Convenience Big Store: These days we argue over words, not ideas

5 October, 2021

In the headlines

"Hello literally everyone," Twitter's official account tweeted last night, as the six-hour outage for Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram drove internet users to alternative platforms. The people trying to fix the problem "couldn't even physically get into the building", says The New York Times. The disruption caused Mark Zuckerberg's net worth to plummet by $6bn. Wage rises alone won't solve Britain's "chronic" labour shortages, writes Brexiteer Lord Wolfson in the Evening Standard. Immigration is the answer. Nonsense, said Boris Johnson on Radio 4's Today this morning (when Nick Robinson wasn't talking over him): shortages are a sign of "economic robustness". The PM has admitted that only 127 European tanker drivers have so far been tempted by emergency work visas.

Comment of the day

An anti-lockdown protest in New York last November. John Lamparski/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

These days we argue over words, not ideas

More and more, we are arguing not about things but about the definitions of words, says Sam Leith in The Spectator. What "woman" means has become a "bear-trap" for politicians on talk shows. "Zionism" can refer to those who support the existence of the Jewish homeland or be used as a term of abuse to mean someone who "rejoices in seeing Palestinian homes bulldozed". It's an awful lot for one word to cover. "Freedom" is also tricky: "freedom from" often clashes with "freedom to". Some Americans advocate freedom to bear arms. Others are keener on freedom from "being gunned down" in school.

As for "democracy", that's really "been through the mill". Everyone claims it's on their side, but from first-past-the-post to proportional representation, it "comes in more flavours than a slice of cassata ice cream". Even something so apparently straightforward as "whiteness" now has a similar meaning to "hegemony" for fans of critical race theory. But when non-academic white folk hear "white privilege" being denounced, they think they're being subjected to reverse racism. "Which inevitably kicks off another definitional argument about whether 'reverse racism' exists – and so, ding dong, the boulders fly."

Europe's leaders have nothing to be smug about

Paris and Berlin are enjoying post-Brexit Britain's woes, says Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times. Europeans believe that Britain is mired in cronyism, regressing as a world power and – like the US – simply untrustworthy. Germany is "grinning with schadenfreude", says Peter Tiede, chief political correspondent of the tabloid Bild. "We warned Brexiteers this would happen. Now we don't care." Many Germans regard their Nato allies "as no more reliable than China".

There's a strong element of self-delusion here. When it comes to probity and narrow populism, the UK is "hardly an outlier". Nicolas Sarkozy has just been convicted of breaking campaign laws in office: "That means two of the past four French presidents have criminal records." Germany has corruption problems too. It signed up to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for the sake of cheaper gas, leaving Europe "at the whims of a tyrant in Moscow". Gerhard Schröder, the former chancellor who masterminded the deal, "pocketed the riches of Croesus" from Gazprom-funded lobbying groups. The Russians have a word for when a foreign power is craftily hijacked by hostile interests: "schroederizatsiya", or Schröderisation. All this is to say that while we're "aimlessly sniping at one another", Beijing and Moscow look on with glee. "Decadence is eating away at the solidarity of the West." Grinning with schadenfreude, Herr Tiede? "I feel like weeping."

Noted

Thousands of Germans living in the UK have been sent letters asking them to drive lorries, as German driving licences issued before 1999 are automatically valid for trucks weighing up to 7.5 tonnes. Not everyone is keen on a career change. "We were quite surprised," a 41-year-old man told The Independent. "I'm sure pay and conditions for HGV drivers have improved, but ultimately I have decided to carry on in my role at an investment bank."

Gone viral

Dramatic new drone footage shows lava flowing out of the erupting volcano on La Palma, in the Canary Islands, says ITV. The north side of the crater collapsed on Sunday night, causing another stream of molten rock to cascade down to the sea. The lava has formed an 80-acre rocky peninsula in the Atlantic.

Eating in

Pea milk is on the rise, says The Hustle, with its global market value expected to rocket to $251.2m by 2027. But it's not made by "mashing a bunch of peas". In her book Technically Food, journalist Larissa Zimberoff says peas are shipped to a manufacturing plant – often in China – where the molecules are split into protein, fibre and starch. The milk is then made from a pea protein powder. "You'll probably be really popular at parties if you share that factoid."

Snapshot

Tomorrow's world

Each year gravity nudges the Moon about an inch and a half away from Earth, says Marina Koren in The Atlantic. There is no way of stopping this – it's expected to drift steadily away from us for ever. That sounds like a protracted break-up, but scientists have a delightful term for the phenomenon: lunar retreat. "I'd prefer to imagine the Moon enjoying itself at a relaxing getaway, bending its rocky body into various yoga poses, rather than slowly ghosting Earth."

Snapshot answer

It's Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones frontman visited a bar while touring in North Carolina last week and went completely unrecognised. He then posted a photo of his visit on Twitter. The Thirsty Beaver Saloon's co-owner, Brian Wilson, told CNN that some of the drinkers standing unawares a few feet away had paid "upwards of $400" to go to the gig the following night.