Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
""
Urban v's the Commentariat
- Thread starter Belushi
- Start date
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
We should start a rival petition to demand that Owen Jones leaves Bernie Sanders alone
Idris2002
Christmas Eve, you know?
Fruits of Laurie's recent visit to Halle:
For refugee women in Germany, solidarity is non-negotiable
For refugee women in Germany, solidarity is non-negotiable
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Is it just me, or is that just write-by-numbers?
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Celebrity Lib Dem millionaire Billy Bragg:
(Marvin Rees is Labour's second time lucky mayoral candidate, who will be facing the incumbent, erm, (local) celebrity Lib Dem millionaire George Ferguson.)
(Marvin Rees is Labour's second time lucky mayoral candidate, who will be facing the incumbent, erm, (local) celebrity Lib Dem millionaire George Ferguson.)
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Idris2002
Christmas Eve, you know?
I suppose so. She does do good tweet (this one is in response to the news that SamCam has a very expensive fashion designer):
ManchesterBeth
Well-Known Member
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The Bruenig Firing: 'Civility' As A Tool To Control Dissent
This weeks huge yank commentariat spat. A prominent left wing writer gets in a row with a prominent centrist Clintonite journalist and a prominent Clintonite think tank boss, the latter of whom is likely to be in the inner circle of a future Clinton regime. Gets fired by the slightly more liberal think tank he worked for. The whole liberal and left commentariat immediately take sides: Is this about evil brocialists harassing women and people of colour? Or is this about centrist neoliberal elites putting the fear of impoverishment into their left wing critics?
(It's the second option)
This weeks huge yank commentariat spat. A prominent left wing writer gets in a row with a prominent centrist Clintonite journalist and a prominent Clintonite think tank boss, the latter of whom is likely to be in the inner circle of a future Clinton regime. Gets fired by the slightly more liberal think tank he worked for. The whole liberal and left commentariat immediately take sides: Is this about evil brocialists harassing women and people of colour? Or is this about centrist neoliberal elites putting the fear of impoverishment into their left wing critics?
(It's the second option)
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
That particular row has effectively eaten American liberal and left twitter. The US has a much, much larger media industry and just about everyone in it, in the range between liberal-centrist and left wing, seems to want a say. You can immediately predict the content of just about every take by asking yourself "does this person support Hillary Clinton" before reading.
It's quite interesting in a way that this kind of row on this side of the Irish Sea rarely is. The driving forces are (a) the bewilderment and frustration of establishment journalists at the strength and persistence of Sanders support and their consequent desire to reinforce the old boundaries of acceptable opinion and (b) the way in which they are adapting to a new social media environment where their opinions can be immediately met with a dozen completely random nobodies pouring scorn on their views or sending them pictures of pig shit.
It's quite interesting in a way that this kind of row on this side of the Irish Sea rarely is. The driving forces are (a) the bewilderment and frustration of establishment journalists at the strength and persistence of Sanders support and their consequent desire to reinforce the old boundaries of acceptable opinion and (b) the way in which they are adapting to a new social media environment where their opinions can be immediately met with a dozen completely random nobodies pouring scorn on their views or sending them pictures of pig shit.
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
I have found the entire spat incredible on so many levels.
The absolute brazen hypocrisy of the people who have gone after Bruenig is just incredible. You have an alliance of some of the most power people in the Democratic Party, the media, right-wing libertarians, neoconservative interventionists and people who do PR for Central Asian dictators all lining up to get Bruenig and his wife sacked from their jobs while using the language of social justice and alleging harassment. One of the best examples I have seen is the Daily Kos Labour editor trying to find out whether Bruenig can be sacked from his job at the NLRB on the basis of a legislative technicality.
There are so many worrying implications in this turn in discourse, some of which I am sure we do not yet understand. In the short term I suppose it's good for power, this stuff seems to genuinely convince some people. In the long term it's going to be great for the sort of people who allege mendacity whenever someone speaks out against racism, sexism or other types of bigotry.
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
You can sort of see the same process here really with Corbyn, there was a huge amount of media effort put into painting all Corbyn supporters as misogynists during the leadership campaign and then again prior to the vote on Syria.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Another exhibit in the Paul Mason, Laurie Penny, Molly Crabapple and The Guardian love-in... Molly Crabapple: the sketcher blurring activism and art
The Pale King
Well-Known Member
See also the efforts to paint the protest outside Stella Creasy's constituency office following her vote to bomb Syrian people as mysoginistic harrassment / attacks on her house/person/safety etc.
Political criticism=bullying/harrassment now, and as you pertinently said on another thread, it's defined as something only the powerful suffer and only the powerless can be guilty of. A new turn in neoliberal subjectivity perhaps...
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The convenient part about the Bruenig incident is that it provides an almost unerring way of telling if some American leftish journalist or columnist that you've never really paid much attention to is a complete prick. There are some pricks on the pro-Bruenig side, sure, but pretty much every single person who has sided with the anti-Bruenig side is scum.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
It's an entertaining way to kill a few minutes on public transport. Think of someone sort of well known as a left or liberal writer and then guess what side they've taken. If they are an American they will almost certainly have taken one.
For instance: Glenn Greenwald or Melissa Gira Grant. Guess. No cheating by looking.
For instance: Glenn Greenwald or Melissa Gira Grant. Guess. No cheating by looking.
gawkrodger
Well-Known Member
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
When you've really, really run out of things worth saying, you can always scribble a few thousand disjointed words about the 'masculinity crisis', a condition that in my experience only really affects desperate columnists. How to be a man - Owen Jones.
Last edited:
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I see Aaron Bastani of Novara Media has changed his mind and no longer supports Brexit. Brave re-assessment of the facts, or Boris Johnson of the left?
Why I've changed my mind on Brexit
Why I've changed my mind on Brexit
J Ed
Follow Back Pro Expropriation
I suspect he take whatever position will get him on the telly
kavenism
Progressive misanthrope
So it’s back to half measures, equivocation and turning your back on a potential fight then. Back to the much vaunted drive for “real power” in 2020.
How does he expect Corbyn’s Labour to win back those WC who are voting for Brexit when they have lined up behind Cameron and the status quo? If those voters thought Labour were a shower last year they are hardly going to be well disposed to them now that their radical leader has shown himself willing to capitulate to exactly what is causing them to turn to UKIP.
The point is well made though that once Corbyn turned out for Brexit the game was up for any cohesive left campaign. A serious mistake Bastani and his buddies are going to regret but almost certainly never admit.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Should Jeremy Corbyn just go along with the idea that the years of declining wages and public services (which is I think what a lot of people are angry about) are down to EU immigration? Rather than, say, a government determined to suppress wage levels and destroy public services?
Has JC done a good job of convincing people that their declining standard of living isn't down to immigration? Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean he should just go along with the notion (the one causing many people to turn to UKIP) that immigration is the problem. Sadly he hasn't really managed to change any mainstream narratives after years of Labour capitulation to right wing narratives*, but is that his fault? It was a difficult task and he hasn't exactly been fully supported by his party.
*Including the unfathomably bizarre capitulation to the notion it was Labour overspend that led to 'austerity'
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
fwiw, I think a Corbyn-led lexit campaign would have been very interesting, could have really changed the landscape of the referendum, and would have raised opinions of him among many people. His party was never going to allow it though.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
A "government determined to suppress wage levels and destroy public services?" Why? Do that question first.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Which party? The voters? The membership? The PLP? Why? Who owned it enough to stop him?
kavenism
Progressive misanthrope
Indeed that's what I was getting at. Of course I wouldn't expect a Corbyn Brexit position to be based on anti-immigrant arguments. Who would!? His position as with many others on the old Labour left has been that the EU is a trans-national capitalist institution that overall does far more harm than good. Pushing those arguments for Brexit would certainly have been interesting. As it stands however if Brexit happens it'll be framed as a victory for anti-immigrant arguments rather than anything progressive. Labour will start on the back foot in the battles that follow.
Similar threads
- Poll
