6 June

Remember Tupperware parties? The brilliant idea that to break down resistance to people buying things, the smartest way is to get your own friends to flog them to you. This is the secret to understanding all society and politics, I think. Facts are part of a social group. People use them as one mechanism to maintain the unity of the group. For example what I call ‘petrolheads’ aren’t actually mostly interested in petrol. They’re interested in not being ‘Greenies’ who believe in things like EVs. It’s all social. Covid is exactly the same. To believe this or that about it is to identify with a particular social grouping. People will be guided by their own friends much more than by science or anything else. But it also means the only pathway to change a disastrous situation is to challenge those social ties. I take that risk, by constantly talking about Covid. I sense most people have ‘moved on’, it’s like farting in the collective elevator, to even mention it. But unless we do mention it with each other, the insanity will continue. Groups of friends are what bind societies together, that’s all politics really is.