Drag Queen Incongruity

No, not THOSE views!

Before the survey was shut down, with what appears to be some haste, the gist of the replies seemed to be that perhaps the Fire and Rescue Service might prioritise spending its time and resources on attending fires and rescues.

Rather than pissing away time and resources on elaborate Pride liveries for its fire engines, and then, for weeks every year, gathering staff to pose for endless photos alongside those Pride liveries, and sticking rainbows on everything, and having firefighters wear clownish drag queen wigs, and warbling on social media about how important their attendance at Pride events is.

For this question I have absolutely no answer.

I’m not even sure what some of those anatomical structures are.

It’s Damian Counsell’s ‘we just want our bins emptying’ meme.

Yes, very much so. 

All this sparkly faffing does rather suggest a loss of focus. An encroachment of distraction and unseriousness. Which, it has to be said, is less than ideal in a fire-fighting service. 

There’s an assumption among much of the public – not unfair, I think – that the more an organisation enthuses about rainbow flags and pronouns in bios, things of that sort, then the less likely it is that the potholes will get filled any time soon. Or whatever the organisation’s ostensible purpose happens to be. Albeit a purpose seemingly being buried underneath all that glitter and professed inclusivity. 

High-tech mosh-pit crisis.

When haven’t they been? Did they use to ask whether someone is gay before putting out the fire?

Well, quite. It does seem to be a loudly announced solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Still, we live in an age where The Expected Opinions must be announced, however needlessly, every year without fail, for at least a month, and all at taxpayer expense. And even if the effect of doing so is to diminish public confidence in those doing the announcing, rather than enhancing it, as we’re supposed to believe.

Remember the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer is harassed about not wearing an AIDS ribbon?

There is, I think, something of that about it. It seems to serve no obvious or urgent purpose, beyond announcing The Expected Opinions.

[ Writes down avoid mosh-pits. ]

[ Muffled laughter. ]

Hot takes from not too long ago.

The driver did nothing wrong.

She, the activist, and her masked associates are the ones needlessly initiating the drama. They are the ones going out of their way to aggress random strangers, creating a credible threat, and doing so with glee. It’s an in-your-face display of recreational malice. They are high on themselves, on their mob power, and they’re loving every minute of it.

And the activists’ power lies in an assumption that their victims will not risk injuring their assailants.

But to insist that the victims should remain trapped, inert, and at the mercy of their assailants, indefinitely, and while risking greater danger to themselves or their property, does not strike me as a morally defensible position.

[ Looks for an episode of Marple to download and watch later. ]