The BBC capitulate following outrage over a headline

We are living in the age of insanity.

On any given day for any given issue, there is outrage, disgust, paranoia and so much more.

Social media amplifies the frenzy with algorithms programmed to expose users to content that causes maximum outrage.

It begins with the first user discovering a pretext to outrage about. The second user might claim the idea was inoffensive. The third, fourth, and fifth users pounce upon the second calling him a bigot for not being outraged. The second capitulates and joins the mob leading to an avalanche of outrage.

This increases engagement and in turn advertising for the social media platform.

The outrage could also be a business model.

The backlash over the death of George Floyd was driven by social media, perhaps even by bots. It caused #BlackLivesMatter to trend. Celebrities and corporations donated millions to BLM to appear like the ‘good ones. In the end, BLM founders ended up with luxurious mansions.

The latest outrage is over a headline of a BBC article by Tessa Wong about the resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that read, "Jacinda Ardern resigns: Can women really have it all?”

Wong begins her piece by lavishing blandishments on Ardern

“For millions around the world, Jacinda Ardern's resignation comes as a shock - but especially for women. With her charm and leadership philosophy rooted in kindness, the New Zealand Prime Minister has earned widespread popularity. Many of her fans are women, who have avidly followed her journey from newbie PM to working mother and have looked up to her as a role model.”

The following are more excerpts from Wong’s piece

“But not many mothers have had to also grapple with steering their country through an unprecedented global pandemic, a horrific domestic terror attack, and a volcanic eruption”

 

“Motherhood and the expectations society places on mothers - as well as the expectations mums place on themselves - are difficult enough.”

“A true millennial mum, she was also happy to share her parenting travails on social media, from the struggle to bake the perfect birthday cake for her daughter, to find a diaper cream stain on her jacket after spending the day in meetings.

But in the end, it was too much for her to bear.”

Wong concedes that Ardern’s government struggled to navigate post-pandemic economic challenges that gave rise to the cost of living and social inequality.

Wong also mentions Ardern’s record low approval rating and accepts that Ardern's resignation was probably meant to avoid an ignominious defeat in the upcoming election despite being the incumbent PM.

Yet Wong insisted that Ardern's resignation speech will resound with the many exhausted mothers around the world, such as herself, struggling with mum guilt.

Wong was saying that working women endure such hardships while balancing their personal and professional life, that the challenges become insurmountable. Hence they have left with no choice but to quit. 

Wong’s piece was a hagiography for Jacinda with a sprinkling of facts about her unpopularity and misgovernance, even the heading was meant to justify Ardern’s resignation by blaming society for preventing women from ‘having it all’.

The BBC is among the flagbearers of faux political correctness and was never going to attack the likes of Ardern, who is also a prominent member of the same club of superficial virtue signaling.

A perfect illustration of this Ardern's mindset was following a shooting at a mosque.

The best way to comfort the bereaved is to do it privately. But Ardern knows that demonstrating compassion earns more political points than being really compassionate. So Ardern donned the headscarf that Muslim women wear and comforted victims' families before the press of the world.

It earned her plaudits.

https://twitter.com/iamhanzla1/status/1106905428519251970

Last year when Ardern met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Martin a reporter asked the following:

"A lot of people will be wondering, are you two meeting just because you're similar in age and, you know, got a lot of common stuff there. Can Kiwis actually expect to see more deals down the line between the two countries?"

This was poor articulation but the point of the question was will their personal friendship owing to the similarities in their career paths lead to more ties between New Zealand and Finland.

Well Ardern, either misunderstood the question or purposefully used it to create an excuse to claim victimhood.

The question had no mention of either Prime Ministers’ gender yet Ardern attempted to claim that the reporter was being sexist

 

"My first question is I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Obama and [former New Zealand Prime Minister] John Key and if they met because they were of a similar age”

"We of course have a higher proportion of men in politics. It's reality. But because two women meet, it's not simply because of their gender."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz9rg9m5dvU

The ploy worked, it generated headlines and compliments.

Myriad such maneuvers caused ‘Jacinda-mania’, a term probably coined by her PR Team.

But on the governance front, her record was abominable. Her resignation was most likely meant to salvage her reputation and revitalize her brand.

In the future expect Ardern to enter into lucrative book deals, speech-making engagements, etc. She may even set up a think-tank in D.C.

Back to the BBC piece

 

The outrage mob was either too lazy to read the article or too daft to comprehend the contents. Perhaps they purposefully misinterpreted the heading to mount an outrage campaign merely for attention on social media and to prove their goodness.

 

The BBC’s tweet about the article was deemed sexist, misogynistic, and anachronistic.

 

https://twitter.com/SangitaMyska/status/1616135552083918851

 

https://twitter.com/heatherbarr1/status/1616057954490269699

https://twitter.com/julieposetti/status/1616185736952418305?re

https://twitter.com/caoilfhionnanna/status/1616171421658488833

https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1616252372929634305

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1616224669618835459

Some claimed that the trope about women "having it all" is, at its basic level, a dated catch-all that portrays female success as pitting successful careers against raising families.

Instead of standing its ground and urging the virtual mob to read the article first before hysterically beating the drums of outrage, the BBC chose to capitulate before the mob.

The headline now reads "Jacinda Ardern resigns: Departure reveals unique pressures on PM" while the Tweet was deleted.

The outrage mob, despite having no reasons, once again won.

The fact remains that civilized democracies simply cannot survive with continuous hoax outrages

Firstly if everything is outrageous, nothing actually is. The situation is reminiscent of the boy who cried ‘wolf’. Consequently acts or content that actually merits outrage evade attention because

Secondly, this quest for purity, i.e. to be inoffensive, is an impossible pursuit. Even the purest of purists, such as the BBC, who must have multiple stages of review to ensure that nothing ‘offensive’ is published will somehow fail the purity test. The outrage is used as an excuse to censor speech.

Thirdly, the constant bombardment conditions society to conflate virtue signaling, victimhood, and hoax outrage with ability. It goes beyond social media behavior and dictates voting choices. Empathy stunts fool some voters all the time and all the voters sometimes. The end result is misgovernance and hardship for the people.

It's about time to stand up against the tyranny of a few compulsive contrarians and a largely invisible mob.

Also appears on American Thinker