Each to their own.

What worries me most about contemporary society isn’t perhaps the sharing of extreme views that I fundamentally disagree with. It’s not the crap that is peddled by some, but the fact that people can be so primitive about an argument they are unable to judge evidence at face value and seem to take everything published as gospel (including on traditional and social media). These people cannot hold a debate so that every argument is broken down and understood before forming opinions around it.

Instead, they get angry over nothing, radical over issues that simply don’t exist, all because their networks become an echo chamber and they believe in an instant what simply doesn’t exist.

This isn’t an attack on the other – I’m just as guilty of falling foul of this. So then what can be done to tackle the spread of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’?

We live in an age defined not by our access to technology as some innovators of the internet would have wanted. Instead, our age will be defined by the fundamental distrust in reputable sources and a belief in the individual, self-published, first-person point of view.

It’s truly a development on the ‘No Win No Fee’ culture that propagates contemporary society. Each for their own, with no care for another. As long as I look out for myself, no one else matters.

Instead of tackling this head on, our media and politics distracts us – referendum to save a Conservative Party, emergency budgets to build walls, rounding up of communities to use as scape goats in some grand plan. Is it any wonder trust in our society feels so low?

This week, we saw some Labour MPs resign from their party and sit as a group of independents. For me, it’s the first piece of honest politics we’ve had in the UK for a long time, and the true fallout from such move is yet to be seen.

But what is clear is the need for collaboration. These MPs would have found a natural home in the Liberal Democrats, yet they avoided that. Although we share lots of the same values, joining an established party wouldn’t exactly be ground breaking, and if anything for former Labour members, the image associated with the Lib Dems is not a good one.

At this critical time though, we need to be coming together, celebrating our difference and not pulling away from each other. I don’t mean coming together under one ‘group’, but working collectively towards the bigger picture. I hope those with a centrist outlook collaborate with The Independent Group to help progress out politics.

In the queer world, it’s bringing together every community to be a part of something bigger, and understand each issue faced: tackling transphobia, racism, biphobia for example.

The most dangerous thing right now would to become individualist, each for their own. This regressive attitude towards society will only inhibit our freedoms, it will only further diminish our communities, and bring down an age of growth.

But as long as you are alright, I suppose...

I am aware that this is a self-published opinion piece, and the hypocrisy in my writing of it in some senses.