17 July (Part 2) - Stop Go Ape
After providing
some publicity for the Stop Go Ape campaign group two days ago their leader
sent me a thank you note which was appreciated. Personally I have been a fence sitter
on the issue as it does not affect me at all but in terms of news their Stop campaign
deserves respect - or at least it did.
In preparing the blog I Googled for Go Ape info as one does and for my pains
found myself subsequently bombarded with adverts for Go Ape in news feeds, on YouTube and
then Facebook - which I don’t fully understand - but somehow it happened.
I discovered to my surprise that I am in trouble
on Facebook for using the word gaggle.
First it was villain, now it is gaggle.
I did so in a blog
posted immediately after the Planning meeting that approved the ropeway and finished with
“Back out on Broadway I walked alongside, but not with, a gaggle of protesters
and to say they were annoyed with Bexley Council would be an understatement.
They were plotting revenge and how best they could legally cause trouble”.
No one objected to that blog in June; I stood at the bus stop with a group of understandably annoyed
residents each making their points in an excitable and uncoordinated way. Almost the definition
of the word gaggle. (Dictionary: A noisy, disorganized, or chaotic group of people.)
A
month later (15th July) I reported that the gaggle had upped their game to a
legally constituted campaign group which has formally issued a Letter before
Action to Bexley Council. Surely that is some sort of compliment for a group of
residents who got themselves well organised in a matter of weeks?
But they don’t think so. My web searches threw up the attached comment from a
Facebook Group I had never heard of. I was mystified to read that I had tried to
join it and that is simply not true. I very much dislike Facebook and avoid it if I can.
There is no way I would want to join a Go Ape group.
The fact that I am not in the slightest bit interested in joining a group whose
views I do not support and had not heard of before yesterday is perhaps
not the real issue here. The real issue is why Facebook Administrators so often turn
out to be power-crazed little
Hitlers whose lives are so empty that their only joy is pressing Block buttons. How sad must they be?
Maybe those tempted to support their cause should pause to consider whether it
is led by rational people or petty minded spiteful ones. Stop Go Ape is probably doomed to failure.
Danson Park is not ancient woodland as Lesnes Abbey Park obviously is, complete with its fossil beds.
Note: Fortunately the local Facebook group I follow is totally free
of obsessive moderation. Well done What’s New in SE2.