The riots round up, or why the Daily Mirror is a terrible and why our country is falling apart

The riots in the UK has, unsurprisingly, been the hot topic in the press over the last week. People have had many different opinions on this, and as you'd expect a lot of them are incredibly racist. Yes, there were black people in the riots. There were white people too, but that isn't anywhere near as interesting when we can point out how our country is being destroyed by the blacks

I spent 2 nights of the riots trolling twitter, saying I was rioting in London and, the day after, Manchester. For anyone claiming this is an admission of guilt, both times I was sat in my bed in Newcastle. I got several death threats, countless more insults, someone said if I took the train to Warrington they would meet me at the station and fight me, and a few people reported me to the Metropolitan Police. I do this because I'm a fucking prick

A twitter bro was doing this at the same time as me, but instead was claiming he was a muslim. As you'd expect, the responses he got were a lot better



This was done to prove just how many people in the UK were reactionary and close minded as Americans, with a secondary reason of it being pretty funny. Sure, the responses are disgusting, but you really can't expect anything less

Fact is, essentially our entire country are blaming black people for these riots. The only difference is some people do a better job of hiding the racism than others

Earlier in the week we had Paul Routledge. I'm not sure what exactly it is he does, but in his article in the Daily Mirror during the week he was blaming rap music for the riots. Seriously

I blame the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority (especially the police but including parents), exalts trashy materialism and raves about drugs.

That's right, it's not the underclass of our country are tired of being shit on by the government which forces them to move into drug dealing or what have you just to get by. It's rap music. Said like a true middle class hero who has never had to worry about money in their entire life

The important things in life are the latest smart phone, fashionable trainers and jeans and idiot computer games. No wonder stores selling them were priority looting targets.

Yes, the stores selling expensive items were hit because rap music makes children materialistic, not because these are the expensive items they either don't have or will be easiest to sell on at a later date.

Stir into this lethal mixture the fostering of irrational anger against the world and disrespect for others and the end result is self-absorbed young people living at boiling point.

This is a man who refuses to see what is right in front of his eyes. The people are angry because they have nothing and the government ignores them. They have been disrespected for centuries. Nobody outside of their own community cares about them, but they are the self absorbed ones. He's looking down on these people because they have nothing, condemning them to this ouroboros. Nothing will ever change for them, and when they rise in anger against this they are demonized and pushed backdown

Tension is always there. You see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices and it can break out over the most trivial issues. I’ve been on the receiving end, threatened on a Number 12 bus to Peckham for no apparent reason.

He sees the tension, but he doesn't even try to see why it is there. A man who sees but doesn't understand. Hurling blame at anything he doesn't like, rap music in this case, in an effort to continue along without thinking of how he could have helped. To unburden some of the guilt for these events. His pleas of innocence on the bus ridiculous - nobody threatens people on the bus for no reason. Nobody does that. It's more propaganda against these oppressed youths, all coming out now they made one mistake

Cutting police numbers by 2,000 in the capital is unwise. Ending education maintenance ­allowances that prepare thousands of young people for work was a mistake. And half-hearted measures to bring down the appalling toll of youth unemployment are not enough.

Even now, when he looks at the problem, he disregards this as not enough. "Here are some things that can help the situation, but this isn't enough because..."

But in the end only a change of culture, and the way these kids see the world about them, will work. I would ban the broadcasting of poisonous rap, and urge – require, even – schools to teach that the world is a much better place without pointless rage.

"...It is rap music and the youth's own fault" It must be nice to sit far away from these events and cast judgement down. No knowing or understanding what is taking place but feeling like they have all the answers to fix it because of a priviliged position he was born into. God bless you Paul Routledge, for without you we truly don't have anything

You may have noticed the word "Black" was not used at all in Paul Routledge's article. You may also realise that the word "Black" screams out of every sentence in his article

If you think he was a self serving idiot, wait until you read Tony Parson's article

In the first 4 paragraphs alone he uses "an orgy of mindless wanton murderous violence" apocalyptic images" cataclysmic week" You'd think it was the End of Days, not a few thousand people rioting. This is the majority of the problem right here. Angry youth's rising up is spinned into being a bunch of murderous people who want to literally murder you for no reason. Yes, the rioting and the looting was not a good thing. But the reason why this all started was for a good cause, but why confront that when we can throw everyone in jail and remain mystified when it happens again in the future

Trying to understand the feelings of the rioters is like trying to understand the feelings of a man who has his boot pressed against your throat.

They don’t have hope? They don’t have a future? They don’t have plasma TVs? Who cares?

Frankly, my dear, many of us do not have the stomach for sympathy right now.

We just want to see the rioters banged up and stewing in their own filth.

Now this is just flat out dismissive of everything. This is painting the rioters as just a bunch of bored, blood thirsty people who want to do nothing more than to hurt and destroy. Whatever cause they had is irrelevant, whatever made them rise up and take action is not worth thinking about. We hate them for what they are, for what we made them be. This seems to be the overlying belief of most of the country too, and it truly is heartbreaking

When the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on the East End, my grandmother did not ponder the underlying causes of Fascism.

Also yes, he is comparing people who have nothing to live for who rise up out of sheer desperation to the Nazi's attacking the UK during World War 2. If this isn't the stupidest fucking comparison you've ever seen then I'd love to hear what is because JESUS FUCKING CHRIST TONY PARSONS HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING PAID TO DO THIS!?

As the assorted goons get dragged off to court, much is being made of the almost infinite variety of scumbags.

Grown men and children. Male and female. White and black. The sons of single parents and allegedly the daughter of a millionaire, plus a primary school teacher.

An organic chef and university student are also alleged to have been involved.

But as a Londoner, let me make a wild guess – the overwhelming majority of the rioters will turn out to be of a very specific type, and it was this lost generation that made the riots possible.

So this is as close to a compromise as we'll get, as close as we'll get to someone saying it wasn't just black people involved in this. Sadly, his white examples go so far as a rich person's daughter, a university student and a fucking organic chef. That last paragraph straight up says "Black people. It was black people. Black people started the riot"

But most of the rioters were not organic chefs. They were of the generation that is good for nothing and yet scared of nothing.

Without the gang culture of black London, none of the riots would have happened – including the riots in other cities like Manchester and Birmingham where most of rioters were white.

The snarling, amoral pack mentality of gangs that are too often a substitute for family, school and work made the riots possible. These youths were the shock troops of the riots, and its inspiration – even in the white riots of Piccadilly, Manchester.

BLACK PEOPLE!

The riots are not an issue of race. It's not white versus black. It's not a case of the greedy and lazy black man attacking others to get what it wants. Why do so many people, a lot of them who are published nationally, believe it to be so?

It has always been hard for this community. Too many schools where it is not cool to study. Too many homes where there is no father figure to put the fear of God in you. Too many streets where they have been sapped by a welfare system that was meant to protect the vulnerable not bankroll an unemployable generation.

Now the blame game starts. It's the school's fault for not being "cool" (SPOILERS - no child in the universe thinks school is cool, this isn't the issue) It's single mother's fault for being promiscious and not having the Father of the child around. White women can be single mothers all they want, and are praised for being brave enough to do that. Black single mothers raise monsters who need a father to be brought up right. His last point seems almost like an afterthought, despite the fact this is where the blame lies

Yes, and too many dreams built around hard-core porn that is now as difficult to get as electricity or running water. Too many songs where women are “bitches” and men make their point of view with extreme violence.

Too many Grand Theft Auto fantasies that make the powerless dream of being powerful. It is an unholy mess, and it is a national tragedy, and I see no end to it.

There are too many out there who have no respect. Too many who are uneducated, illiterate and stupid. Too many who do not know the difference between right and wrong. Too many who think the rules do not apply to them.

And then things jsut veer off into nowhere. It's porns fault for being easily accessible? It's rap music's fault for being mysoginistic and violent? It's video games fault for...wel, I have no idea at all? It's the peoples fault for having no respect, despite being treated like shit by people like Tony Parsons, a man who demands respect yet shows none. It's the peoples fault for being allowed to fall through the cracks and left to rot there

I spent the first five years of my life living in a flat above a greengrocer’s shop. Yet I never doubted I could be anything I wanted to be

He compares himself at five years old to these people in their mid to late 20's, who have no chance of a job, no hope for the future. He compares himself to them in such unfalttering terms, it is grotesque. This is where the problem lies. Too many middle class white people who think they are like the rioters, but they really aren't. Their own arrogance and ignorance is what made this riot what it is, and they are using the same arrogance and ignorance as a means to fix things

Why did the riots happen? Because we live with a lot of scum in our midst.

This is true, but sadly Tony Parsons here was not referring to himself. He really should be though

He does make some good points in his article. I never quoted any of it on here, otherwise I'd be complaining non-stop that he touches on a good point but quickly moves away to make sweeping generalisations about the state of our country and the "scum" within it. Why bother to regard any good point he has to make when he is just as fast to throw it aside?

These people are paid money to critique our country. They are out of touch white people who have no concept of what goes on outside of their ivory towers. They are the voice of our nation, and that is why these riots will accomplish nothing. The government won't make any changes to help people from the communities where the riots originated. The media will continue to look upon these communities as helpless, and lean back on their chairs smugly at a job well done. Why should they bother helping these communities when they do things like this? It's a self fulfilling prophecy, and one the UK seems unwilling to want to shed