Urban v's the Commentariat

[brogdale]

Oh damn, I meant to post this yesterday - on the commentariat front, Owen "Oxbridge" Jones was one of the speakers at the Gaza solidarity demo on Saturday. As he started up, I was looking at the video screen, and noticed that he was reciting his speech from reading his mobile phone! Surely that's kinda cheating, right? At least the Gorgeous One's later tub-thumping bellowing was done w/out any sort of script (let alone a bloody mobile phone).

Why bother turning up at all? Surely he could just have tweeted the speech through his phone to the video screen...and the assembled masses could have been enlightened.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Why bother turning up at all? Surely he could just have tweeted the speech through his phone to the video screen...and the assembled masses could have been enlightened.

Indeed so - or he could've done one better and had a still image of one of his Graun Comment Is Free columns put on the video screen, and then we could have all basked in its (and his) munificence.

 

[rekil]

OJ channelling Michael O'Leary a bit today - "I just believe in democratic control by consumers". Referring to people as 'consumers' always gives me the heebie jeebies.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Oh damn, I meant to post this yesterday - on the commentariat front, Owen "Oxbridge" Jones was one of the speakers at the Gaza solidarity demo on Saturday. As he started up, I was looking at the video screen, and noticed that he was reciting his speech from reading his mobile phone! Surely that's kinda cheating, right? At least the Gorgeous One's later tub-thumping bellowing was done w/out any sort of script (let alone a bloody mobile phone).

If I was addressing a rally of tens of thousands of people, I might have some notes to refer to rather than winging it?

 

[MellySingsDoom]

If I was addressing a rally of tens of thousands of people, I might have some notes to refer to rather than winging it?

Oh yeah, I can see that, but surely glancing at yr phone every 15 seconds (which he was doing) is a bit much. And as it goes, everyone else there without exception spoke without notes. Surely the boy Jones could have done some pre-demo speech revision by e.g. memorising bullet points stuff?

(e2a: I've edited this post 4 times now!)

 

[butchersapron]

Oh yeah, I can see that, but surely glancing at yr phone every 15 seconds (which he was doing) I thought was a bit much. And as it goes, everyone else there without exception spoke without notes. Surely the boy Jones could have done some pre-demo sppech revision by e.g. memorising bullet points stuff?

Maybe he had the speech memorised but was just checking the phone to keep up with the football scores - it was the first day of the season after all. You know checking his bets and his fantasy football team.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Maybe he had the speech memorise but was just checking the phone to keep up with the football scores - it was the first day of the season after all. You know checking his bets and his fantasy football team.

Arf! As H J Simpson would say, "It's funny 'cause it's true"

 

[rekil]

If I was addressing a rally of tens of thousands of people, I might have some notes to refer to rather than winging it?

He's just a boy who can't say no. By some weird process of osmosis, having been to Oxford confers an ability and confidence to weigh in on literally any subject, no matter how 'shaky' one's grasp of it may be.

 

[Bakunin]

This is the problem with so much*debate* on twitter, any dissent gets someone labelled as "evil", "the worst" "a whatever-phobe". Completely shuts down debate

It's supposed to shut down debate. If somebody comes up with inconvenient points that don't fit a pre-conceived narrative and insists on standing their ground, then trying to scare them into backing down with a smear or two, or provoking them into a row instead of a reasoned debate in the hope that their inconvenient line of questioning will be forgotten, is a standard tactic for people who want to be seen to debate without actually doing so.

If you don't have a decent answer then scare them into silence or distract onlookers by turning a debate into a fight, simple.

 

[Pickman's model]

He's just a boy who can't say no. By some weird process of osmosis, having been to Oxford confers an ability and confidence to weigh in on literally any subject, no matter how 'shaky' one's grasp of it may be.

i've been to oxford on several occasions and this osmosis hasn't worked for me yet

 

[rekil]

i've been to oxford on several occasions and this osmosis hasn't worked for me yet

Spoiler: another theory shot to shit

From the hand of a government man
Came these papers
Came these signs
Came these good things

 

[Pickman's model]

copliker

 

[rekil]

Oh I dunno, still hungover from the Bragg multitudinous positionism conversion victory party.

 

[The39thStep]

@PennyRed: It's very exciting being on Australian media. I've never been there, so in my head it's a magical land which may not exist.

Hallo birds hallo trees

 

[Bakunin]

I'm surprised Penny Dreadful hasn't jumped all over the former commander of HMS Portland, the first female warship skipper in Royal Navy history, recently being stripped of her command.

 

[DotCommunist]

made front page of the sun, that.

total wank, how many male rankers have had thier sexual indiscretions splashed on the front page?

 

[Bakunin]

made front page of the sun, that.

total wank, how many male rankers have had thier sexual indiscretions splashed on the front page?

In fairness, the affair was with a subordinate officer also serving aboard HMS Portland. I can see why that might cause serious problems aboard ship, especially in action. Personally, I'm not so bothered about about the affair as much as the potential risk to the other officers and crew that might have transpired as a result of that. To be fair, I'd sooner see both of them shipped out to different postings as they were both at fault. I'm not interested in either of the individuals, but in the well-being and safety of the ship's company.

 

[DotCommunist]

In fairness, the affair was with a subordinate officer also serving aboard HMS Portland. I can see why that might cause serious problems aboard ship, especially in action. Personally, I'm not so bothered about about the affair as much as the potential risk to the other officers and crew that might have transpired as a result of that. To be fair, I'd sooner see both of them shipped out to different postings as they were both at fault. I'm not interested in either of the individuals, but in the well-being and safety of the ship's company.

well yeah, but my point was that how many male officers have got caught fucking about and inappropriately and then had the sun do a front page spread of the story under the tasteful headline 'jolly rogerer'

 

[Bakunin]

That's a fair point. I'm not in favour of other officers having their misconduct overlooked or swept under the carpet at all. What military personnel do in their personal lives is up to them, but anybody bringing their personal life on deck with them is a different matter. I'd take issue with anybody doing that because it puts others at unnecessary risk.

 

[The39thStep]

@Rebb003: @thelindywest @PennyRed @katebornstein It's happening. Let's share stories of anxiety & depression, raise awareness: #sparkofmadness

And as if by magic, here is one Penny made earlier

@PennyRed: I've been writing a long piece about depression and anxiety for ages, scared to post. I'll get to that today. #sparkofmadness

 

[rekil]

James Bloodworth here, schooling you fools with some phat history beats.

When it comes to the totalitarian rebellions against liberal societies throughout history, sophisticated people have very often failed to grasp what goes on in the minds of the fanatic.
Back in the 1930s, attempts to explain fascism famously tripped up many leading intellectuals of the time. Hitler’s demands to expand the Third Reich were taken by many otherwise sophisticated people as code for something else. Was it not true, after all, that the Treaty of Versailles had imposed punitive and unreasonable conditions on Germany? As Paul Berman noted in his book, Terror and Liberalism, despite the SS repeatedly reaffirming at its death camps that "here there is no why", for much of the left there was always a "why".

 

[Theisticle]

Christ, even by Bloodworth's low standards that's a stinking turd. Of course, Bloodworth would cite a book that praises neo-Con intervention.
Anyway.... These made me chuckle:

 

[muscovyduck]

Right, I'm near finishing that blog post about Laurie Penny I said I'd do like a year ago, lol. Split it into two because it's quite big. I've covered:
private education, oxford
Suspiciously biased wiki page
Public letter to disabled reader
For fuck sake, I work for a living
That post from the morning star co-worker
Calling Jacob a cunt
That IWCA article
Girl in the grey hoody
Enniskillen G8
Don't want to get deported/arrested just for journalism and too warm to go to Gaza protest

Possible misrepresentation of that MRA dickhead
Starkey
Trying to hire an intern below min wage/guido fawkes
'People have an exaggerated idea of how wealthy I was growing up'

There are some things I want to work in that I haven't yet. For eg, living in Mayfair, living on inheritance while doing an internship, changing opinion on NATO every ten minutes. If there's anything anyone thinks I should specifically mention that I haven't done already then now's the time to remind me. I know everything's gone quiet recently but there needs to be a decentish record of all the things she's done because it's quite hard to keep track already. I've split it into two, first half being mainly her background and how she's fucked off the left and latter half being how the right uses it against us.

 

[DotCommunist]

matiness with Louise Mensch?

 

[DaveCinzano]

...If there's anything anyone thinks I should specifically mention that I haven't done already then now's the time to remind me...

• Misrepresenting/misquoting woman during cycle of student protests & occupations (IIRC the person in question came back with a three-part blog takedown of LP)
• Self-plagiarism and repackaging (at relative high cost) of previously published material
• Changing sexual self-identification to suit audience/garner sympathy
  
• The ‘brief stint as burlesque performer entitles me to speak for sex workers’ angle early on
• ‘Missed last train to airport so am basically homeless’
• Molly's portrait
• E-cig on The Daily Politics or This Week
• Fulsome praise for her old (private school) head/teacher
• Living with The Lez
• Ryan Gosling fanfic incident

 

[butchersapron]

The secret private school motivational speaker network

 

[DaveCinzano]

Oh, and the ‘new new journalism’/‘longform reportage’ yadda yadda yadda shtick that went with her minibook done with Molly.

 

[butchersapron]

The talk at oxford where she approvingly said that those in the room - her included - ran and owned the world. That could be used to tie together the overarching sentiment/motif of all this really.

 

[DotCommunist]

starting the journo wankers 'I am in you' twitter affectation. Probably just a bit minor, but by fuck did it annoy me

 

[muscovyduck]

I'm no where near finished am I.