.

 

[Michael W]

No surprise that iSage are again punting anecdotes to further their agenda given they attack any study that doesn't back their viewpoint.

We joke a lot on here about Lovejoys, but "the children" is genuinely their last stand. 

Turns out that the kid they interviewed has a Twitter account that was opened in 2012, so he'd have been 4. Clearly this was his mum that did this, so I think we can see where the issues in this family have started. 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Michael W

[ICTChris]

There’s a strange trend to use children as political activists and tools.  The first I heard of kids being part of a demonstration as a big talking point was during the Iraq War when some kids at a few Edinburgh schools didn’t go into school so they could go on an anti war march.  That was pretty unusual at the time but now every single march of a certain ilk, the pro-EU matches being the best example, have kids with placards trotting alongside their neck bearded middle class parents.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with young people campaigning or being involved in politics.  Campaigners like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai are obviously extremely knowledgeable and are valuable. I do think that children being wheeled out as some sort of moral arbiter is wrong and doing it to your 13 year old is disgraceful behaviour.

[Monkey Tennis]

2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

Or perhaps even wafer thin.

'Whoosh' is sometimes an inadequate term.

[Michael W]

9 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

There’s a strange trend to use children as political activists and tools.  The first I heard of kids being part of a demonstration as a big talking point was during the Iraq War when some kids at a few Edinburgh schools didn’t go into school so they could go on an anti war march.  That was pretty unusual at the time but now every single march of a certain ilk, the pro-EU matches being the best example, have kids with placards trotting alongside their neck bearded middle class parents.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with young people campaigning or being involved in politics.  Campaigners like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai are obviously extremely knowledgeable and are valuable. I do think that children being wheeled out as some sort of moral arbiter is wrong and doing it to your 13 year old is disgraceful behaviour.

It's designed purely to play on people's emotions and move the debate away from facts. And as I imagine the majority of the population have had children, it's an emotional appeal aimed at appealing to their instincts to try and force their views around to their own under the guise this is for the children's sake. If you disagree, you hate children, probably. 

I don't really like seeing kids dragged along to things at the parent's behest because ultimately it's projection of the parent's own views and not independent thought, but in many cases if the kids weren't there the parent ultimately couldn't go. 

At the other end of the scale, some people use their kids because they can't hold a cohesive argument and will just use the kids as an emotional argument, usually "THEIR FUTURE!!!" as a retort to anything. 

[ICTChris]

Who could possibly have foreseen any of this? 

Pathetic stuff by iSage, this is something you see all the time on social media, particularly Twitter. 

[craigkillie]

There’s a strange trend to use children as political activists and tools.  The first I heard of kids being part of a demonstration as a big talking point was during the Iraq War when some kids at a few Edinburgh schools didn’t go into school so they could go on an anti war march.  That was pretty unusual at the time but now every single march of a certain ilk, the pro-EU matches being the best example, have kids with placards trotting alongside their neck bearded middle class parents.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with young people campaigning or being involved in politics.  Campaigners like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai are obviously extremely knowledgeable and are valuable. I do think that children being wheeled out as some sort of moral arbiter is wrong and doing it to your 13 year old is disgraceful behaviour.

I think there's a difference in that folk like Greta and Malala did stuff off their own bat - they might have been encouraged and supported by their parents but it seems genuine. Folk dragging their kids into their own politics is quite different to that.

[Marshmallo]

4 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Who could possibly have foreseen any of this? 

Pathetic stuff by iSage, this is something you see all the time on social media, particularly Twitter. 

They knew this would happen and arguably wanted it to happen. 

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

I think there's a difference in that folk like Greta... did stuff off [her] own bat

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I think there's a difference in that folk like Greta and Malala did stuff off their own bat - they might have been encouraged and supported by their parents but it seems genuine. Folk dragging their kids into their own politics is quite different to that.

Greta Thunberg is no different - she is as much a product of her middle class parents as those midfield class children on other protests.

[ICTChris]

15 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

I think there's a difference in that folk like Greta and Malala did stuff off their own bat - they might have been encouraged and supported by their parents but it seems genuine. Folk dragging their kids into their own politics is quite different to that.

Yeah, that’s what I should’ve said.

[Michael W]

Stage two of the iSage emotional appeal right there in that statement. 

"Look at this poor, vulnerable boy sharing his stoey about his worries and all these people are ATTACKING him! This is disgraceful!". 

They purposely brought in a child to further their own agenda, posting it on Twitter where scientists on both sides of this debate have been subject to all sorts of abuse. They have knowingly exposed a child to this environment and have almost certainly failed whatever safeguarding they are supposed to adhere to. 

Gutter level from an increasingly disingenous pressure group that has long since lost the argument. Personal anecodates are not quantifiable evidence. 

[craigkillie]

Greta Thunberg is no different - she is much a product of her middle class parents as those midfield class children on other protests.

You can be a product of your upbringing without necessarily being indoctrinated by your parents. Kids are obviously going to take a lot of their values from the people who raise them, but that's not really a bad thing as long as it doesn't go too far.

I grew up somewhat working class but couldn't describe myself as anything other than middle class now, and my wife and I are both lefty tree-hugging vegetarians. We'll let our daughter make her own choices on these things, but probably she'll end up having similar views. That's different to me, for example, setting up a Twitter account for her when she's 5, dragging her along to protests she doesn't understand or generally trying to make political capital out of her. However, if she's 13 or 14 and wants to take part in something like that I'd be more than happy to support her decisions.

[ICTChris]

15 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

You can be a product of your upbringing without necessarily being indoctrinated by your parents. Kids are obviously going to take a lot of their values from the people who raise them, but that's not really a bad thing as long as it doesn't go too far.

I grew up somewhat working class but couldn't describe myself as anything other than middle class now, and my wife and I are both lefty tree-hugging vegetarians. We'll let our daughter make her own choices on these things, but probably she'll end up having similar views. That's different to me, for example, setting up a Twitter account for her when she's 5, dragging her along to protests she doesn't understand or generally trying to make political capital out of her. However, if she's 13 or 14 and wants to take part in something like that I'd be more than happy to support her decisions.

Going to be great banter when your kid joins UKIP.