My Mate Says is an exercise in writing intelligently about serious political issues using the language of populist idiots. The direct inspiration was “The Sun Says”, a phrase from a British newspaper which tends to mean that what follows will be one the face of it plain-speaking, but actually illiberal garbage. My mate decided to set it up one day when it occurred to him that the man he met in the pub was a heck of a lot brighter than the so-called “man in the pub” mentioned in most newspapers.
Of course, sometimes he’s just sounding off. My mate shouldn’t necessarily be held accountable for something he says whilst drunk. On the other hand, those are often the best articles…
It’s worth mentioning my mate’s policy on offensive language. Basically, he’s in favour. The usual tactic of people with really offensive views is to avoid using the offensive terms. So a racist will refer to “all these problems”. My mate reckons he’s talking about “darkies getting above themselves”* and will say so. My mate reckons using offensive language is a good way of highlighting just quite how offensive some of the thinking is.
*An early draft of this text used a different term here. It turns out there are terms my mate isn’t prepared to use. My mate is aware of the irony..
