equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Brixton LP is in you.
Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags
- Thread starter Prince Rhyus
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TruXta
tired
Is she fuck. She's way too tiny for that.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
TruXta
tired
Maybe she was peeved she wasn't getting any attention?
shifting gears
Well-Known Member
Is that s club 7 quote for real?
If so that should be fucking seized upon, it's a disgrace.
If so that should be fucking seized upon, it's a disgrace.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
More than likely, I suspect.
I await her article on the Thatcher Death Party in Brixton with bated breath.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
...and don't forget to vote lib-dem.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Gutless bastards, how are you supposed to fight back with this pious whinging? How are you going to break a media line? A media narrative, a police narrative - a police line? Pathetic.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
nothing about students in there
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Owen and billy have said we have to go to bed early tonight.
el-ahrairah
forward communism, forward gerbils!
i was told she was there but i either didn't see her, or didn't recognise her - new hat maybe? which is a shame, as i wanted to get a "fan pic" for this thread. you know, to make it really weird and stalkerish just the way she likes it.
sunnysidedown
caput mortuum
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
SWSS candidate Tomas Evans for VP of the NUS was called a rape apologist during a speech at the NUS conference and hundreds of people walked out because they refused to hear him speak.
Apparently he started his speech with a defence of the SWP's DC, not a very smart move to say the least.
Apparently he started his speech with a defence of the SWP's DC, not a very smart move to say the least.
StrangeCat
New Member
I remember Laurie from Oxford. I didn't actually know her as such; although I'm sure we must have spoken, however briefly. I sort of remember her as being a bit geeky and 'fantasy-based'; very pleasant and friendly; and, of course, small. Being small was her thing; almost as though being small was her greatest achievement.
I should stress this: she is tiny. If it does all turn to shit, writing wise, there'll always be panto.
I'm posting here because I'm really intrigued at the level of prominence she's acquired. I sort of gather that we await her piece on Mrs Thatcher as the definitive and quintessential assessment; from somebody who must have been about 4 or 5 when she left power; from somebody privately educated; raised in the heart of the stockbroker belt. How does this come to pass?
It's always possible that there are lacunae in my recent social history. I may well have missed the massive de industrialisation of West Sussex; the pit closures, the lock-outs, the loss of the furnaces, the haunted look on the faces of the women and kids as they saw their menfolk humiliated and unmanned, denied the dignity of honest labour and forced into the city, the law or some other dead-end, deunionised, unregulated career. Possibly, Laurie retains some sort of folk memory of foraging on slag-heaps, the steel galas, the working men's clubs; the whole panoply of proletarian culture.
Then again, maybe her position as spokesperson and unofficial historian of the left owes more to the glib, facile and sensationalist nature of our MSM. It seems that these days an Oxbridge background and an occasional nod to the hipgeist is all it takes to become an authority on anything that takes your fancy; knowledge, experience, personal affinity or actual involvement etc having been rendered subservient to a willingness to churn out quirky, shock-based rants.
It's not that I mind. To me, it's all one with the fucked-up and surreal quality of just about everything I see and read these days. And I sort of like her. I also like Wayne Rooney. I'd probably still like him if he was writing a column on opera or differential equations or cosmology. And, if Steven Hawking passed away, you can bet It'd be Wayne's column I'd turn to for the last word on the guy's achievements and significance. Really...why not? That's how things roll these days...apparently. I think this should be more widely appreciated. Her prominence is simply symptomatic of the entire dumbing down of literally everything.
I should stress this: she is tiny. If it does all turn to shit, writing wise, there'll always be panto.
I'm posting here because I'm really intrigued at the level of prominence she's acquired. I sort of gather that we await her piece on Mrs Thatcher as the definitive and quintessential assessment; from somebody who must have been about 4 or 5 when she left power; from somebody privately educated; raised in the heart of the stockbroker belt. How does this come to pass?
It's always possible that there are lacunae in my recent social history. I may well have missed the massive de industrialisation of West Sussex; the pit closures, the lock-outs, the loss of the furnaces, the haunted look on the faces of the women and kids as they saw their menfolk humiliated and unmanned, denied the dignity of honest labour and forced into the city, the law or some other dead-end, deunionised, unregulated career. Possibly, Laurie retains some sort of folk memory of foraging on slag-heaps, the steel galas, the working men's clubs; the whole panoply of proletarian culture.
Then again, maybe her position as spokesperson and unofficial historian of the left owes more to the glib, facile and sensationalist nature of our MSM. It seems that these days an Oxbridge background and an occasional nod to the hipgeist is all it takes to become an authority on anything that takes your fancy; knowledge, experience, personal affinity or actual involvement etc having been rendered subservient to a willingness to churn out quirky, shock-based rants.
It's not that I mind. To me, it's all one with the fucked-up and surreal quality of just about everything I see and read these days. And I sort of like her. I also like Wayne Rooney. I'd probably still like him if he was writing a column on opera or differential equations or cosmology. And, if Steven Hawking passed away, you can bet It'd be Wayne's column I'd turn to for the last word on the guy's achievements and significance. Really...why not? That's how things roll these days...apparently. I think this should be more widely appreciated. Her prominence is simply symptomatic of the entire dumbing down of literally everything.
tenniselbow
Active Member
Pretty much nailed it in many respects. Apart from...
That's not why we are eagerly awaiting it.
And I think the Hawking column will probably be Brian Cox rather than Wayne, right? While he's a little bit irritating in his science-coolness, he's no Oxbridge lad and he knows his stuff.
That's not why we are eagerly awaiting it.
And I think the Hawking column will probably be Brian Cox rather than Wayne, right? While he's a little bit irritating in his science-coolness, he's no Oxbridge lad and he knows his stuff.
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
Welcome to the boards StrangeCat but I don't understand this - "being small was her thing" - what are you saying here?
"I should stress this: she is tiny. If it does all turn to shit, writing wise, there'll always be panto."
Also here ???
tenniselbow
Active Member
To be fair, I have known individuals for whom smallness was an important part of their identity. Not sure of the relevance here though. Bit pejorative.
love detective
there's no love too small
StrangeCat do you have any amusing or revealing anecdotes to tell about your time at Oxford with Penny?
StrangeCat
New Member
"Welcome to the boards StrangeCat but I don't understand this - "being small was her thing" - what are you saying here?"
I'm just saying she's small...tiny...and she plays on it...like it's a 'thing' to be, or have achieved. Not sure really. It's hard to explain. Some people are small as a physiological state. Some people are small but also take possession of their smallness as though it's a valuable and worthwhile attribute...a bit like Giant Haystacks. He was more than big. Being big was his 'thing'.
""I should stress this: she is tiny. If it does all turn to shit, writing wise, there'll always be panto."
Also here ???"
I was thinking 'Snow White', possibly with Natalie Kennedy as Snow White.
I'm just saying she's small...tiny...and she plays on it...like it's a 'thing' to be, or have achieved. Not sure really. It's hard to explain. Some people are small as a physiological state. Some people are small but also take possession of their smallness as though it's a valuable and worthwhile attribute...a bit like Giant Haystacks. He was more than big. Being big was his 'thing'.
""I should stress this: she is tiny. If it does all turn to shit, writing wise, there'll always be panto."
Also here ???"
I was thinking 'Snow White', possibly with Natalie Kennedy as Snow White.
sihhi
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered
I don't understand its relevance though, it's an odd barb to begin with almost as if you're trying to induce nasty comments about physical appearance from posters, which can later be categorised as sexist, in order to prove right her exiting and not answering a number of unanswered questions.
StrangeCat
New Member
Nope. Just remember seeing her now and again. I didn't really have anything to do with her...or many other people really. I found it all a bit lame tbh. Just about got a degree. I'm currently working at Kwikfit. I blame my lack of networking skills and the fact that I found too many there pretentious poseurs. I don't think I lacked the self-confidence which the privately educated students exhibited, ostentatiously and at every given opportunity, it's more that my confidence exhibited itself largely in terms of surly and dismissive piss taking; which was naturally diagnosed as a massive chip on the shoulder etc. but it was really just that so much of it was truly, mind-blowingly facile.
Anyway, I've no regrets and now I can change tyres and fit exhausts. So everyone's a winner.
I just really can't take this country seriously these days. Laurie Penny's current standing is part of this. I don't blame her or dislike her (she really is very nice, in her way..or was-from what I saw). I just can't for the fucking life of me understand how she got to be this left wing icon. I find it stunning.
StrangeCat
New Member
I don't understand its relevance though, it's an odd barb to begin with almost as if you're trying to induce nasty comments about physical appearance from posters, which can later be categorised as sexist, in order to prove right her exiting and not answering a number of unanswered questions.
Yeah, fair comment. Not my intention. More that my one abiding memory is her size I suppose. She's small. And I really don't have anything against small people, not as far as I can tell. I'm not quite as clued up on privilege checking as I might be, but I can't detect any sizist tendencies through introspection. I'm not that big myself. Average, I suppose.
tenniselbow
Active Member
It's alright, StrangeCat, don't worry. She really isn't a left wing icon you know.
She is fashionable and useful for the narrow, trendy London media set. She speaks mainly to a small group of young middle class radicals. With some of whom she shares a massively myopic vision of what passes for ordinary life in this country as well as great ignorance of the political histories and traditions of our left and left politics in general. And an arrogance that can see her speak down to and ignore some of the incredibly well-educated, auto-didactic (see the theory board), knowledgeable posters on Urban, who happen to have a heck of a lot more life and political experience than her, as evidenced from page 208 of this thread. The disrespect is palpable and it is the one thing from her which really made me angry (apart from censoring a very insightful and polite critique of her position on multiculturalism [admittedly repeating the work of others, some of whom are around these parts] from her blog many years ago
). And I dare say many of us have seen characters like this before. In fact the media is littered with them. Who use their faux-radicalism against the establishment, while befriending and networking with truly disgusting but powerful figures. And then comes the drift, and the inevitable "compromises" and the leaving behind of childish things, and the settling of accounts and accommodations... Phew, well anyway back to work
frogwoman
No amount of cajolery...
If somebody's moved to the right I don't know why they don't just say "I've moved to the right" (its hardly as though this never happens) rather than make mealy mouthed excuses about it. They might still have worthwhile things to say occasionally, probably more so now that they aren't pretending any more.
tenniselbow
Active Member
There's probably some good psychological theory to explain this. Personally I'm sure Laurie totally believes in where she is politically now and will continue to do so wherever her views go. But it's surely difficult to make sense of contradictory politics. Rationalizing it in various ways is always going to be easy from whatever position one later adopts, though I imagine there has to be some psychic difficulty that goes along with this.
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