On social media there is a rise of a peculiar new breed of influencers – pumped up gym rats on steroids posting not the most educated of views but still getting a respectful following. The new kids on the social media block are parroting snippets from each other with favourite topics: immigration (against), race (white), sexuality (straight), paedophiles (execution), climate change (lies), women (traditional), men (traditional), government (the problem), violence (permitted), Nazis (misunderstood), trans rights (against).

Empathy has become a dirty word in discourse especially with online warriors but it seems to have its origins in the misuse and misunderstanding of another word of trigger: woke. This word is bandied around cyberspace as an insult to anyone who dare defend any group outside the white heteronormative ableist First World experience. God forbid you show the smallest amount of empathy to any otherness fearing you ignite the snarling masses who claim to have become tired of woke culture, political correctness or cancel culture. Apparently their freedom of speech is under threat when of course it’s the very opposite. Wokeness is not just awareness but a tool to understand the intersections of history, culture, identity and many other things that make our world continue to tick.

October 3 marks Gore Vidal’s centenary.

.......and welcome you to my first blog.