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

[sihhi]

The madamjo review of meat market blog post was deemed part of a sexist crusade against LP by Roz Kaveney, gender studies critic and all-round literati:

There is the long-standing campaign of sexist bullying, smear and innuendo againg Laurie Penny, which you have enabled by this nit-picking post.

The act, DotCommunist, was not only bullying but sexist bullying, so there you go - judge for yourself if people are screwing around with reality.

 

[kavenism]

This was the main part of the Roz Kaveney attack on the person who pointed out the flaws and wrong labelling/advertising:



The point is that unlike the correctly-labelled Penny Red Notes from the Age of Dissent, LP's second book, there is no sense from the advertising accompanying it in which the first book is simply half a dozen already written blogs threaded together poorly.
Julie and Finn objected to sub-ten minute phone conversations for LP's blogs, being presented as their doing actual interviews for the book, they didn't backtrack at all.

Not to mention no doubt wanting to wash their hands of being associated with that travesty of a text. I read that damn thing three times for my Amazon review. Once with a highlighter in hand. Don't think I’ve used that highlighter since.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Don't worry, there's a reading and panel discussion at the Summer Fete for the New Inquiry featuring senior editor Malcolm Harris, deputy Emily Cooke and Maryam Monalisa a Harvard PhD postcolonial studies expert on 'Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero: Cinematic Figures of Transgression and Urban Banditry in Brazil, France, and the Maghreb'


The entry fee for 3 and a half hours is only $150 or $75

My only real objection to this, and I'm well aware that this may result in me being chased off the thread by an angry pitchfork wielding mob, is the ridiculous price. Talks about obscure culture stuff from a left wing perspective aren't inherently to be mocked. Does "open bar" mean "free bar"? And if so how long is the bar free for? I'm trying to work out how much of that 50 quid you could reasonably expect to drink.

 

[andysays]

Don't worry, there's a reading and panel discussion at the Summer Fete for the New Inquiry featuring senior editor Malcolm Harris, deputy Emily Cooke and Maryam Monalisa a Harvard PhD postcolonial studies expert on 'Be an Outlaw, Be a Hero: Cinematic Figures of Transgression and Urban Banditry in Brazil, France, and the Maghreb'

Here's the invitation

The entry fee for 3 and a half hours is only $150 or $75

Do you think if, say, 6 of us make a block booking we can get a reduction on the ticket price?

I know Spiney Norman is dying to go, he's just shy about saying so.

 

[andysays]

My only real objection to this, and I'm well aware that this may result in me being chased off the thread by an angry pitchfork wielding mob, is the ridiculous price. Talks about obscure culture stuff from a left wing perspective aren't inherently to be mocked. Does "open bar" mean "free bar"? And if so how long is the bar free for? I'm trying to work out how much of that 50 quid you could reasonably expect to drink.

 

[andysays]

Or even

 

[el-ahrairah]

two things of note.

1. DJ Rupture? isn't DJ Rupture some breakcore mentalist?

2. Michael Nesmith? Is that the guy who was in the Monkees?

breakcore and the Monkees sounds like my kind of show, providing i can get close enough to Artie to break his nose with my forehead.

 

[el-ahrairah]

At the risk of LLETSA-ism, do some middle-class people even know what bullying is any more?

this is what two generations of school anti-bullying campaigns have created. a nation of self-entitled tosspots who can't tell the difference between legitimate critique and having their head flushed down the toilet every lunchtime for five years.

 

[el-ahrairah]

You saying all Yorkshiremen are bullies? That's racist and sexist. Check your [insert place where DC lives here] privilege

he lives in northampton. there's no such thing as northampton privilege (except for bumping into Alan Moore in the offie).

 

[killer b]

1. DJ Rupture? isn't DJ Rupture some breakcore mentalist?.

think he's gone increasingly dubstep over the years.

 

[el-ahrairah]

think he's gone increasingly dubstep over the years.

did he go dubstep at about the sametime dubstep went shit? if so, his names on the fucking list.

 

[killer b]

Dunno. Wouldn't ever write him off though, the stuff he was doing a few years ago was remarkable.

 

[DotCommunist]

he lives in northampton. there's no such thing as northampton privilege (except for bumping into Alan Moore in the offie).

my brother lives two doors down

 

[SpineyNorman]

he lives in northampton. there's no such thing as northampton privilege (except for bumping into Alan Moore in the offie).

Could there be any greater privilege?

 

[SpineyNorman]

my brother lives two doors down

Case closed.

 

[rekil]

Random googling of those names

John Hagel III - In 2007, Hagel, along with John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, founded the Deloitte Center for the Edge Innovation. Hagel is also involved with a number of other organizations, including the World Economic Forum, Innovation Exchange with John Seely Brown and Henry Chesbrough, the International Academy of Management, and the Aspen Institute. He is credited with inventing the term "infomediary" in his book, NetWorth.

Daphne Merkin - She is the author of a novel, Enchantment (1984) as well as a collection of essays, Dreaming of Hitler (1997). Her father was the wealthy philanthropist Hermann Merkin. Her brother is J. Ezra Merkin, a hedge fund manager and philanthropist who was embroiled in the Bernard Madoff scandal.

Nadyne Edison - (twitter machine bio) "A communication guru...let me persuade you to take a risk...with or without technology"

Lauren Cerand - "advises her clients on buzz, and how to get it. [...] She has been called one of the “cultural gatekeepers in the literary world” by Time Out New York, and one of “50 Up-and-Coming New York Culture Makers to Watch in 2013″ by Flavorwire.

The weird weird fucking world of communisn't.

 

[sihhi]

two things of note.

1. DJ Rupture? isn't DJ Rupture some breakcore mentalist?

2. Michael Nesmith? Is that the guy who was in the Monkees?

breakcore and the Monkees sounds like my kind of show, providing i can get close enough to Artie to break his nose with my forehead.

1. It is still a reading and discussion so that would take up most of the 3.5 hours - (you can't as Nigel seemed to suggest pay your 50 quid and sit at the bar to drink it dry/pour beer into empty plastic bottles for your napsack) or expect to be dancing non-stop. The Harvard PhD person would not have been invited otherwise. It just has a party and sunset watching afterwards.

2. Nesmith is not performing, he is there as a business owner but a new devotee of crowdfunding/crowdsourcing.

3. Rupture is also a fan of discussing literature (sample blog):

This Sunday, April 28th, we’re meeting to discuss Sergio De La Pava’s wonderful, humane, laugh-out-loud funny, 689 page novel involving a public defender in New York City: A Naked Singularity (2008 ex libris, 2012 U Chicago Press). The opening chapter is a thing of wonder – try it and you’ll be hooked.

Book clubber Dan put me on to this; I recommend his thoughtful review from back when it was self-published. Dan writes:

“while the book is long, it’s never imposing. . . This is a book deeply concerned with the preterite: those who don’t have the resources to get themselves represented by others. It’s refreshing to find a recent New York novel that doesn’t bother to mention Williamsburg or Park Slope; the Upper East Side or Upper West Side might be mentioned in passing, but the Village, the East Village, Chelsea, the Lower East Side, the neighborhoods of New York that are seen in movies and literary fiction are absent from this book. There’s plenty left over; but we don’t usually read this. And this also stands out in that it’s a novel of work: Casi is a public defender, and spends most of his time at his job. The job isn’t lionized here: the protagonist is actively trying to be a good man, but he is decidedly not a hero by virtue of his work alone: the other occupants of his office are noticeably flawed, as he is. . .I’m also struck by how the book, comical as it often is, never has recourse to anything resembling magical realism.”

So will not be playing all 3.5 hours.

 

[SpineyNorman]

My only real objection to this, and I'm well aware that this may result in me being chased off the thread by an angry pitchfork wielding mob, is the ridiculous price. Talks about obscure culture stuff from a left wing perspective aren't inherently to be mocked. Does "open bar" mean "free bar"? And if so how long is the bar free for? I'm trying to work out how much of that 50 quid you could reasonably expect to drink.

No real objection? Look at the flyer. As if the wanky style isn't enough to put you off it also says there'll be hors d'oeuvres hors d'fucking oeuvres. I don't even know how you say that, never mind what it is. I do know eating them, serving them or even mentioning them favourably would be a capital offence in any kind of civilised society.

 

[sihhi]

The weird weird fucking world of communisn't.

Malcolm Harris would resent that comment:

Here

Dear editors plz don't commission me then get surprised when I'm all "overthrow the government" n shit. That's two this week.

Leading to:

Revolution: not just a metaphor!

 

[el-ahrairah]

my brother lives two doors down

from the offie? that's privilege right there.

 

[SpineyNorman]

this is what two generations of school anti-bullying campaigns have created. a nation of self-entitled tosspots who can't tell the difference between legitimate critique and having their head flushed down the toilet every lunchtime for five years.

I reckon I could teach them the difference - it would have to be a practical lesson though.

 

[el-ahrairah]

2. Nesmith is not performing, he is there as a business ownerbut a new devotee of crowdfunding/crowdsourcing.

my mum used to babysit Davy Jones' kids when the Monkees were in London. I wonder if that would get me a free ticket to this.

 

[Favelado]

A lot of left-wing journos tweeting about Pippa Middleton getting her job for simply being rich and connected. Laurie's rather quiet on the subject.

 

[andysays]

No real objection? Look at the flyer. As if the wanky style isn't enough to put you off it also says there'll be hors d'oeuvres hors d'fucking oeuvres. I don't even know how you say that, never mind what it is. I do know eating them, serving them or even mentioning them favourably would be a capital offence in any kind of civilised society.

That's got 65 million French people worried...

 

[el-ahrairah]

That's got 65 million French people worried...

they had their revolution and blew it. now it's Norman's turn.

 

[killer b]

my mum used to babysit Davy Jones' kids when the Monkees were in London. I wonder if that would get me a free ticket to this.

Monkee priviledge.

 

[sihhi]

Can anyone explain what this is all about?

Hugo Schwyzer "The End of Patriarchy is the BEGINNING of men's opportunity to stop being half-people and to become complete human beings"

which dear Laurie agreed with.

It means privilege checking is good and will help mean that men no long tell women what to do.

In action here - LP's friend Hugo attacks feminist anti-militarist organisation Codepink for noting Michelle Obama's support for extending the US military budget but cutting social spending, and Alicia Keys singing about peace and all that whilst a Obama supporter but then going to Israel for a set of concerts in Israel.

"So you've gone after @FLOTUS and @aliciakeys this morning, @codepink. Any more women of color not living up to your standards?"

As I read it, instead of debating the issues US power and Israeli occupation etc - Codepink are basically deemed as racist having insufficiently checked their white privilege (even though they have immigrant members but they don't call themselves a black or immigrant womens group - hence fair game)

 

[rekil]

my mum used to babysit Davy Jones' kids when the Monkees were in London. I wonder if that would get me a free ticket to this.

Will there be a Different Drum circle?

(It was a treat to hear Ronstadt's version in Seven Psychopaths, and then HMHB as well!)

 

[kavenism]

As I read it, instead of debating the issues US power and Israeli occupation etc - Codepink are basically deemed as racist having insufficiently checked their white privilege (even though they have immigrant members but they don't call themselves a black or immigrant womens group - hence fair game)

Yup, that's the idea in one. If you don't pseud yourself as member of the margins then you're just the KKK by another name.

 

[love detective]

A real rigorous consistency and solidity of conviction pervades her politics

Muswell Hill mosque destroyed in suspected EDL firebomb attack. This is why we need uncompromising anti-fascism....[i'm] positive and supportive of those who risk their safety and freedom fighting fascism in the streets

fuck anyone who believes that violence is an answer to violence