Social Attitudes: Bigots R Us

The Observer's Britain Uncovered Survey.

Define 'common'?

Still, Fagburn is fairly baffled how anyone could disagree with any of the above.

You may want to compare it with the one below...

But what would they know, eh?

Social Attitudes: Older

But what are the other tell-tale signs of getting older? There's the greying at the temples, not knowing what song is No 1, and, politically, the steady drift rightward. That last one is not controversial, is it? After all, to quote the aphorism regularly, and wrongly, attributed to Churchill; "If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain."

Evidence of this hoary wisdom appeared to come with this week's publication of the British Social Attitudes survey. The standout finding was that Britain had changed its collective mind on homosexuality since the first such study in 1983. Back then, 50% regarded same-sex relationships as "always wrong". Now that figure is down to 22%. The hold-outs were the old. Among those born in the 1940s, 46% still thought homosexuality was wrong; only 18% of those born in the 80s said the same.

Indeed, when pressed to explain the overall shift, researchers explained that it wasn't so much that individual Britons were softening their previous hostility to gay people. Rather, those older people who had been implacably hostile were, to put it baldly, dying out – replaced by youngsters who were more tolerant.

It's the same picture on, say, women working outside the home – broadly accepted by most, still difficult for many over-65s. But it also fits with the archetypal image we have of the old – regularly reinforced by popular culture – as grumpy, stubborn and a little bit bigoted. This, we presume, is just how it is – an organic part of the ageing process, as inevitable as wrinkles.

But it's not quite like that. Talk to those who study these patterns and they'll explain that it's not the fact that people are in their late 60s or 70s that gives them these attitudes, but rather the specific period in which they were raised. On gay rights, many of today's senior citizens were shaped in a climate that saw homosexuals as deviants and criminals: for many, those views have simply stuck. It's not as if they were once tolerant and have hardened their hearts as they've grown older. Equally, there's no reason to believe that today's twentysomethings will become anti-gay as they age. On the contrary, the data suggests the attitudes forged now will be theirs for life...

The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland asks; I'm getting older. So am I becoming more rightwing?

Oh.
Well, there you go.
This is a bit simplistic.
Yes, peoples' social mores will be shaped by the age they grew up in, but peoples' attitudes clearly can change - for better or for far worse.
Fagburn was quite looking forward to getting old, loosening up a little, and turning into a complete and utter Nazi. 

Good News: Only 22% Of Britons Still Hate You!

In 1987, 64% of people believed that same-sex relationships were “always wrong”. The figure is now 22%.

The Independent on the new UK Social Attitudes survey. 
Here's the bit on "homosexuality". - with breakdowns by generation, religion and party affilation.
Suffice to say, if you ever meet an elderly Tory-voting Catholic, run like hell!
Note the actual question asked, then and now, is what people thought of "sexual relations between adults of the same sex" - slightly different from "same-sex relationships"
This might partly explain, for example, why those answering "always wrong" peaked at 64% in 1987 - the height of the Aids crisis/panic.*
Also SAS surveys are still conducted face-to-face - Fagburn wonders if this might encourage some to say what they think is "the right thing"?

* Up from 50% in 1983, the first year recorded.

Social Attitudes Survey: Angry Mobs More Likely To Lynch Anyone, Except The Gays

The new British Social Attitudes report suggests people have become more reactionary, right-wing and generally cunty on many issues.
Obviously The Daily Mail is over Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
'Britain Turns To Conservative Values As Recession Bites: We want the State to stay out of our lives and sympathy for benefit claimants has evaporated'
They picked out the ones that made them spunk everywhere;

More than half of us - 54% - think unemployment benefits are too high up from 35% in 1983
Workshy parents are to blame for child poverty, say 63%
Rise of climate change scepticism: 37% say environment threat has been exaggerated - up from 24% a decade ago
Only 31% want tax rises to pay for health and education, while it was 63% of us in 2002

Oh dear. The Mail hasn't just picked out some that suit its own political agenda - okay, it has, obviously - but this trend really is apparent in the survey; you can read it and weep here.
The introduction concludes gloomily;

"We're living in a society where a sceptical public appear unconvinced by our current collective responses to key social issues like welfare, housing, inequality or the environment. And although people do see child poverty as something for government to tackle, it is seen as rooted in poor parenting. Less engaged or willing to make sacrifices for the common good during challenging times, the British public increasingly sees it as the responsibility of the individual to get through. If that's true, what hope for the Big Society?"

Should we be surprised? From Thatcher to Blair the Neo-Liberal project has been "inducing a philosophy of despair".
The phrase is Chomsky's, who has argued* that one way consent is manufactured is;
"to destroy the institutional basis for social support systems, try to eliminate things like schools and Social Security and anything that is based on the conception that people have to have some concern for one another. That’s a horrible idea, which has to be driven out of people’s minds. The idea that you should have sympathy and solidarity, you should care whether the disabled widow across town is able to eat, that has to be driven out of people’s minds."
Gramsci must be spinning in his fun-sized coffin.

Oddly, there is one issue that people appear to be more liberal and progressive.
Rather naughtily I edited it out of the Mail's greatest hits, but here it is in their own words;
"Just 29% think same-sex relationships are wrong - down from 46% in 2000"
This is hardly a great call for celebration if one in three people think we are "always/mostly wrong", but the shift is clear.
You can read the report's section on attitudes to same-sex relationships here (And note, people are also becoming more liberal over abortion and couples "living in sin").
In fact the figures have pretty much reversed over the last decade.
In 2000 in England, 46% of people thought same-sex relationships were always/mostly wrong, and 34% of people thought they were "not wrong at all".
In 2010, 29% thought same-sex relationships were always/mostly wrong, and 44% thought they were "not wrong at all".
Strangely - though other surveys have suggested something similar - the change is far greater in Scotland, who are now far more gay-friendly when they used to be less.
In Scotland, the always/mostly wrongs have dropped from 48% to 27%.
And the "not wrong at all"s have shot up from 29% to 50%.
So what does all this mean?
I really have no idea - but, you know, swings, roundabouts (other fairground attractions are available).

* Interview with David Barsamian 2003.

European Social Attitudes: Poles Lose Poll

"People in the EU's leading member states remain loyal to the organisation's founding values of openness and liberalism, the Guardian's five-country poll shows. Despite the economic crisis and the rise of extreme political parties, an overwhelming majority of Europeans describe themselves as liberal – even on issues such as gay rights..."

Even?!
It's hard to extrapolate much from this poll in The Guardian about how respondents feel about les gais, as people were not asked a specific question about how they thought about gay rights, but if they agreed with the statement; "My attitude to social issues - marriage, women's rights or gay rights - is liberal".
The results were
All 62, UK 60, Germany 68, France 59, Spain 72, Poland 49.
So we're lagging behind Spain and Germany and le average.
Well done Team UK!

You can read the full findings here.

Survey: Parents OK With Gay Kids (Relatively)

66% of British parents questioned in an in-no-way unscientific survey commissioned to promote some DVD or other said they would have no problem if their child was gay.
Mums were more relaxed - 76% saying they wouldn't be bothered if their child was gay.
But 55% of dads admitted they would feel uncomfortable.
But please bear in mind that twice as many parents say they would be happy with a gay kid as they would with one who experimented with drugs (32%).
Any kids caught by their parents after staying out all night dancing on blood boiling rave dugs are advised to lie and say they've been out bumming.

Social Attitudes Survey: Cool Aid

Has America finally crossed the Rubicon?
Yes, another one.
According to a new survey conducted by Gallup; "Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. At the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" dropped to 43%, the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trend."
The pollster's annual Values and Beliefs survey shows there has been a significant increase in public acceptance of gay relationships since 2006. But they note that the most marked the change is among men, particularly men under 50, where it's up by 20 points to 62%.
New York Times' columnist Charles M Blow thinks this is "stunning".
I think he's right.
Blow argues that much of this attitudinal change is down to "The contact hypothesis"; "As more men openly acknowledge that they are gay, it becomes harder for men who are not gay to discriminate against them. And as that group of openly gay men becomes more varied — including athletes, celebrities and soldiers — many of the old, derisive stereotypes lose their purchase. To that point, a Gallup poll released last May found that people who said they personally knew someone who was gay or lesbian were more likely to be accepting of gay men and lesbians in general and more supportive of their issues."
He concludes; "It’s like being antigay is becoming the old gay. Not cool."
But Blow puts this down to the fact that "virulent homophobes are increasingly being exposed for engaging in homosexuality", citing as examples the "disgraced" evangelist preacher Ted Haggard and George Rekers, the anti-gay Baptist minister who was caught taking a rent boy on a European vacation last month.
But doesn't that mean that many young men now think that homophobia is... gay?