Urban v's the Commentariat

[chilango]

 

[butchersapron]

Hideous chart. But accurate.

 

[TruXta]

Ablokealypse.

 

[DaveCinzano]

 

[Idris2002]

"Fucking hell, Death. You look like Comrade Delta warmed up".

 

[emanymton]

I tend to think Paul Mason is Ok, but for fucks sake

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/20/new-middle-classes-world-poor

Apparently this is middle class

The key markers were: families had access to savings and insurance, were likely to have a TV in the home and to live in smaller households (four people). They would typically spend 2% of their income on entertainment – plus they would have better access to water, sanitation and electricity.

But I think this is the best bit, although he is quoting someone else he does not seem critical of it.

Around 1870, class explained more than two thirds of global inequality. And now? The proportions have exactly flipped: more than two thirds of total inequality is due to location

 

[cesare]

"Fucking hell, Death. You look like Comrade Delta warmed up".

 

[revol68]

I tend to think Paul Mason is Ok, but for fucks sake

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/20/new-middle-classes-world-poor

Apparently this is middle class


But I think this is the best bit, although he is quoting someone else he does not seem critical of it.

I got the impression he was kind of mocking such an analysis. He puts this "middle class" in scare quotes quite a bit in it.

And he has this to say in response to the that quote from Milanovic.

Milanovic calls this the "non-Marxian world", in which class struggle becomes less useful as a strategy and the logical thing to do is migrate: "Either poor countries will become richer or poor people will migrate to rich countries". I think, on the contrary, that the upsurge of unrest is a signal that the rising, poor, new middle class – which cannot migrate en masse – has decided to force poor countries to become richer in democracy, sustainability, urban infrastructure, healthcare.

So yeah I think there is a cynical tone to the piece, it could be a lot more explicit, well maybe not if you want to keep your pretty senior position in the world of media, especially on economic matters.

 

[emanymton]

I got the impression he was kind of mocking such an analysis. He puts this "middle class" in scare quotes quite a bit in it.

And he has this to say in response to the that quote from Milanovic.



So yeah I think there is a cynical tone to the piece, it could be a lot more explicit, well maybe not if you want to keep your pretty senior position in the world of media, especially on economic matters.

Maybe, but he does say 'Branko Milanovic has shown', not claimed or argued. Although I haven't checked the link out yet.

 

[butchersapron]

Is collymore vs hopkins within our purview?

 

[DotCommunist]

something to do with this?:



Surely @StanCollymore can find something better to do with his time than sit weeping over twitter. Using women's heads as footballs perhaps?

 

[butchersapron]

Yep.

 

[DotCommunist]

Hopkins is a grade A moron tbf,and just who is alan bstard MP?

 

[articul8]

Sunny Hundal - after a war:
http://labourlist.org/2014/01/one-day-we-will-look-back-and-regret-not-intervening-in-syria-earlier/

 

[butchersapron]

LP gets her way and a porn star talks. Shocking. The key thing is being laurie's mate.

edit: and the point of the article is don't be a dick. Amazing. That's not the real point of course, the real point is Laurie.

 

[past caring]

'Twas ever thus.....

 

[belboid]

Someone should do something about this!

 

[rekil]

"Ban page 3 cos it objectifies women!"
"I have a porn m8 and you prudes don't! Squeeee!"

 

[J Ed]

"Ban page 3 cos it objectifies women!"
"I have a porn m8 and you prudes don't! Squeeee!"

She genuinely believes that Page 3 is for sexists and should be banned immediately for its negative portrayal of women but rape porn should stay legal

 

[DotCommunist]

She genuinely believes that Page 3 is for sexists and should be banned immediately for its negative portrayal of women but rape porn should stay legal

page three is tasteless exploitation because it has no theme. And is in the Sun.

unlike burlesque or art porn.

thus runs the message

 

[revol68]

Is that her argument? I've have assumed her argument was that page 3 is worse because it is so everyday, that it doesn't exist in a kind of seperated sphere like porn does and so encourages sexualisation of women in everyday life in the way that porn doesn't. Pretty much how everyone knows people wank but probably best not to do it on the bus.

Not that I think banning page 3 is the pertinent issue facing women today, rather it seems like an easy cause for middle class liberals, not to mention the one dimensional notion of how media and ideology function it implies, as if readers are empty vessels.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

More broadly, the tendency in internet feminism towards embrace of the sex industry (any hostility being received centrally as a denial of the agency of sex workers) combined with a fascination with picking apart the gender politics of mainstream pop culture leads to some interesting contradictions.

So the gender politics of Doctor Who become important objects of inquiry, while to question the gender politics of porn, say, or sado-masochism is to "slutshame", to deny agency, to be prudish and to be dreadfully second wave. A ruthless critique of everything that exists unless someone masturbates to it.

On the page 3 issue, because it straddles both mainstream pop culture and the sex industry, twittersectionals can get pulled in all sorts of odd directions.

 

[Brainaddict]

Billy Bragg, Wayne Hemingway and Nick Hornby on Being a Bloke.

Just seen this. Imagine accidentally wandering into the room where this was happening.

No jury in the land would convict you.

 

[Spanky Longhorn]

More broadly, the tendency in internet feminism towards embrace of the sex industry (any hostility being received centrally as a denial of the agency of sex workers) combined with a fascination with picking apart the gender politics of mainstream pop culture leads to some interesting contradictions.

So the gender politics of Doctor Who become important objects of inquiry, while to question the gender politics of porn, say, or sado-masochism is to "slutshame", to deny agency, to be prudish and to be dreadfully second wave. A ruthless critique of everything that exists unless someone masturbates to it.

On the page 3 issue, because it straddles both mainstream pop culture and the sex industry, twittersectionals can get pulled in all sorts of odd directions.

I think you're all giving LP far too much credit - I think her stance on page 3 is down to one major issue, it's a popular cause with people that she wants to ingratiate herself with, and will give her feminism points.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

I think you're all giving LP far too much credit - I think her stance on page 3 is down to one major issue, it's a popular cause with people that she wants to ingratiate herself with, and will give her feminism points.

I'm not talking about LP, but the much wider "sex positive" turn and some of its offshoots. LP just makes the contradictions involved more apparent than most.

As a minor example: there's been no shortage of twittersectionals arguing against anti-page 3 activism on the grounds that it's attacking sex workers. This is consistent with their views on the sex industry (unlike LP) but leaves them in the rather odd position for feminists of defending a national newspaper objectifying women.

 

[revol68]

I'm not talking about LP, but the much wider "sex positive" turn and some of its offshoots. LP just makes the contradictions involved more apparent than most.

I don't think there is much contradictions tbh. Quite possible to not like the sexualisation of everyday life and yet defend porn and S&M in general within a kind of separate space, but maybe that's just my catholic guilt and cognitive dissonance.

 

[DotCommunist]

maybe its just me being chippy but I get the distinct vibe that 'low culture' titillation = bad wheras art/esoteric porn is empowering and taking ownership, monetizing hotness etc.

 

[belboid]

So the gender politics of Doctor Who become important objects of inquiry, while to question the gender politics of porn, say, or sado-masochism is to "slutshame", to deny agency, to be prudish and to be dreadfully second wave. A ruthless critique of everything that exists unless someone masturbates to it.

I think it's fairly likely some people have masturbated to Doctor Who...

 

[TruXta]

I don't think there is much contradictions tbh. Quite possible to not like the sexualisation of everyday life and yet defend porn and S&M in general within a kind of separate space, but maybe that's just my catholic guilt and cognitive dissonance.

Fap Fap Fap

 

[Nigel Irritable]

I don't think there is much contradictions tbh. Quite possible to not like the sexualisation of everyday life and yet defend porn and S&M in general within a kind of separate space, but maybe that's just my catholic guilt and cognitive dissonance.

I'd go with your last sentence there. In fact the notion that porn etc represents a kind of "separate space" beyond criticism or inquiry is a core part of what I was talking about above.