Urban v's the Commentariat

[killer b]

Then demand they eat the book, if they've written one.

 

[cantsin]

I know a Jolyon in real life. He used to work for the Labour party and quit when Corbyn got in

Have known of him for a long time, mainly as a genuinely good Dj - seems he's properly lost it, and since everyone started RTing his hilarious, ever upwardly adjusted ' Lab are headed for 28 / 30 / 32 / 34 % etc poll share " tweets, it seems he's now quit " politics "/ changed his twitter handle etc ( I'm blocked , so can't link ) ?

I gather he's not the total w*nker in real life that he appears to be, in a political / soc media context ...but , whatever, just hope he / his sort never get near the LP again

Edit : unless yr mates with Maugham QC ?

 

[J Ed]

 

[The Pale King]

What's his ideal - fascism? The collapsing of politics into pure management? A fatherly autocrat?

 

[mather]

The collapsing of politics into pure management?

The logical end result of liberal capitalism.

 

[cantsin]

can't remember if Basto is classed commentariat or not...but not a great 24hrs for the man ....just don't get wtf he thought he was doing re: Galloway, on many levels ....

 

[LDC]

I was just coming here to ask wtf was going on with that? There's a boycott Novara thing going on, what's the (short) story?

 

[Rob Ray]

Short version, Aaron Bastani interviewed with George Galloway and got hammered for associating with a rape apologist, then messed up further by pretending he didn't know Galloway was persona non grata when prior Tweets had suggested otherwise. He's since apologised, but it went ballistic on social media and dredged up a bunch of other stuff (not best gone into here).

It's ended up with Novara putting out a new editorial and complaints code and more broadly, discussion in those circles about callout culture and abuse on social media. Plus lots of people still angry etc.

 

[killer b]

The 'bunch of other stuff' isn't being gone into anywhere that I've been able to find, Just dark mutterings about sexual violence and 'platforming' abusers - the Galloway stuff doesn't seem to be central to the boycott, but what is central is pretty much absent from the discussion, apart from for about 7 people in London who know each other and talk in code.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Dave Gilmour's son gets a mention.

 

[Rob Ray]

The 'bunch of other stuff' isn't being gone into anywhere that I've been able to find, Just dark mutterings.

The above is all you're getting from me. I assume you're not asking people to air their personal and private traumas on urban75 for the sake of giving online rubberneckers an inside track?

 

[killer b]

Nothing to do with rubbernecking - there's a public call for people to boycott a left wing media organisation, and an attempt to destroy it's reputation on the basis of something that no-one is prepared to talk about. That's actually mad.

 

[Rob Ray]

See the second par of my previous post. I'm not personally in favour of a boycott, and I agree that public boycott calls without evidence the public can base decisions on aren't likely to get very far.

That said, the people calling for it are mostly talking to their friends and trying to pressure people they know, not justifying themselves to you. It's worth remembering that for lots of people Twitter manifests more as a sort of semi-public diary their mates can read than as a place where they have to publicly defend, evidence and justify every statement they make, which before you start I agree is a confusing and often difficult perspective to work with, but it's often where we're at.

 

[killer b]

I don't think they're just talking to their mates - the whole point of a hashtag is to get whatever it is you're talking about heard by people outside your bubble.

Either way, it is a public platform that this trashing is being conducted on, and i think it's reasonable enough for people to wonder what the fuck is going on without being accused of rubbernecking.

 

[Rob Ray]

Hashtags are used for any number of reasons, and yes no doubt they hoped other people would join them but that's not the same thing as hoping that people you don't know will weigh in asking you to relive the traumas prompting the outburst. They are primarily talking to their communities, not to you. I didn't accuse, I asked to clarify.

 

[killer b]

'Clarify'. Gotcha.

 

[killer b]

Can i just clarify whether you've stopped beating your wife?

 

[lazythursday]

I've been annoyed by this as well - it seems the Galloway stupidity (which I think can be forgiven) is being conflated with some murkier but completely impenetrable allegations of sexual abuse from someone associated, or previously associated with Novara, and the fact that some people wrote a letter defending this person ('the B10'). And plus others who think Novara is 'laddish' and and therefore a bad thing. I think if people are going to trash the site's reputation they should be clear what the accusations are otherwise it comes across like the Galloway mistake is being used to further some kind of vendetta.

 

[crossthebreeze]

There's a list of demands for the boycott at the link - they seem fairly sensible, though not formally written, and Novara have probably met some of them by publishing their code of conduct etc. I don't think anyone really needs to know the specifics, because they aren't asking for action to be taken on a specific case. I don't really know the details, but I'm not surprised if i) a accusations of sexual violence haven't been taken seriously or ii) "radical" media types might tend to gloss over unpleasant facts about the "radical" media/academic/prominent activist types they hang out with/work with/depend on to keep their projects growing.

 

[lazythursday]

I struggle to get past the bit about 'And while you're boycotting remind them to drop their racist poster boy Paul Mason', tbh. Smacks of the kind of left activism that really turns me off.

I dunno, if there's genuinely been tolerance of sexual misconduct then that's appalling, and I'd expect Novara to act on that, but then also, if I was to set up a politics website I wouldn't expect to have to be spending time policing the behaviour of contributors, and having to sit in judgement on allegations etc, perhaps naively. I dunno, it seems to me that Novara is one of the more successful and interesting of the left new media bubble (despite Bastani being supremely irritating) and it saddens me to see it being trashed, so I'd like to understand what Novara has actually done wrong, and why the steps taken / apology are not seen as good enough.

 

[Ole]

The person who wrote that list of demands needs professional medical help immediately. She is suicidal and crying out for help.

Edit: removed the tweets off here but you can see what I'm talking about on her page.

 

[crossthebreeze]

Fucking hell, I didn't see all that - I'd just seen the demands linked to. Probably best not spreading it on here though. Does anyone know her irl or interact with her on social media enough to check that she's safe?

 

[killer b]

Hmm, that actually is rubbernecking...

 

[crossthebreeze]

Yes i think it shouldn't be linked to on here.

 

[Rob Ray]

Yes take that down please, imv it's not really appropriate to put up on a random message board for people to goggle over even if the person has put it up on Twitter.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

There's a statement here which gives a bit more background from the Novara side, including posting an interview with a man in a red balaclava who may be familiar to some here:
Statement | Novara Media

I don't know the ins and outs about the other stuff but people can track back through the twitter user's account quoted above for some previous tweets which allege abuse by an un-named someone allegedly connected to Novara.

What confuses me is that I, someone who is basically just an office worker and parent these days, knew about the problems with red balaclava man and George Galloway, whereas Novara and Aaron Bastani who seem to be magnetically linked to the London left activist scene didn't.

More generally, everyone seems to agree that the code of conduct and complaints procedure are good things. But not enough for some. I think it's dumb that Bastani seems to have blocked so many people on twitter.

 

[Ole]

Yes take that down please, imv it's not really appropriate to put up on a random message board for people to goggle over even if the person has put it up on Twitter.

I thought it was appropriate, but democracy rules.

 

[LDC]

There's a statement here which gives a bit more background from the Novara side, including posting an interview with a man in a red balaclava who may be familiar to some here

That red balaclava interview was totally bonkers - even leaving aside any other issues.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

That red balaclava interview was totally bonkers - even leaving aside any other issues.

One simply does not need to do the washing up in a balaclava. A hoodie and a scarf over the face will suffice.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Also it seems trivial to mention it but Novara's video and audio output has become worse politically as it has improved in technical quality.

It was always a bit wonkish but it is essentially all about the Labour Party now.