There's a particularly witty hashtag doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment which I couldn't resist sharing. The spikedinthe18thcentury tweets involve mock Spiked headlines that can be enjoyed by anyone with a passing knowledge of the 18th century and Spiked's bizarre brand of posturing contrarianism.
Here are some of my favourites:
@matt_heath: Against the tyranny of "healthy-eating": three cheers for Marie Antoinette and the peasants right to eat cake
@dontgetfooled: A flaming disgrace! Parliament's ban on witch-burning reflects a suspicion of anyone who holds strong beliefs
@KeithKahnHarris: The so-called 'Little ice age' is a pernicious myth. Frost fairs on the Thames are anti-science
@Heresy_Corner: The Gregorian Calendar: A plaything of remote bureaucratic elites that Britain should never adopt
@dontgetfooled: Hands off the slave trade! Wilberforce’s moral posturing reveals a deep-seated loathing of the working class
@BorisWatch: Smallpox Is Good For You: Mr. Richard NORTH exposes the lies of the vaccinators
@qwghlm: Newton and his "Laws of Motion" - the tyranny of unwanted legislation
@NewHumanist: The development of the dictionary reveals a chattering-class plot to dictate meaning to the man in the street
@danieltrilling: luddites are modern-day luddites
@Heresy_Corner: Yet another mean-spirited attack on the pleasures of the working class. Just what is Hogarth's problem?
@twodoctors: Divided we fall: why the American Revolution has doomed both Britain and America to permanent irrelevance.
@TheoSoc Shrill critics of the South Sea Company are simply hostile to wealth creation
And some of my (less impressive) efforts:
The Enlightenment - a fashionable middle-class fad that masks a deep anti-freedom agenda
British army moves into India...but who are the real imperialists?
Anti-Napoleon witch-hunt says more about us than it does about him
George III is perfectly sane - it's society that has gone mad
What no leaches? Medical hygiene fad the symptom of a risk-averse society
Thomas Paine may be trendy, but Burke is the real progressive
