Monday 26 December 2016

The Social Acceptabilty List 2016

Last Christmas, we gave you a list. The Social Acceptability List 2015 sought to reflect on a year of social discourse; how certain concepts, words and things moved towards or away from the so-called Overton Window. The list was this:


It was in!

islamophobia, war, voting out the box, ties with china, shaming

It was out!

privilege, global warming denial.

A year on, we’re able to see how things have changed, or haven't. Islamophobia’s still riding high with burkini bans in France and “Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”. War, too, is ever popular, with the one in Syria reaching what appears to be a disastrous climax.

The social activism of ‘shaming’ and ‘checking one’s (or another’s) privilege’ has continued, and the tactics and concepts of the left have spread to the right: the so-called white male’s fightback is simply identity politics without the understanding of historical prejudices. Hence where privilege last year was out, it’s now in. The Identitarian Movement of Europe, and the Alt-right movement in the US, seek power in their white, male identities in the same way that Beyonce found it in her black, female one.  

Voting out the box (Syriza, Podemos, Ukip, Corbyn...) was big in 2015 but 2016 has been defined by it, specifically by Brexit and Trump – two votes which threaten to throw entire societies into the wilderness. 2016 has been marked by a vocal disgust at those who have voted in this way, leading to debates about how and where people get their information. Those who question Facebook as a reliable news source and/or the Trump/Farage-led peddlers of deliberate mistruth and misrepresentation are told they are scornful of voters who warmed to it, and are, ultimately, undemocratic.

Finally, discussion of global warming has been drowned out by talk of other things, but conspiracies in general are up and global warming denial has been bolstered by Trump, who claimed that manmade global warming is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to thwart the American economy. On the back of these loose words, and with a rise in protectionist economic policy sentiments, ties with China could be in question. Trump has taken a pop at China’s South China Sea militarisation, taken issue with China’s low valued currency, and taken a call from Tsai Yingwen, Taiwan’s independence-leaning president, hitting China precisely where it hurts.

After 2015’s glory year in Anglo-Chinese relations, typified in Xi Jinping’s romantic trip to David Cameron’s pub, and George Osborne’s glowing expectations of trade with the Chinese, 2016 has been full of stumbles. The Brexit vote has caused worry and bemusement in China, who value stability over pretty much everything. The new UK PM Theresa May ordered a review into the Chinese-backed Hinkley Point power station because of security concerns. But things settled down later: May went ahead with Hinkley (as if she had a choice), and China’s state-backed SinoFortone bought the pub chain that includes Cameron’s pub so Xi could toast this little victory.
Keep posted for the Social Acceptability List 2017!

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