Most blogs contain criticism of stuff that the author considers wrong, stupid or just plain malevolent. And this is the place for that sort thing on my blog. But I’ve assigned a dedicated section to it, in part, because I want to keep count of the explicitly negative and reactive — in the hope that I can balance it with more positive and open-ended commentary elsewhere.
This part of the blog is not a ghetto for rants. I may succumb to that temptation, in moments of frustration, hurry or simple weakness. But, for the most part, I’m going to try to contribute ‘critical thinking’ rather than thinking which merely criticises.
It’s principal target will be taken for granted nonsense. And while a lot of my attacks will focus on the prejudice, fear and hate which our generation of reactionary demagogues propogate in the name of ‘common sense’, I hope to offend a much wider audience than that.
The nonsense that’s rarely questioned by people who consider themselves ‘moderate’, ‘reasonable’, ‘middle of the road’ will be my preeminent target. So, to give you a flavour of what’s coming, here’s a few of my early targets — free markets, efficiency, meritocracy, independence, British rectitude, the idea that cars and mobile phones are necessities, and that office software increases productivity.