From Gizmag:
A prototype of England’s Taranis Unmanned Combat Aircraft System (UCAS) that we first covered back in 2006 has been unveiled for the first time by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). Three and a half years in the making and the product of more than a million man-hours the concept demonstrator is designed to test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy UCAV that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even on another continent.
This isn’t something that happens all that often but when it comes to Taranis, it is actually possible to point to a UK MoD project and think it isn’t woefully behind the technological curve.
“Ethnics”
There is a great deal of indignation, (much of it nauseatingly self righteous) on Twitter* over this article in the Daily Express. As it’s next to impossible to express your thoughts with any kind of rigger on Twitter, I thought I’d have myself a rant here.
Lets be clear – I am not under any illusions about the editorial inclination of the Daily Express, or for that matter, its readership. However, it would be more than a little disingenuous to not judge the news item as a self-contained piece. Besides, I have a real job and can’t sit around trawling the archives of some rightwing tabloid looking for stuff to be offended by.
Actually, I may be setting the terms of discussion too broadly. The whole flaccid furore seems to be about the use of the term ‘Ethnics’ in the headline. In case you haven’t clicked on it, here it is in full:
Cue mass pietistic, sloganeering on Twitter as the groupthink echo chamber grows tumescent at the chance of expressing its indignation.
The main body of the article, reporting on a recently released demographic study, contains very little thats different from what the Guardian – a publication not known for hysterical xenophobia – reports about the same thing. The whole thing boils down to the use of the word ‘Ethnics’.
Never mind that us ethnics have been describing ourselves as such for fuck knows how long. Christ! You have to be living in some kind of saccharin steeped oblivion to imagine that, for example my Punjabi friends and I sat around in college* calling ourselves ‘Ethnic Minorities’.
For the benefit of the super right-on, bedecked in authentic tribal patterns, who are no doubt consulting their vast knowledge of post colonial, pop psychology, let me assure you that we were not being ironic or self-hating. We were speaking casually about ourselves, our families and communities. So please spare me the rectal dribble of your vapid mind.
In my view, there is a more fundamental issue at stake than why or when ‘Ethnics’ acquired derogatory associations. I am not trying to act as a representative* for anyone else, but in this foreign immigrants view, there is nothing inherently racist or morally flawed with countries seeking to set conditions on who and how many can settle on their territory. If you accept this, then there is a discussion to be had about who, where and how many.
If you don’t accept the above notion, say so. Instead, people are jumping on the flimsiest of excuse to call those advocating limits and conditions ‘racist’. I’m not passing judgement on the value of the argument advocated by one side or the other. That’s a different discussion. What I’m saying is that the moral denunciation that calling someone ‘racist’ carries is being eroded by a bunch of limp, clueless posers.
There is nothing in the Express article that indicates to me that the writer thinks one set of people are superior to another. The writer is clearly holds a negative view about the levels of immigration to the UK but that doesn’t make him a racist. That’s not what racist means.
Resorting to calling people racist and such is not helping anyone’s cause. I mean for god sakes! It’s pissing me off! If the whining is getting on my tits – an immigrant from the middle east – its time to consider how your argument is being received in the wider population.
As it happens, I’m not convinced all this shrieking from the roof tops has anything to do with concern for ethnic minorities. This isn’t about people like me, or even disdain for people who are perceived to be ‘racist’. The whole thing has turned into some-kind of ludicrous lifestyle statement: “Look at me and my educated open mindedness. I’m hip and with-it”.
Ok, so you’re not some toothless yokel mesmerised by daytime TV, but don’t imagine your Twitt about the white-washing of imperial involvement in Africa while watching Zulu demonstrates some kind of worthwhile insight.
Issues of immigration, asylum and integration are one of the key points facing western democracies. How they are dealt with is going to effect more than the lives of foreigners and minorities. It’s going to effect the moral, legal and political character of these countries.
If you want to have a discussion about these things*, inevitably people will sometimes express themselves in ways that are boorish, insensitive, thoughtless, or oafish. This don’t make them racist. You don’t get to abdicate from addressing their substantial point by nit picking semantics.
* By its very nature, Twitter is an excruciatingly poor medium for communicating any kind of nuanced view. I’m of the opinion that as a matter of integrity, people should refrain from using it for anything other than notification, but this is a rant for another time.
* Shit! That was over twenty years ago!
* An easy way of aggravating me is by purporting to speak on my behalf based on some ancillary factor such as race, gender, ext. I don’t know how woman put-up with all the “woman want this” and “woman think that” stuff. I don’t imagine I’m speaking on anyone else’s behalf. These views are my own. No one else wanted them.
* I wonder.