Friday, 21 August 2020

Scarlett Moffatt's Critics

As regular readers will know, I am not a passionate aficionado for the BBC. However there are one or two jewels in the dung-heap and one of them is the Radio 4 programme Scarlett Moffatt Want to Believe, see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p08c6f5x. This programme covers UFO's, the paranormal and conspiracy theories fairly respectfully and honestly, unlike nearly all of the rest of the mainstream media. Scarlett Moffatt, a former reality TV star, has very similar viewpoints to myself and tests them in every programme in a debate against her husband Scott who is the ultimate skeptic.
The series is of course desperately inviting criticism, in the same way I do. I personally don't mind criticism that is civil and rational, but of course it rarely is. A few days ago a protest was lodged by two prominent members of the criterati, Dara O'Briain and David Baddiel. O'Briain is an astronomer and the ultimate co-host-never-to-be-a-host of Stargazing Live. He Tweeted: "Trying not to be depressed today that while the BBC don't seem to want to make any more Stargazing Live, they will pay Scarlett Moffatt to make a podcast about how she doesn't believe in the Moon landings." Actually I would have enjoyed Stargazing Live had it not been for Prof. Brian Cox hosting it and I think it's a good idea that I hope the Beeb will one day continue with a non-obnoxious presenter. However, the point is that O'Briain objects to the corporation producing content that he doesn't agree with. This is even though conspiracy nuts pay the licence fee too you know, Dara! (Well, those of us with any sense of decency do not). Really, I'm pleased Dara O'Briain has decided to stop playing the Coxxer's beta-bitch and is making a stand in his own right, even if I disagree with his stance. He's been in the shadow of that silky soy-grown hair and in the glare of those polished shiny white teeth for far too long. Source: https://news.yahoo.com/dara-o-briain-condemns-bbc-131041955.html.

More serious is the position taken by the Jewish comedian David Baddiel who has recently been studying holocaust denial and has made a documentary about it, see: https://www.bitchute.com/video/DVjiHdzkk494/. I think this has influenced his views on the conspirasphere in general. He said of Scarlett and Scott's show: "I listened to it. There's a fair bit of Scarlett saying, basically, 'I just want people to be allowed to question what's handed down to them, and make their own minds up.' That was something I heard quite a lot during the making of this (his holocaust documentary)... I too think she's a very nice person. But there's a reason why beliefs such as the moon landings were faked and that the world is secretly ruled by a shadowy elite called the Iluminati lead on to very bad places." His point is that once we start questioning the official story on some subjects it is an inevitable pipeline towards embracing falsehoods about how particular racial groups are evil and so we end up wanting to exterminate them. Absolutely not! This is the kind of nonsense that led to David Icke being cancelled, see: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2020/08/david-icke-portal.html. Is Baddiel stating that free access to information, questioning official pronouncements and making up our own mind is a bad thing? I think if we're forbidden from doing so then that leads to very bad places. As it happens, Scarlett Moffatt Wants to Believe has now come to the end of its first thirteen-episode season. I hope Scarlett and Scott return for another series.

No comments: