Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[frogwoman]

I've not been following the latest thing with Jones at all. Whats he done?

 

[DotCommunist]

I've not been following the latest thing with Jones at all. Whats he done?

uttered the fatefull cry of 'ultra left purists' for starters. Allways the mark of the butthurt or the black hand

 

[Nice one]

Exactly. When people think of the left at all, when they do hear voices 'opposing' the status quo, they hear Jones et al.

seriously who does? Who are these people? (...apart from bbc producers).

 

[Orang Utan]

seriously who does? Who are these people? (...apart from bbc producers).

Normal leftish leaning people who read the guardian and the new statesman and who are not involved in activism for the far left. So quite a lot of people.

 

[Ronnie Rubashov]

I've not been following the latest thing with Jones at all. Whats he done?

He checked his privilege, but he was in a hurry and missed a bit.

 

[Ronnie Rubashov]

The awkward cling-on bit which sticks to the rim and can only be reached with the ultra-pure Toilet Duck of honest introspection.

 

[rekil]

Check yr Dave L. Gedge

 

[DotCommunist]

check ya meat and two veg

 

[Ronnie Rubashov]

Result

Thought you were out of beer?
Check the back of your fridge

(Based on a very recent real-life incident-I fuckin love this time of year-peace, goodwill and problem drinking gets the body swerve for a few precious days)

 

[Athos]

Check your levels Midge.

 

[smokedout]

Normal leftish leaning people who read the guardian and the new statesman and who are not involved in activism for the far left. So quite a lot of people.

there's nothing normal about reading the new statesman

 

[Athos]

Check these swivel lids.

 

[DotCommunist]

check your kids

 

[Athos]

check your kids

Check your wife.

 

[Orang Utan]

there's nothing normal about reading the new statesman

It's pretty normal to read it in the same way it's normal to read The Spectator.
They are both reasonably high circulation news magazines

 

[ViolentPanda]

That this is even needed to pointed out says a lot about this thread...

Much as your comment says a lot about you, dear boy.

 

[ViolentPanda]

i still don't have a clue what happened

seems weird though that owen jones and company are moaning about self appointed, self righteous elitists undermining progressive politics and speaking on behalf of others without their consent, isn't that what they do?

How can you say such things!!!???
Isn't it obvious that by the action of paying attention to the witterings of Jones, Penny et al, they believe that we consent to their attempts to represent us?

At least, that's the impression I come away with, every time I read an article by any of these soi-disant activists and radicals.

 

[ViolentPanda]

To be honest this is all hurting my head. I'm having trouble figuring out which side to root for.

Whoever neckshots them?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Sums up 95% of the anarchist scene , well done

I won't say you're starting to sound like a broken record.







"Starting" would, after all, be a misrepresentation.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Never mind check your privilege, they could use some check your princials, check your priorities, and less check your navel.

I don't know about that. A little fucking reflexivity from this bunch wouldn't go amiss in my opinion.

Can you imagine if this bunch had to submit themselves to revolutionary self-criticism? They wouldn't have the self-awareness needed!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Given that I'm a bipolar Aspie with chronic asthma, diabetes, high blood cholesterol and probable epilepsy, does that automatically entitle me to a leading and highly-paid opinion column syndicated everywhere on the planet and a series of increasingly lucrative career opportunities?

Or does it entitle me to be spoken for by self-appointed 'voices of the movement' who'll then pocket the cash and recycle my words and thoughts as their own because I'm obviously too impaired to be allowed free use of either?

No, your middle-aged honkiness erases any brownie points you get for the other factors, just like my middle-aged honkiness erases mine. Basically, we could be tramps and the likes of Laura and her fellow-travellers will still tell us to "check our privilege" with their own special lack of self-awareness.

 

[Ronnie Rubashov]

To be honest this is all hurting my head. I'm having trouble figuring out which side to root for.

I think that possibly, the idea that there is a side to root for...or even any meaningful binary opposition in play...is a sign that there are protagonists out there who've yet to give their privilege a full audit.
Once they have, all differences of opinion will dissolve and we shall beat our swords into ploughshares.
At that point, the need for a radical commentariat will disappear and they'll probably get jobs on Radio 1.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'm a bit of a social media resister (old fogey) so it's hard for me to get a handle on how powerful or otherwise this is.

I'm not sure that the "power" isn't mostly inherent to "the powerful" using it to disseminate info. For every "rebel" twitter that has broken news, we have a hundred twitters from media darlings pushing their own agenda from under a veneer of rebelliousness.

Personally, I can't be arsed with it because I've seen little evidence that people, even those who write as a profession, can articulate themselves properly in 140-character bites. I like my arguments to have meat in them.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Owen Jones has already been on national BBC radio twice today alone - and specifically as the face/voice of the left, and so by extension, to many this is what pro-working class politics looks like and why this left says nothing to them about their life.

To which I say "hang the blessed deejay".

 

[ViolentPanda]

I do still listen to the radio but I hadn't noticed him.

It looks like I'm going to have to pay more attention

To be fair, he's got one of those radio voices that makes me tune him out unless I make a concerted effort to listen. He sort of chirps, like PR people do.

 

[ViolentPanda]

leafing through the guardian this morning ( ) i found in the latest column by brooker the following:




who could he be talking about?

Frankly, none of the people he is talking about are self-aware enough to realise that it them he's talking about.

 

[ViolentPanda]

uttered the fatefull cry of 'ultra left purists' for starters. Allways the mark of the butthurt or the black hand

That phrase always makes me think of The Black Hand.

 

[The39thStep]

I won't say you're starting to sound like a broken record.







"Starting" would, after all, be a misrepresentation.

How would you describe it then?

 

[ViolentPanda]

How would you describe it then?

Why would I bother describing it/them? I'm not the one with the bee in my bonnet who keeps repeating the same hackneyed phrase about the "anarchist scene".

That's you, that is.

 

[DaveCinzano]

I think that possibly, the idea that there is a side to root for...or even any meaningful binary opposition in play...is a sign that there are protagonists out there who've yet to give their privilege a full audit.

I worry that this confusion is down to my own resistance to self-criticism