Urban v's the Commentariat

[hitmouse]

Yeah, I think it's a useful word as a shorthand for a certain approach.

 

[tim]

Don't think the reviewer used the phrase tbf, that was me

Which makes you worse than a Guardian reviewer, and they're ten times worse than Hitler.

 

[ska invita]

oh dear

Why We Need the Patriarchy

In recent years, “patriarchy” has been dug-up and reanimated as a term to describe the supposedly poor behavior of men. It now functions as a sneer-word, one of the many used as a shorthand for indicating the right stance to be assumed by progressive-minded folk everywhere. Yet there is something

compactmag.com

 

[DaveCinzano]

oh dear

Why We Need the Patriarchy

In recent years, “patriarchy” has been dug-up and reanimated as a term to describe the supposedly poor behavior of men. It now functions as a sneer-word, one of the many used as a shorthand for indicating the right stance to be assumed by progressive-minded folk everywhere. Yet there is something

compactmag.com

Sup bruh?

 

[ska invita]

Its quite sad that Nina Power has come to this...I know this isnt a new turn of events, but still

 

[flypanam]

That mag got quite a write up in the NYT Two Religious Conservatives and a Marxist Walk Into a Journal

 

[yield]

That mag got quite a write up in the NYT Two Religious Conservatives and a Marxist Walk Into a Journal

“I think people are absolutely tired of this division,” said Nina Power, a British philosopher and self-described “open-minded centrist” with roots in Marxist feminism whose book “What Do Men Want?” offers a feminist defense of masculinity.

“Left and right are both features of liberalism,” she said. “We’re more interested in the questions that unite us, whatever our political backgrounds.”

 

[killer b]

jesus christ.

 

[petee]

"whose book “What Do Men Want?” "

#womenwritingmen

 

[Brainaddict]

Yeah, Nina Power's turn has been quite something to watch. I used to see her at left wing protests and now she writes for the Spectator and whatever the fuck that new mag is. Her association with DC Miller has clearly done nothing good for her politics, though I suppose we shouldn't blame him. Or maybe we need patriarchy and the man should set the politics in a relationship? What do I know?

As a note of interest, as far as I can see her slide towards 'patriarchy is good actually' started with her saying some things that trans people found offensive. Instead of having a think about why they might find it offensive, she just got incredibly defensive, and people attacked her for that, and then she decided she wasn't on board with the 'intolerant left' and found other people who hated the 'intolerant left'.

 

[hitmouse]

I do still intend to read the new Power book some time soon, out of some kind of principle or another, but I'm not expecting to be a big fan of it. For those who haven't been following, there's some backstory over on the industrial thread: Industrial music and its relationship(??) to fascism

 

[hitmouse]

Missed a trick by not calling it Men: What Do They Want? Do They Want Things? Let's Find Out!, imo.

 

[ska invita]

I do still intend to read the new Power book some time soon, out of some kind of principle or another, but I'm not expecting to be a big fan of it.

I think i first heard about the fact this book was coming quite a few years ago now, and remember thinking then that it would be great that this newest wave of feminism might lead to more people talking critically and constructively about masculinity - there's definitely a need and appetite for that to happen. Nina Power seemed like a good person to do it... but that was before (I was aware of) this bizarre turn she has gone through....its clear from that article this book is going to be confused nonsense - I see no reason to read it.

 

[hitmouse]

I think i first heard about the fact this book was coming quite a few years ago now, and remember thinking then that it would be great that this newest wave of feminism might lead to more people talking critically and constructively about masculinity - there's definitely a need and appetite for that to happen. Nina Power seemed like a good person to do it... but that was before (I was aware of) this bizarre turn she has gone through....its clear from that article this book is going to be confused nonsense - I see no reason to read it.

Yeah, it's interesting (in a depressing kind of way), I think of that stuff from 2019 as being like "the start of bad Nina Power", but going back and looking at that page again, there's this bit (that you quoted actually):

But you are no doubt wondering by now why I have this reputation as a TERF. It is true that I have said things in private disagreeing with the current understanding of gender (as innate) in favour of the second-wave feminist idea that gender is imposed upon sex, and that gender roles are generally damaging and harmful to boys and girls and men and women, and I hold in general, as many feminists and some trans activists also do, a gender abolitionist position, i.e., that I would simply like everyone to feel free to be, wear and love whoever they would like without fear of or actual social punishment or internal shame. To feel unfree because of expectations that one must behave in such and such a way because one is a girl or a boy, or a man or a woman, is, it seems to me, a core diagnosis of the second wave feminist project, and this insight is reflected in those periods of history where feminists and gay rights come together to oppose stereotypical expectations.

How do you get from that to the "in defence of patriarchy" stuff above in less than three years?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Who is the left now.

 

[rekil]

Barry Mainwaring can't even get on novara, never mind murdovision.

 

[Brainaddict]

Who is the left now.

View attachment 318404

I took Rachel Connolly's thread today to be about Blakeley's publicly announced reasoning for taking the job:

 

[Rob Ray]

Weirdly Freedom's run-in with the Times today wasn't intended as a retort to Blakeley at all. Worked out nicely though. Happy coincidences ...

 

[Threshers_Flail]

I took Rachel Connolly's thread today to be about Blakeley's publicly announced reasoning for taking the job:

Blakeley's latest career move made me think of this solid piece by Holly Rigby from last year.

 

[LDC]

Blakeley's latest career move made me think of this solid piece by Holly Rigby from last year.

The Morning Star as one of the best examples of Left media though? Urgh.

 

[Serge Forward]

I've occasionally read the Morning Star over the years, sometimes even fairly regularly. But it is frequently dogshit.

 

[ska invita]

so for those like me who dont understand what is going on i presume its this:


the thread explains/justifies why she is going on it
only thing is, wtf is Talk TV? also what is News UK? are they popular? More popular than GB News?
cupid_stunt

 

[Sue]

so for those like me who dont understand what is going on i presume its this:


the thread explains/justifies why she is going on it
only thing is, wtf is Talk TV? also what is News UK? are they popular? cupid_stunt

I have no idea who she is.

 

[ska invita]

I have no idea who she is.

she's a left-leaning commentator /author about economics

 

[rekil]

only thing is, wtf is Talk TV? also what is News UK?

News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp.[1] It is the current publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers; its former publications include the Today, News of the World and The London Paper newspapers. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc.[2] On 31 May 2011, the company name was changed from News International Limited to NI Group Limited,[3] and on 26 June 2013 to News UK.

The CEO is Rebekah Brooks.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

And Tom Newton Dunn famously ran a front page Corbyn hit piece on the front page of The Sun, based on research that quoted neo-nazis Aryan Unity as a credible source.

Why did the Sun publish a far-right conspiracy theory? | Daniel Trilling

The tabloid swiftly deleted its dubious exclusive linking Labour to a shadowy ‘network’ of postmodern hard-left extremists, says author Daniel Trilling

www.theguardian.com

 

[Fozzie Bear]

so for those like me who dont understand what is going on i presume its this:
]

it was that, yeah. Apologies for not explaining it all but I thought that tweet I quoted was more revealing than the backstory.

 

[ska invita]

Ah News UK is News International...and Talk TV hasnt launched yet.

Im not totally unsympathetic of people trying to "leave the proverbial echo chamber and pitch socialist ideas to a wider audience" as she puts it, though i suspect the house always wins.

 

[Lurdan]

The online row Grace Blakely's tweet has provoked is rather grimly entertaining. I'm sympathetic to some of what Josie Sparrow said in a twitter thread

twitter thread link

But for me what she says is then undermined/'contextualised' when she comes back later to suggest that New Socialist (which she writes for) and Red Pepper represent some kind of alternative.
Rather a lot of this 'row' is about people cunting off Blakely while inviting us to admire the wonderful shiny spoon which they themselves have chosen to employ in supping with the devil.

This is taken to one logical extreme by Dr Lisa McKenzie

Twitter link

A little later she clarified further

Presumably it was also a 'victory' for 'working class representation' when, up to the end of last year, Dr McKenzie was able to write regular opinion pieces for the Russia Today website.
They included this last September about the 'diversity' strategy announced by multinational accountancy firm KPMG.

The firm’s chair, Bina Mehta – who said she comes from a working-class background – announced that she was a “passionate believer that greater diversity improves business performance” and added: “Diversity brings fresh thinking and different perspectives to decision-making, which in turn delivers better outcomes for our clients.”

I would never have thought that I would possibly agree with and approve of a decision made by such arch global capitalists, and yet I do. I think Mehta is absolutely right that lack of diversity in any industry or organisation means it becomes very quickly out of touch, self referential and irrelevant. Look at British politics or the British media as perfect examples of that – the British establishment, whether they are left or right, liberal or conservative, are uniformly middle class, mostly coming from private schools and elite universities like Oxford or Cambridge.

Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison, colleagues of mine when I worked at the London School of Economics, wrote a book in 2019 entitled, The Class Ceiling - Why it pays to be privileged. Their research showed almost all of those occupying senior positions in law, business, academia, politics and the media were from middle- or upper-class backgrounds, and that the British class system is in better shape than it ever has been.

Social mobility has effectively stopped in this country – it is more important what your parents do for a living, and where you went to university, than any actual skill or talent you possess.

The news that an organisation like KPMG are not only acknowledging that the class system exists, and working-class people also exist, and are disadvantaged within it, is a great first step – and they are adopting policies to actually counter that disadvantage.

I should stress that she hasn't written for Russia Today since last December. Instead like many of the other participants in the row over Grace Blakeley she has other projects.

Twitter link

When James Brown sang

I don't want nobody
To give me nothing
Open up the door
I'll get it myself

At least you could dance to it.

 

[hitmouse]

Yeah, as vile as TND personally is I find it hard to get very worked up about this one?