A great post caught my eye this morning: the German people are encouraging Americans to go ahead and vote in a lying, racist thug who threatens to imprison his enemies and stifle any opinion other than his.

"After all, what can go wrong?" they ask.

Just for those amongst you who have had an irony bypass, it's not a real ad, just one made up to go on Facebook, along with all the others good, sublime, bad or utterly moronic.

The fact remains, though, that it is a bad time to have an opinion and an even worse time to dare express one if it goes against the wishes of those whose various interests are intertwined with the maintenance of a status which gives them power, influence and, let's not forget, loot.

As I write, I'm watching, with barely repressed nausea, the racist lying thug Nigel Farage, who personally and as leader of that band of bigots, UKIP, bears responsibility for defrauding the UK's way out of the EU, thumping his hollow tub about Brexit. This man is the very embodiment of a post-truth society, a specimen for whom and by whom anything can be said and spun as long as their lies and narrow-minded aspirations are served.

He's being taken apart by Gina Miller and Andrew Marr, but do you think this fazes him even slightly?

Of course not, he just sits there with a smug grin on his smarmy face, letting the truth wash over him and spewing the same sort of rubbish that the tabloids have been vomiting for years and years, generally wrapping themselves in the flag while they do it.

The sad thing is that back in the day, vile creatures like Farage and Donald Trump would have been looked down on by anyone with half a brain, because they clearly lack the basic decency and respect for the truth and for others, not to mention the intellectual attributes, that go to make someone a leader.

Today, with the Xarabank Generation in charge, people like this are seen as "one of us", someone to whom your average voter can relate and trust to run the country or, in the case of the awful Trump, the world.

The logic inherent in this runs something on these lines below.

I (an avid watcher of Xarabank) have an opinion, it is my right to have an opinion and the fact that it is based on bigotry, ignorance and prejudice is not relevant, even one jot.

My opinion is expressed by me on unmoderated news portals and on Facebook, and I have no obligation even to try to respect the truth or basic decency, and by expressing this opinion I am raised in stature, at least in my own eyes and in the eyes of people like me.

This opinion, such as it is, is echoed by sleazy louts like Farage and Trump, so their celebrity status is reflected on to me and in a self-devouring frenzy reflects right back on to them, persuading me to give them my support and making them electable rather than objects of scorn and derision.

There are dark clouds gathering.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.