Blogpost Of The Year

With barely 360 days left to go before the closing date for submissions, Leg-Iron sets the bar high with his crash course in authoritarianism through the ages.

The whole thing is must-read and the highlight is this:

The real fear, the ultimately brilliant part of it, is that nobody is actually scared of the 'witch' [most] of the time. They are scared that they will be identified as that 'witch'. Once identified, you are marked forever as an outcast. The Righteous can silence any objection to their actions by a sidelong look and a quiet 'You know, you're starting to sound like a heretic'.

Nowadays, people are not afraid of racists. They are afraid of being labelled a racist. They are not afraid of paedophiles. They are afraid to go anywhere near children in case they are labelled paedophile*. It's not smoking they fear, it's the idea that if they let the smoker get tobacco scent on their clothes, others might think they smoke too. It's not alcoholism they fear but the perception of others that maybe they are drinking too much...

* As I said myself a couple of months ago: "I have spent my fair share of time in playgrounds with my kids, and never worried particularly that they'd be assaulted/kidnapped by paedo's, because I was there keeping my eagle eye on them. I did however often worry that somebody in 'authority' would question the reason for my presence and/or take me off for fingerprinting. That's how f***ing stupid things have got."