Christmas is a time to gather your crankiest family members around the table to argue over

their wildest and most poorly justified opinions.

And in that spirit, I've gathered the extended Navarra media clan, where Lothian McLean,

James Butler and Barstani and Michael Walker, to talk about some of the things they just

couldn't get out of their minds in 2022.

But before we embark on some wild flights to speculation, I just want to say a really big

thank you to all of our supporters. This year for the first time, we have topped 10,000

paying monthly supporters to Navarra media. And as you know, we can do any of what we do

without your very kind and very generous donations. So thank you so much. And if you haven't

become a supporter, please consider it for 2023. You know, it's maybe it could also be a Christmas

present, someone else. Anyway, without further ado, here is 90 minutes of searing heart

takes. So welcome everyone into our roundup of 2022's preoccupations, obsessions, bees in

bonnets. I will be your chair, your god, your king for the next hour or so. And I was wondering,

why do you want to take it away? What is the thing you've not been able to stop thinking about

this year? The thing I've not been able to stop thinking about this year is just how bad

popular discourse is, how stale it is, how predictable the path it follows, how it's based upon

extremes and extrapolation. And this always leads me back to social media, because that's one of

the major sites in which discourse is started and located. And it's also overly populated by the

people who can direct discourse outside of those spaces, such as journalists like us, sadly,

politicians, celebrities who take conversations from the likes of Twitter and then disseminate

them via more traditional channels. Is there something that you've got in mind when you're

thinking about the predictability of discourse? I think there's a story. I think I'm thinking about

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