"A Communist Thing To Do"

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I just was watching the news while I was eating my porridge

It was a section on people not cleaning up their dogs mess in public

Anyway this one guy said: "well I'd confront them myself, it might seem like a communist thing to do, to grass people up but that's what I'd do"

I'm struggling to see what he means by "communist thing to do" in this instance

Do communists grass each other up
I didn't know that was part of what it meant to be a communist

What does the verb grass mean in this context?

I've heard it used to mean snitching before, but that doesn't fit into the sentence any better.

Yeah it did mean to snitch in this instance

None of what he said made any sense to me

I always thought the "communist thing to do" was overthrowing regimes through violent revolution?

I wish I could find the clip but it was literally 5 minutes ago on the news

All I can think of is he's referring to how common snitching to the Stasi was in East Germany.

Or that it's being used ignorantly as a synonym for authoritarianism.

Although, I don't really see what the problem with not wanting your living space to be filled with dogshit is. Dog owners who don't clean up after their dogs shouldn't continue to be dog owners.

It's become a word that people seem to like throwing around in the UK since the labour party got in

I just wish the BBC wouldn't interview ignorant people and if they do then just get rid of the recording if it doesn't make sense
They do this often

If I want a laugh in the morning I'd put GB News on

A lot of stupid people use communist in place of authoritarian because they don't know the difference.

I wish the education system in the Anglosphere produced better informed people instead of those idiots, that would reduce the problem at it's roots instead of media just pretending like they don't exist.

Are they really being stupid or do they simply understand that the majority of communist regimes in this world are authoritarian?

I don't understand where communism and cleaning up dog poo is even related

I'm thinking this guy was just using up his 30 second platform to try and make himself look like some kind of revolutionary

But he just looked and sounded stupid to me

He didn't have a problem with clearing it up himself so I can't find anything in his attitude to even be antiauthoritarian

His statement just made no sense whatsoever

I have more of an issue with the British Broadcasting Corporation for allowing it to be shown

Mind you I think he was from the north and the media does seem to enjoy us looking like luddites

I think you nailed a big part of it.

The South has stereotypes of the North to maintain. US media does the same thing too, where they'll find the most redneck sounding white southerner, or the most ghetto sounding black person and make sure to interview them.

It's not always done maliciously, because I see media do the same thing with other variations on 'folksy sounding outspoken person', but sometimes it ends up reinforcing negative stereotypes because intentionally or not they pick someone who embodies a stereotype.

It's sometimes hard to tell whether it's done out of affection for a person they found charming or whether it's punching down to make some local idiot or flake the face of a specific community and reinforce negative views that some people already buy into.

When I was a child growing up in Baltimore, dog sh¡t was a fact of life. No leash laws and no concept of cleaning up after. And no truck with Communists or Communism. I don't know what the UK was like then, but what that gentleman said on TV might make sense if said in the US.

It is an unusually extreme and ridiculous overuse of a political term for pejorative purposes.

I'll say it was

In the era of the Soviet Union, it was common for people to snitch on their neighbours, usually people/those who snitched, would inform local authorities of a wrongdoing, such as speech which contradicted the political party in power or criticized it in some way, or it could be any action that might have a negative affect on the state in some way.

So, snitching is rightfully associated with the Soviet era and therefore communist, since before 1991 the ideals of the Soviet Union were largely communist.

However, in the example you gave bb, you report that the one guy said that confronting someone about not cleaning up dog poo, somehow equates to a person grassing up or 'snitching'? That makes no sense in itself, since snitching is usually brought about by a third party (usually an authority) who are informed by the snitch and then act upon the information they have received.

Yeah that's what I'm saying mate
Nothing of what he said made any sense whatsoever