I have to agree, Spleen Cringe. A lot of the statements in the first post read like a litany of Daily Mail headlines - anecdotal half-truths used to whip up paranoia, but not really indicative of any particular trend in society. It's like the "I'm not racist but..." examples that are regularly trotted out about the banning of black boards and black sheep and Christmas being turned into "Winterval". Look behind the headlines and there's usually very little substance - one teacup tempest after another, but it sells newspapers. Even if the paranoia seems to be driving a substantial proportion of the readership of certain papers to the brink of lunacy.

"the Daily Mail - not so much a newspaper as an idiot's guidebook issued in bite-size daily instalments" - Charlie Brooker