Parroll, And Why You Should Subscribe Now
We will explore topics with the deliberate intent of sparking debate where there’s an assumption that there should be no debate. We'll question claims where it is being required we just believe.
Parroll is a hint at the French word parole. And what leaps into mind, when we hear the word, relates to the prison system.
But the intended meaning here is rather etymological—parole d’honneur or word of honour. Now, what is it about Parroll that ties our editorial offering to honour?
Most of the question finds an answer here. But there is more to be said: Today, it’s hard to be an upstanding journalist within any traditional newsroom, if you care about the integrity of your work.
In the wake of the disruption of the industry by the social media phenomenon, there has been a shift away from the great journalistic tradition of worshiping facts, by ensuring that facts are reported accurately and fairly while being kept separate from spurious opinions.
That shift has since become a drift towards a toxic form of the trade, which is all about whipping up emotions online to drive engagement for the sake of maximising the ever dwindling online ad revenues. As a result, a new tradition rose to prominence—the clickbait tradition.
It rides on the coattails of the cultural and identity wars to keep us addicted to indignation and outrage, this endless futile exercice in which only a few of us can manage to retain control over their minds and thoughts.
And nothing as much fuels this toxic form of journalism as wokism and its kissing cousin of cancel culture, which are at core about crafting clever slogans that are injunctions to believe without even knowing the facts.
Of course, when newsrooms descend into the lowly business of whipping us up into indignant automatons and then exploiting the subsequent public lunacy for commercial purposes, they forfeit a cardinal role of the Fourth Estate—the role of shaping up a well informed public opinion for a better, more democratic, more harmonious, more peaceful society.
Back to Parroll: In the mission to lace journalism with the ethics of philosophy, what’s this word of honour that is on offer?
Well, in this current state of the world where the flight from universal truths has become a quasi Olympian sport, and where it is now accepted as a virtue to resort to rhetorical gymnastics to redefine things out of existence, my word of honour through Parroll is a pledge to stay away from the absurd, to despise “foolish thoughts”, as Orwell would have put it.
I will explore topics with the deliberate intent of sparking debates where there’s an assumption that there should be no debate. I will question claims where it is being required that we just believe.
I will raise the alarm bell where there’s an injunction for all to conform. My lens is not that of Blacks vs Whites, Conservatives vs Liberals, the poor vs the rich: I intend to be guided by old-fashion common sense.
I will never claim to be solely vested with the truth, and I will never warn you off listening to other opinions regardless of how misguided they might be.
And if ever I invite you, my reader, to disable your thinking and to believe in a slogan or to be indignant at anything whatsoever without the modicum of a warranty, just plunge ahead and unsubscribe.
Until then, accept my promise: My goal is for you to be bolder, better, a lover of time-tested truths, less apologetic, more stoical, in greater control over your own mind. Please, subscribe now.