Pic by Fiona of the demo today. On the left you’ll see a guy talking to two men in high-viz jackets who are filming him for far-right social media bullshit.
Status:
Didn’t sleep too well and was up relatively early for a “people who actually live in Stirchley against the arseholes who are coming here putting up flags in a fascist way” demo. I trundled over on my new mobility scooter and stayed for about half an hour, my intention being to just be a number rather than get involved in anything. It was an interesting occasion. About 150 of “us” against a handful of “them”, kept in check by some police. Lots of music and sign making and general good humour with the flag wankers in one corner engaging in bad-faith “dialogue” and filming on their phones, waiting for someone to lose it. It’s very clear what the tactics are – get good content to edit for culture war outrage clicks. Hopefully I’ll have some energy to write something more about what they’re actually up to as it’s sort of new, and has nothing to do with flags or Stirchley. We’re just content fodder. It’s meme warfare. I’ve read a lot about this sort of thing but I never thought I’d see it on my streets.
As a side-note I saw a number of friends today for the first time in over a year and it was nice. Thanks to my battery-powered wheels I feel like I’m getting into the world again.
The rest of the day was a daze – the novelty of being exhausted from sleep deprivation rather than chronic fatigue, yet being too wired to nap, led to some interesting symptoms. Tomorrow is going to be interesting…
Insomniac Listening:
- In Our Time: Homo erectus - fascinating bit about how the rapid geological changes in the African Rift Valley favoured hominids who could walk.
- Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince