You know who I read last night, and it was so refreshing, so uncoupled from tiresome culture war subtext and arch dismissal of this or that demographic, devoid of studied poise and careful Jenga-ism? Let alone the urge to "destroy" someone.

Clive James. Cultural Amnesia.

Fuck, that guy could write. Every sentence had a memorable phrase and a worthwhile insight. Yet politically, all he gave away was that he didn't like Nazis. And even that was tucked away in the chapter on Hegel and was easily avoided.

I *think* he was probably left-ish. (Please don't feel the need to let me know) The point is, I would not put more than a tenner on it. Such a relief, not to know or want to know or feel it was coming.

Same with Alan Coren, though a different writer in many ways, obvs.

And I realised, that used to be my turf, in my small way. I have been dragged into all this, Brexit, Trump etc against my will, mainly by seeing one person misrepresenting someone I think well intentioned and interesting - and before you know it, you have been enlisted.

People blame social media, but I wonder. I wonder if it isn't actually legacy media. It has been them, more often than not, wilfully misreporting something, that has radicalised me, not some rando with an anime avatar.

I wonder if this is how they wrest back control, and focus, from social media. And they do it to enlist you. They don't care what side. They just want to float the boat. The paper. The sales.

We all blame Social media but tbh a lot of people on here would be just as happy to talking about football or the movies or who is shagging who. Or Clive James.

Legacy media need the stakes to be higher than that, so you need to check with legit sources to see what is "really" going on. Even though they then lie as much as anyone.

Anyway, enough conspiracy theories. It has been a tiring four years and I prefer Clive James.