I’m a geek with a reasonably intelligent, if idealistic, view of the world. Politically, I’m on the left meaning I believe in the welfare state, in socialist governance, in caring for everyone regardless of social circumstance, that no one should ever suffer because others want more and in the wider sense, I believe humanity is better together.

Despite being pro-science, an avid science fiction reader and massively freaky about computers, I am concerned about the rise of AI in the workplace, at home and in society generally. Specifically, I’m concerned about the way AIs are marketed to us, the poor, ignorant saps of the general population. Yeah, that’s right, the same population that is so easily exploited and encouraged to buy whatever these wealthy arseholes want us to buy i.e. you, me, pretty much everyone who isn’t making more that 100K a year. The rich/corporates are getting richer, continuing their march to automation and, when raising concerns or complaints, it’s often hard to speak to a real person; even when you do, they’re usually working off a script. The poor are getting poorer, less able to buy the things they want, worse the things they need, and I’ve long thought most of society could be likened to farm animals or crops, resources to be used and later discarded or destroyed at will. And it isn’t only things, actual solid, touchable things, that are sold to us, it’s ideas, philosophies, religions and it’s rare that any of these are in our (or even our general classes) best interests. Of course, most would claim they’re not being sold anything they don’t want but a casual glance at the world the number of adverts you see and hear on radio, TV and in newspapers, note how many people are employed to market these things to you and then look at some things you’ve bought in the last few years. Look at yourself objectively and most of you will see I’m right.

Science fiction has always been good at predicting the effects of various technologies and, despite the optimism of the 1950s (I so wanted that flying car), it’s a common theme today; future societies with wealthy and powerful overlords ruling the downtrodden masses. We’ve been under control for a long time but I think more of it (worse than we’ve had for a long time) is where we’re headed if the current trends in business automation, computing and AI continue.

On the subject of automation, I’m reminded of a tale, probably mythical, of a union leader being shown around Henry Ford’s factory. They come across an automated machine, a robot, and Ford says to the union guy, “My ideal worker, constantly working, never sleeps, never strikes, never cries off sick.” The union leader nods for a few seconds before responding, “It doesn’t buy anything either!” Those controlling us can automate as much as they like but there surely comes a point where we, their crop, can’t afford their services or goods anymore. People (even poor people) need enough money to survive, to buy their own homes, food, clothing, energy as well as the occasional meal out, a few drinks and the occasional trip to the theatre or cinema. In short, society needs to be more balanced.

There’s a trend in society these days, a term coined by radio talk show host James O’Brien, called footballification. It means adopting a side (a team), ignoring the evidence (despite clear evidence of the negatives), denying/ignoring responsibility (despite earlier decisions) and cheering that team on no matter what (even celebrating hurting those who oppose their team). Humanity is a peculiar beast; genius at times, optimistic, caring and often thoughtful but en masse tribal and willing to follow bad ideas to the grave. With Brexit and now Trump, there are clearly many who have adopted their teams and I fear for humanity, for the future of our children.

I know the UK has never, at least in my life, been truly left wing, but it’s always seemed kinda moderate and I think an awful lot of us still are. In my experience, those with moderate views are better debaters than extremists; this is especially when considering the UK’s current right wing. Maybe it’s because moderates are so often the underdogs, fighting against beliefs that are rarely backed by evidence and right-wing vitriol feels all too similar to the kinds of views expressed by the fundamentalist religious bigots I’ve been debating for much of my life. I’m not claiming that someone can’t be right-wing and intelligent (moral and right-wing is another argument) but most right-wingers seem to adopt their views as a matter of faith rather than reason. Just like the religious zealot. Religious fundamentalists frequently claim evolution (arguably the most important scientific theory of our time) is false because some scientists say so and it takes a lot of hard work to oppose such a simple claim. They’re wrong, of course! Their claim refers to some five hundred “scientists” (sic) that, despite lacking relevant qualifications and biological expertise, claim evolution can’t explain the development of life on Earth despite there being many thousands of times the numbers of experientially qualified scientists who accept evolution as established fact. See “Project Steve” (https://ncse.ngo/project-steve) for more information.

I believe in fairness, qualified tolerance and, in the wider sense of the word, love. Earlier this century, even at the start of the last decade, I thought the world was a nicer place. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it felt as if we were moving towards better things, less racism, better health care, greater personal wealth and freedoms. I don’t think Brexit or Tories were the cause but I am certain they are symptomatic of the current swing to the right, to a less kind, less caring society where people focus on trying to stop immigrants from war-torn countries or nations governed by despotic regimes from coming here, usually crying louder when those people are of a different skin colour. My gut feeling is that, just like climate change, human action and greed are at the root. Outside climate concerns, the big one for me right now is the abandonment of Keynesian economics for that of Neo Liberalism (Thatcher and Reagan were hugely symptomatic of it) which, despite its grand sounding name, has nothing to do with our personal freedoms merely reflecting the wishes of powerful and wealthy groups to walk over, use and abuse us. I’ll go further and say that I think we are farmed by such agencies, treated like animals, to be employed as required then thrown to the wolves when not.

I despair of the way things are heading. While not overly impressed with our new leader, I think it a good thing that Labour won the 2024 election and the evidence at my disposal suggests they have done a great deal to enable ordinary people. Most importantly, it removed the Tories from power and allowed me the fantasy that we’d fall back to a more reasonable, centrist position. I was wrong! UK society appears to have flipped the opposite way, moving further to the right and embracing even more extreme fascism in the Reform UK party (or should I say PLC?) led by that horrible weasel of man, Nigel Farage. I’m probably being horrible to weasels.

In the UK (and probably most places in the world) society seems to progress further and faster under centrist or centre left administrations, where the machinations of huge corporates and people of extreme wealth are curtailed. Ordinary people get wealthier, infrastructure gets better, state support improves and much more and while they might not make as much money as they currently do, corporates and the wealthy can still make a shed load of money. That’s why I believe the things I do, why I fight against the nastier things in society, against fascism or anything I might perceive embraces it and yes, why I am left wing and was, during the Brexit campaign, a remainer.

I wish I didn’t live in a right-wing, racist nation, one that still (for reasons I cannot even fathom) seems increasingly likely to vote a party far worse than the Tories into power. The Tories were bad enough. They claimed to be the party of law and order while cutting police numbers dramatically (and no, adding 20K police when you’ve taken 20K away is not a justification), claim to care about health and other essential services yet screw them over at every opportunity, claim to care about us yet will let parents go hungry just so they can feed their children and a party that presided over a rise in food bank use from some sixty thousand people under Blair and Brown’s Labour to well over two million. And Reform UK PLC, the “party” (or rather company) so many seem willing to vote for, are worse, potentially much, much worse, yet somehow people have been persuaded that they are a good thing. I despair but it won’t stop me opposing such awful stuff.

Despite the attempts of the village idiots to put me and people like me down, I believe I can hold my head high; unlike many of our “pro-British” xenophobes, I really want the best for our nation and for humanity, no matter its sex, colour, gender or (for the most part) creed.

Now, the UK, much like the US, is slipping to the right and everyone on my side of the political divide has heard or read those people. Maybe you criticise someone for something or other they’ve said, explaining why their view is morally or legally wrong and suddenly you’re hit by the claim that their free speech is being suppressed. It happened to me when, during an online discussion, someone literally said, “What’s happened to free speech. No words are racist unless you take them that way. To the pure all is pure!” I don’t know what the last sentence meant but what the actual? They had clearly expressed their opinion (their freedom to express their opinion) and I had exercised my right to freedom of speech in pointing out what I considered the flaws in their claim/s? Where exactly was their free speech being suppressed?

I’m old enough to remember the internet when it was little more than bulletin boards so it feels like one of those problems with modern day internet use, with social networking in particular; we all know we have rights but few seem to understand the implications. Each of us has a right because it is protected in law and backed by the legal apparatus of the nation in question but as members of the society endorsing that right each of us has the responsibility to extend that right to others. Regarding freedom of speech, the right I so often see egregiously abused, nothing about its possession shields us from criticism. While enshrined in law, the right to free speech doesn’t literally exist; it’s an abstract concept enabled by our own willingness to grant it and the only way to guarantee it is to provide it freely to everyone else. Yes, we absolutely may say anything legal in our nation (not all things are) but no, that doesn’t mean that others (anyone, the entire damned world in principle) can’t pile in to explain why we’re wrong. That is NOT, as is so often claimed, suppression of free speech; it’s everyone exercising their own rights to the same. There is no such thing as the right to free speech without the corresponding right to respond.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to explain this to people, to explain why what they’ve said is wrong (factually, morally or otherwise) and, when you’re dealing with a certain type of individual, eventually they’ll accuse me of being “woke”. Leaving aside the fact that it’s typically an attack on the messenger rather than the message, I find it incredible that someone expressing a view that others consider worthy of rebuttal thinks their views are beyond reproach. Weird but even weirder, is the idea that simply opposing someone’s views makes one woke.

Anyone who criticises things like racism and other forms of bigotry, religious excess and political extremism are, in my not so humble opinion, correct to do so but I have been called “woke” for doing exactly that which leads me to ask, “What exactly is woke?” It almost always ISN’T what the anti-woke imply when they accuse people or things of being “woke”. It isn’t political correctness, which originated in Russia, something I wasn’t aware of until recently. The idea of being “woke” evolved in the black communities of America in The Seventies, where it focussed on the idea that black people needed to wake up to the [expletive deleted] going on, a call to other black people to be aware of how American society and laws were geared to prevent their progress, to keep them (in societal terms) suppressed. Today, it has wider connotations and extends beyond those communities.

According to recent a UK YouGov poll, over thirty percent of people most typically associate “woke” with social awareness, political issues, thoughtfulness and inclusivity to minorities. It’s also clear that “woke” means different things to different people depending on which part of the political spectrum you see yourself existing in i.e. the more right-wing you are, the more anti-woke you’ll be.

A recent meme claimed that “woke” meant several things and, having considered them at some length, I think the following could be prerequisites for a woke perspective:

• Reading. Reading opens minds, banning or burning allows others to close them. Clearly, some books need restricted because of their nature (Atomic Bombs For Dummies, The Terrorism Manual or The Holy Bible) but in general terms, reading is a good thing.
• Science. Accepting current scientific consensus and changing one’s mind when new relevant evidence is uncovered.
• Global Complexity. Realising the world is a complex place and that most issues aren’t black and white.
• Empathy. Showing empathy for others, believing and respecting in equality and rights for all; these are good things and allow you to claim the same for yourself.
• Arts & Culture. Accepting that culture and arts have value.
• The Earth. The Earth is the only planet we currently know supports life. It’s the only home we have and there are those out there that care more about money and power than they do about our planet or us.
• Social Awareness. While I don’t believe in the illuminati or other silly conspiracy theories, I believe there are dark but very human forces moving in the shadows, forces that are inimical to or at least uncaring of our existence and with aims that would not be in our best interests. I include two UK political parties in this category; The Conservatives and Reform PLC but I’m sure there are others.

If the above is a reasonable recipe for staying aware, and I think it is, then I consider myself “woke” no matter how many times people trot it out as an insult. More than that, I’ve seen the comments, the snarky memes and think that those who sneer at the idea of being woke or are snide about it (more often simply branding anything they don’t like as “woke”) expose their own prejudices and reveal themselves as nowhere near as clever as they think they are. I’m pragmatic and a realist; I accept scientific consensus and strongly believe that those on the right (neoliberal these days) are chasing more and more wealth, uncaring that they might destroy our world in doing so. They treat ordinary people (like me, my kids and others although many would not admit it) as little but resources to be used in helping them gain greater wealth. They use ideas like “the self-made man” when it is clear to anyone using their brain that there’s no such thing. No one should inherit enormous fortunes from their parents, no one should have obscene amounts of money when people are literally freezing and/or starving in their homes and it isn’t because I want a freebie, or an easy life or anything like it. I simply believe the world should be and could be a much fairer place.

Many have criticised me for being an atheist, leftwing and/or woke which needs some explanation. I am all those because I am socially aware, evidence based, consider science the only philosophy that works, because I allow myself to care about others and not view my existence as more important than everyone else. I realise it sounds elitist but I am what I am because I have, I believe, a relatively intelligent view of the world we all share. Many right-wingers (not all) are ignorant and, while they clearly can be atheist (all it means is you don’t believe in a god or gods), today’s right-wingers care about themselves above others tending towards extremism and even fascism. However, the left doesn’t escape criticism either and, even though I share some of their ideals, they can be every bit as bad left unchecked. Still, my primary antipathy is towards right wing politics and views because I believe they are destroying most of the things I hold dear. I despise Putin, Trump, Farage & Reform UK, Orban, Thatcher & the UK Conservative party, Reagan, Bush, & the US Republicans and more... frankly, anyone who espouses such extreme views. I believe few in power give a damn about anyone else and the more extreme and/or right-wing they are, the more willing they will be to use unacceptable/immoral methods to make sure they keep hold of that power. They say, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, don’t they? To put it simply, if you live politically on the right, if you believe being woke is something bad, if you sneer at gender issues then you’re marching to a beat I cannot. I’m old and there’s current stuff I don’t quite get but I also accept that it’s no longer my world, that it should belong to the kids; they do think that way and if it doesn’t directly affect you why not shut the hell up? "Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke, and by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people." Jane Fonda