A Girl Called Jack... time for action?

[Thora]

No. Or maybe yeah, thinking about it - Though I dunno where the toothless came from. But yeah, I would take someone's opinion of poverty who's lived on the streets & had to do things they'd rather not do just to get by a bit more seriously than some dickhead recipe blogger. All I was saying originally though, is that Jack hasn't come close to rock B. Which she hasn't. Is anyone going to seriously state the case that she has?

Has anyone said she has? I mean, she probably had a pretty shit time with benefit fuck-ups and having to go to a food bank and feeding her son for a tenner a week, a worse time than a lot of people have experienced, but because she wasn't on the streets and she blogged about recipes her opinions are invalid?

 

[kittyP]

oh ffs. No I did not.

I made the appropriate quotes yesterday, all in one post.

 

[LiamO]

No. Or maybe yeah, thinking about it - Though I dunno where the toothless came from. But yeah, I would take someone's opinion of poverty who's lived on the streets & had to do things they'd rather not do just to get by a bit more seriously than some dickhead recipe blogger. All I was saying originally though, is that Jack hasn't come close to rock B. Which she hasn't. Is anyone going to seriously state the case that she has?

Like I said it's all very subjective

 

[frogwoman]

ian kershaw needs to check his privilege.if he wasn't personally killed by nazis it doesn't count

not sure where all the ww2 stuff is coming from though

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Really?

That is possibly the biggest load of shite you have ever posted - which is saying something. You can't really comment with autority on Auschwitz unless you were actually murdered there. Fuck me, The Life of Brian would not get a look in.

It is what Levi himself said. And wrestled with for his whole life. Survivor guilt - the best of us are dead. I was explicitly saying that it isn't the case, that Levi's story is valid.

 

[frogwoman]

Has anyone said she has? I mean, she probably had a pretty shit time with benefit fuck-ups and having to go to a food bank and feeding her son for a tenner a week, a worse time than a lot of people have experienced, but because she wasn't on the streets and she blogged about recipes her opinions are invalid?

shes probably had a lot worse time than a lot of people posting here

(thats not to invalidate any of the criticisms of what her stuff may be used for/and is)

 

[bamalama]

Look i think some are missing the point here...she doesn't have to do it,she won't starve, she won't be made homeless, she won't lose her kids,because she has social capital and access to resources,mates in the upper echelons of the labour party and the guardian.The stuff about relativity of rock bottom blah blah is irrelevant in my opinion,this is not philosophy,the situation we're in now is real for millions of people and it's gonna get worse...but not for the bould jack

 

[littlebabyjesus]

shes probably had a lot worse time than a lot of people posting here

Yep. Being stuck in a benefits fuck-up nightmare with a kid.

And that she has turned this into something positive with her blog. Well that's admirable, surely.

 

[bamalama]

i dont think her and LP are in the same league at all.

Playin the same game though

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Look i think some are missing the point here...she doesn't have to do it,she won't starve, she won't be made homeless, she won't lose her kids,because has social capital and access to resources,mates in the upper echelons of the labour party and the guardian.The stuff about relativity of rock bottom blah blah is irrelevant in my opinion,this is not philosophy,the situation we're in now is real for millions of people and it's gonna get worse...but not for the bould jack

She has a job and media exposure and connections now.

Are you Jamie Oliver?

 

[Thora]

Look i think some are missing the point here...she doesn't have to do it,she won't starve, she won't be made homeless, she won't lose her kids,because has social capital and access to resources,mates in the upper echelons of the labour party and the guardian.The stuff about relativity of rock bottom blah blah is irrelevant in my opinion,this is not philosophy,the situation we're in now is real for millions of people and it's gonna get worse...but not for the bould jack

When she started her blog, she wasn't known to anyone though? So at the point where she was actually living on a tenner a week, she did have to.

Now, due to the success of her blog she has a job and a book deal and probably isn't worrying so much about money.

 

[Frances Lengel]

Has anyone said she has? I mean, she probably had a pretty shit time with benefit fuck-ups and having to go to a food bank and feeding her son for a tenner a week, a worse time than a lot of people have experienced, but because she wasn't on the streets and she blogged about recipes her opinions are invalid?

Her opinions are invalid if her experience of what she reckons is poverty is being presented as how it actually is.

 

[LiamO]

I'm not dismissing the messenger liam i'm calling her a fraud,and a message from a fraud is going to be totally ignored by the target audience.Maybe i've got this wrong ,but you seem to be saying that this womans attitude offers us an example of the way forward.Well that's dead on if you're her,not if your wee pipers workmate or the millions of other people who don't have her contacts/education/social capital.But more importantly than all these ,access to money to give her the breathin space to ponce about preaching to people who want,need more,not the ability to live on less,it's not a fuckin game for some of us,it's a way of life

On what evidence are you calling her a fraud? None bar your (understandable) prejudice and posh radar.

Seems it was a way of life for her too.

OK. I'll give you an example closer to home. I could not count on one hand the number of ex-blanketmen I have spoken too (and I haven't spoken to that many altogether) who referred to their time on the blanket as the best days of their lives. Because despite the depravation, cruelty, torture beatings and general inhumanity they had a sense of purpose, a bond of kinship that no screw or govt could break. Lots of them thrived in those extreme conditions... but many struggled to adjust when they got out... and lived in relative luxury compared to a half-starved existence in a maggotty, shit-filled cell... but no longer had that sense of purpose/bond.

It's all relative, all very subjective.

 

[Thora]

Her opinions are invalid if her experience of what she reckons is poverty is being presented as how it actually is.

I don't understand this.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Playin the same game though

Not necessarily. Even if she had some kind of social capital that made this possible, so what? We shouldn't use that contact we happen to have to get ourselves heard when we think what we have to say is worth saying?

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Playin the same game though

In what way?

 

[LiamO]

ian kershaw needs to check his privilege.if he wasn't personally killed by nazis it doesn't count

not sure where all the ww2 stuff is coming from though

I started it by quoting Frankl. I figured nobody would call him a dilletante.

 

[bamalama]

.

 

[LiamO]

It is what Levi himself said. And wrestled with for his whole life. Survivor guilt - the best of us are dead. I was explicitly saying that it isn't the case, that Levi's story is valid.

In that case I apologise unreservedly for misreading your (easily misread) post

 

[Frances Lengel]

I don't understand this.

I mean she knows nowt - She's not experienced poverty and if wankers who read her blog think that's how it is then they're getting a false picture. Which, IMO, makes Jack part of the problem. She does not know how it is.

 

[butchersapron]

Just passing through tonight and not read the stuff since yesterday, just the last few posts - i'll get back to the others directed at me tmw. I wonder how much social capital going to state school and leaving at 16 then working in a fish and chip shop then a call centre gets you? Mad load of posts on here from some tonight.

 

[LiamO]

Did you see my quotes?
Yesterday you were saying "I didn't say why should food be delicious" when you obviously did, as I quoted.

no. I didn't.

 

[Thora]

I mean she knows nowt - She's not experienced poverty and if wankers who read her blog think that's how it is then they're getting a false picture. Which, IMO, makes Jack part of the problem. She does not know how it is.

I would describe surviving on benefits as poverty tbh. They are set at subsistence level, if that.

 

[LiamO]

I made the appropriate quotes yesterday, all in one post.

read my post again

 

[Thora]

Just passing through tonight and not read the stuff since yesterday, just the last few posts - i'll get back to the others directed at me tmw. I wonder how much capital going to state school and leaving at 16 then working in a fish and chip shop then a call centre gets you? Mad load of posts on here from some tonight.

But it was a grammar school! The posh cow.

 

[bamalama]

On what evidence are you calling her a fraud? None bar your (understandable) prejudice and posh radar.

Seems it was a way of life for her too.

OK. I'll give you an example closer to home. I copuld not count on one hand the number of ex-blanketmen who referred to their time on the blanket as the best days of their lives. because despite the depravation, cruelty, torture beatings and general inhumanity they had a sense of purpose, a bond of kinship that no screw or govt could break. Lots of them thrived in those extreme conditions... but many struggled to adjust when they got out... and lived in relative luxury compared to a half-starved existence in a maggotty, shit-fille dcell... but no longer had that sense of purpose/bond.

It's all relative, all very subjective.

You have'nt told me anything i don't already know here liam and this is a huge fuckin stretch mate,huge,but i really don't have the time typing skills to go into why i almost find this offensive with regards to this subject.Why should we follow the example of someone who comes from her background with regards to this?that's what i'm interested in,how can weepipers workmate replicate this as a way of surviving the onslaught on their living standards,and why should they?No hippy shit now...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

In that case I apologise unreservedly for misreading your (easily misread) post

It's alright. Looking back, the post contains assumptions from me that you have read what I have read by Levi. It is very sad. His final book, The Drowned and the Saved, goes into it in more detail than any of his previous books did. His previous books had all attempted to maintain a positive attitude towards being alive, even if you've been in Aushwitz. His final book is different. It presents the contradictions that Levi had never been able to resolve. He imagines a discussion with Jean Amery, but in that imagined discussion, he appears more persuaded by Amery's arguments than his own.

/Godwin's derail. As you were.

 

[LiamO]

I did respond at the time and you have ignored it.

The post you quoted was at FridgeMagnet.

I know. I answered them generally (and as much as I intend to) earlier this evening

 

[FridgeMagnet]

You have'nt told me anything i don't already know here liam and this is a huge fuckin stretch mate,huge,but i really don't have the time typing skills to go into why i almost find this offensive with regards to this subject.Why should we follow the example of someone who comes from her background with regards to this?that's what i'm interested in,how can weepipers workmate replicate this as a way of surviving the onslaught on their living standards,and why should they?No hippy shit now...

Her grammar school/chip shop/call centre background?

 

[Thora]

You have'nt told me anything i don't already know here liam and this is a huge fuckin stretch mate,huge,but i really don't have the time typing skills to go into why i almost find this offensive with regards to this subject.Why should we follow the example of someone who comes from her background with regards to this?that's what i'm interested in,how can weepipers workmate replicate this as a way of surviving the onslaught on their living standards,and why should they?No hippy shit now...

What about her background do you object to so much?

I don't think even she is saying anyone *should* have to survive on pennies per meal.