“Angry Blowhards”

In today’s Herald, their excellent columnist, Simon Wilson, takes to task those “shouty” people whom he further describes as “angry blowhards”. They are those whose prime reaction to the pandemic is anger – an anger they seamlessly (and perhaps unwittingly) transfer from the virus to the government.

The basis for that anger is that the pandemic could be painlessly held at bay, they claim, if only the government would take their advice and implement their own pet solutions.

The problem for the Herald is that many of these “angry blowhards” are to be found in the Herald’s own pages. Their characteristic is that their anger outweighs their rationality. Their primary purpose (and target) is to attack and undermine the government; helping to counter the pandemic comes a poor second.

But it is even worse than that. Their attacks on the government not only do little to help to find a solution to the problems we all face; they actually weaken our ability to fight back. Even if their rantings contained a kernel of helpful advice, its value would be lost in the torrent of anti-government hostility, and the net outcome of their offerings would be merely to weaken that unity of purpose on which a successful campaign against the virus necessarily depends.

Bryan Gould
12 October 2021