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: Walls!

"I WILL BUILD A GREAT WALL" – Donald Trump.

Walls are back! Some thought that walls had had their day, but they were wrong.

The Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall and the Wailing Wall are great historical walls of fear, division and protection, and so are our contemporary walls. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 signifying the end of capitalist/communist, east/west, democratic/authoritarian divisions, the presumed new order was to be one of unfettered (as much as humanly possible) trade and travel, typified in institutions like the EU. Liberal democracy was the answer, it was said – problem solved. But with capital flight, gentrification, outsourcing and (deep breath) immigration, along with other traits of neoliberal capitalism – wage stagnation, job insecurity, etc. – western populations have rediscovered their love of being boxed in.

It’s no great surprise that immigration tends to be the big villain. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign wallowed in the dirty language of xenophobia, promising to build a wall to keep out Mexicans. Britain doesn’t need a wall to keep out Europeans, because we already have a moat, but the sentiments were the same: fear of outsiders coming to wreak havoc and steal jobs. The simplest answers are given for the most complex of problems, and what could be simpler than a wall? If Ukip ran on a ticket of widening the moat, they’d surely sail to victory.

The EU has an external border, but since 2015 temporary internal borders have been reintroduced all around France and in certain areas around Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Going rogue, Hungary has been whipping up walls, one alongside its non-EU neighbour Serbia; one alongside its ‘open border’ neighbour Romania. The EU external border is gradually becoming more rigorously fortified.

Not one to be left out, Britain has joined in the effort to combat the Migrant Crisis because she is beginning to feel the effects, and so in an effort to stop refugees and better life-seekers from getting into trucks and getting into the UK, Britain has built a wall in Calais, one kilometre long. It’s a classic example of treating the symptoms rather than the causes. Perhaps they are practicing for the post-Brexit world, which could include a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and maybe, if all hell really breaks loose and Scotland goes independent, one there too! I’m guessing no one will want to talk about causes there too.

Walls are nothing if not symbolic, and sometimes you can have the symbolic aspect without the physical thing. So non-tangible walls are on the up too: London is seen as an out-of-touch enclave of Liberal Metropolitan Elitists; Washington is a swamp which Trump has promised to drain; European provincials are unsure whether they should hate Berlin or Brussels more; Russians and Ukrainians despise one another; the English think the Scots are taking their money, the Scots think the English are taking their freedom; the British young blame the British old for taking them out of the EU; liberals blame bigots for taking them out of the EU; bigots blame politicians, globalists and soppy wet liberals for creating an EU that had to be left, and my gran blames everyone for everything. Extremely high, albeit imaginary, walls separate all sides.

And the digital world makes it super easy to discover just how hated you are. Social media is rife with communities which communicate in echo chambers, learning how to use keywords to separate their friends and their foes – libtards, Brexiteers, Remoaners, Leavers, Remainers, MSM, Daily Hate, Guardianistas, ‘out of touch’, progressives, ‘regressives’, control, ‘religion of peace’, ‘waycist’. The internet, striving to replicate and re-present the anxieties of the real world and doing a damn fine job.