Mx Jay BakerAs the UK continues its quest to realise the Brexit dream of becoming a bargain basement tax haven stomping on human rights, Sir Keir Starmer's "important" announcement of his true priorities to apparently ban kids from social media is being almost entirely uncritically reported by the establishment media, reducing their role to a No.10 PR firm.
This grotesque faux concern for the children being weaponised to do the bidding of data-hungry corporations is yet another example of pro-capitalism professional politicians only able to make declarations of big policy if they help capitalists, this time with the unmitigated impudence to suggest kids have it tougher because of social media that's actually been a lifeline for many.
As my partner suggested to me this morning, the actual difference for kids today is rather, perhaps, fewer prospects, rising fascism, multiple genocides, and the existential dread that comes with a climate crisis. I was literally listening to a podcast earlier that pointed out that while a lot of other distressing news rightly comes with content warnings and resources for support, news on the climate emergency comes with no such thing, exacerbating doom-and-gloom thinking.