The Social Acceptability List 2016

Another year whipped by, and it turned out to be a year like no other. Rulebooks are being burned and ripped up and rewritten, and what’s deemed acceptable has become a game of trial and error. The Overton Window has been stretched, but perhaps only for those with the most vocal following. So what’s in and what’s out? The Fallen in Public look at our politicians, newspapers and netizens - What’s in? What’s out? What’s OK? What’s not? Read on to find out...

IT'S IN! Strongmen

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Donald Trump

After thirty years of whinging, sensitive liberals ruling the world, it’s time for the Strongmen. Packaged and sold as the answer to all problems, strongmen are being chosen by their populations to halt the liberal march towards doom, with its nightmarish vision of people getting along. The strongmen of choice are headed by president-elect Donald Trump and his Russian friend, the indestructible Vladimir Putin, but others are making their mark: Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in 2013 a mere Prime Minister, when he began the plans for replacing Gezi Park with a shopping centre. Protests followed, and took on a hue of anger directed not only at redevelopment misery, but other concerns about the direction of this proudly democratic Islamic country, an issue that many had seen coming given Erdogan’s history and right-wing Islamic ideology. But Erdogan’s crackdown and his authoritarian figure must have delighted some, because he was elected president the next year. After blaming a coup on Fethullah Gülen, who lives safely in the USA, Erdogan’s relationship with Obama cooled, and with Putin, warmed, despite shooting down the latter's plane earlier in the year.

On the other side of the planet the Philippines elected Rodrigo Duterte, who unleashed ‘death squads’ to murder suspected drug dealers and users. Unrepentant, Duterte defended himself against ‘corrupt’ journalists and their questions, called Obama a ‘son of a whore’, and made friendly waves across the sea towards China. Strike 2 for America’s hopeful first black president.

China’s president Xi, while far gentler in tone than his brethren, is championed at home as a strongman - the great counterweight to America’s might - and also has in his corner the added kudos of not even pretending to be democratic.

While the UK hasn’t quite elected one, much of the political muscle has been provided by our very own autocrat-in-waiting, Nigel Farage, who’s fast learned that demagoguery can be sought and found and enacted without the need of the ballot box. Wearing the mask of a democrat, he ran his party like Mao and uses headline grabbing controversies to get his name out, rather than reason or debate. After bemoaning Obama’s involvement in the UK/EU referendum as meddling in UK affairs, he went and did the same thing in the USA. All the while getting the benefit of the doubt from our media.

Having realised that neither bigotry nor lies can dent his appeal, Farage went hypocrisy crazy by endorsing Trump’s mad suggestion that he would be a great ambassador. If only all authoritarian leaders could pick their ambassadors, hey Nige. Over Christmas he worked Berlin’s terrorist attack into his favourite political cause (destroying the EU) and called Brendan Cox an extremist for supporting the anti-extremist organisation, Hope Not Hate. On Christmas Day, this ‘defender of Christian values’ told his Twitter followers to ‘ignore’ the ‘negative’ Archbishop of Canterbury, as if Farage’s followers weren’t already ignoring those who call for peace, understanding and unity.

With more trouble coming, al la Brexit, Farage will be poised to make it the fault of liberals and elected politicians, rather than himself. He might just do it. For these strongmen aren’t just winging it – they’ve managed to get the ears of the electorates, seizing the vacuum of trust in the political establishment. Their self-consciously anti-pc language is cheered on as it gets on liberals’ nerves. Even lies and hypocrisy are applauded as long as liberals are being hounded – the strongmen act as leaders of movements in which the liar lies on behalf of the mob, fighting for what they think is a bigger cause. Populations in fear grant their leaders this licence.

Much talk of late on democracy, people power and how important it is. It’s one of the few things which simply cannot be questioned. But the rise of the strongmen shows that people, albeit unconsciously, are desperate to be led, and to have blind faith that the leader’s cruel worlds will only manifest in actions which affect others. Democratic authoritarianism is in!