And my few kopecks on the discussion about the John Lewis ad featuring a bratty boy trashing the house (apparently, that was a doubtful attempt to promote home insurance, although I am not sure which company would cover that type of destruction).

The wave of adoration for this commercial from the news outlets such as the Independent (“Why the new ad from John Lewis is actually good” etc.) wasn’t in the least surprising, but they did their best to explain—and expand—the issue perfectly, i.e. ad nauseam: thanks, I hate it. Why should I see a spoilt child who makes one hell of a mess, destroying his little sister’s paints, smashing furniture and covering it with glitter (do you guys know how, in fact, hard is it to clean this shit off surfaces? ask me, a makeup junkie, and I’ll tell you: it’s bloody awful) dancing so awkwardly it’s painful to watch? If the creators are trying to introduce the audience to the idea of neurodiversity (another buzzword, which basically means whatever you want nowadays) and to “be kind,” it was lame and shallow as well: as we saw in the clip, while the child was messing around, his mother was completely aloof and irresponsible—and not only towards him, but also towards his sister.

I am childfree and it’s not my place to judge her decisions, however wrong they seem to be, but as a member of the public I still have the right to voice my concerns: are you really supposed to react the way she did if a little kid starts behaving like that out of blue? What about some normal compassion, a bit of common sense, and trying to distract him or her from doing such unpleasant and, frankly, truly bad things, especially, if it’s sort of implied that there might be some behavioural problems? It looks like the ad, whatever the intentions were, somehow got the idea of the acceptance of different people (including people with mental disorders, and very young children in particular) completely wrong.

I’ve seen claims that the ad was made by young adults who had never heard the word “no” in their lives: they grew up and trace this feeling of self-entitlement further down. I don’t think so: the vast majority of youngsters I know are nice people (yes, my little liberal bubble matters, too, lol). In my opinion, the people who released it, definitely knew what they were doing: to open the Overton window just ever so slightly more, to push the existing barriers, where clearly bad decisions have consequences and repercussions, a bit further, etc. You might disagree with me, and it’s totally fine. In short, I don’t like this exact implementation of freedom (because it’s not), and I never will: I am okay with being that old-fashioned witch, after all.