imo BBC stuff seems very similar to what they're doing with education - signalling to the far right, testing the waters to see what will be accepted, a little at a time

just like the PSHE guidance, it may be that in practice they can't enforce it, but that doesn't really matter - the headlines are out there, the signals are sent, the message is received

there's a bit in derrida about terrorism iirc where he says that the way modern terrorism operates, the media coverage of the attack /is/ the attack. it's not one thing reporting on another - it's part of the same vehicle to inflict harm

which... feels really familiar, it feels like the state is doing this

the medium is the message, the headlines are the policy

which isn’t to say it isn’t worth fighting through official channels if we can - I think that influences their “what we can get away with” calculus

but it also means at the same time that saying “don’t worry it’s not going to be enforceable” is missing a major part of the point