“Amy Leather from the SWP leadership declares, “we’re against all immigration controls and we say, ‘open the borders, all refugees welcome’”, how many people does she expect to win over?”.
She’ll win over millions. Bring them over, win them over, then take over.
It really is a case of the electorate being dissolved and replaced with a new one. The only issue that divides most political parties (including our globalist “Conservatives”, unfortunately) is how quickly and conspicuously they will do it.
Remember, the left accuse polling places demanding ID of being discriminatory and “racist.” Open borders lead to open electorate if the left have their way.
Remember, the left accuse polling places demanding ID of being discriminatory and “racist.” Open borders lead to open electorate if the left have their way.
Only when all voters wake up and see the direct link between the State and Left’s open border mass immigration addiction and the unfolding crisis will the UK ever have hope of stabilisation and recovery. The UK State, BBC and MSM all refuse to tell this basic truth. They lie about it 24/7 as they are slaves to identitarianism and propagandists for the new equalitarian multicultural state. No audit is ever done because that would be raycist and threaten the New Order post 97. But 1m plus annual gross migration – the key figure – is a root cause of the multiple breakdowns in society, making life for the low paid majority near impossible; the 6 week wait for GPs; year long queues for operations in their broken dangerous ‘overwhelmed NHS and its the overflowing A+E wards; the no school place for Jimmy and 30+ no english spoken classes for Jane..on and on. It has caused the surge in the cost of rent or mortgage and house prices, enriching the London propetocrat elite but impoverishing millions more. Even the brain dead Greens who yelp about the dangers of growth for newts and bats bow the knee to open borders and so make a mockery of their entire programme.
Ridiculous, it’s nothing but virtue signalling, plain and very simple. And even if it was an actual hare brained conspiracy it would soon backfire because there are few as anti-immigrant
never mind anti-Marxist, as those who have recently settled, particularly if the new arrivals belong to a group other than theirs.
Indeed. The revolution is just a tee-shirt away.
The chief problem with leftism in general, and neo-Marxism in particular, is that it’s at best an utterly incoherent critique.
It offers no solutions, no model for governance beyond an enormous and brutal police state, and no real reason for hope, apres les deluge.
This is because Marx and practically every leftist thinker has no grounding in reality, no understanding of human nature, and no comprehension of normal, commercial life. Marx’s initial assumptions, even, are deeply flawed, as he believed labor was the only source of value, and all else was only rapacity.
For an allegedly materialist philosophy, they believe in things that aren’t truly real, such as a looming climate apocalypse, or a world defined not by competence but only power, or the ability of university professors and puffed up technocrats to run entire economies.
This is why any Marxist regime, and generally any left wing government, completely fails to generate high standards of living.
In general, history doesn’t gainsay what logic, reason, and data predict. No thinking person could observe the 20th Century and believe otherwise.
Indeed. The revolution is just a tee-shirt away.
The chief problem with leftism in general, and neo-Marxism in particular, is that it’s at best an utterly incoherent critique.
It offers no solutions, no model for governance beyond an enormous and brutal police state, and no real reason for hope, apres les deluge.
This is because Marx and practically every leftist thinker has no grounding in reality, no understanding of human nature, and no comprehension of normal, commercial life. Marx’s initial assumptions, even, are deeply flawed, as he believed labor was the only source of value, and all else was only rapacity.
For an allegedly materialist philosophy, they believe in things that aren’t truly real, such as a looming climate apocalypse, or a world defined not by competence but only power, or the ability of university professors and puffed up technocrats to run entire economies.
This is why any Marxist regime, and generally any left wing government, completely fails to generate high standards of living.
In general, history doesn’t gainsay what logic, reason, and data predict. No thinking person could observe the 20th Century and believe otherwise.
She’ll win over millions. Bring them over, win them over, then take over.
It really is a case of the electorate being dissolved and replaced with a new one. The only issue that divides most political parties (including our globalist “Conservatives”, unfortunately) is how quickly and conspicuously they will do it.
Only when all voters wake up and see the direct link between the State and Left’s open border mass immigration addiction and the unfolding crisis will the UK ever have hope of stabilisation and recovery. The UK State, BBC and MSM all refuse to tell this basic truth. They lie about it 24/7 as they are slaves to identitarianism and propagandists for the new equalitarian multicultural state. No audit is ever done because that would be raycist and threaten the New Order post 97. But 1m plus annual gross migration – the key figure – is a root cause of the multiple breakdowns in society, making life for the low paid majority near impossible; the 6 week wait for GPs; year long queues for operations in their broken dangerous ‘overwhelmed NHS and its the overflowing A+E wards; the no school place for Jimmy and 30+ no english spoken classes for Jane..on and on. It has caused the surge in the cost of rent or mortgage and house prices, enriching the London propetocrat elite but impoverishing millions more. Even the brain dead Greens who yelp about the dangers of growth for newts and bats bow the knee to open borders and so make a mockery of their entire programme.
Ridiculous, it’s nothing but virtue signalling, plain and very simple. And even if it was an actual hare brained conspiracy it would soon backfire because there are few as anti-immigrant
never mind anti-Marxist, as those who have recently settled, particularly if the new arrivals belong to a group other than theirs.
Andrew Raiment
10 months ago
“Amy Leather from the SWP leadership declares, “we’re against all immigration controls and we say, ‘open the borders, all refugees welcome’”, how many people does she expect to win over?”.
And there you have it.
Ben Jones
10 months ago
Commies are funny. It’s a religion, really, with it’s own false gods and fake prophets. Commies are also, overwhelmingly, wimps. The idea of them taking to the streets is hilarious, which is why they try to manipulate useful idiots to do it for them. In the meantime, they can meet up for their performative, angry, circle-jerking sessions and give the rest of us a laugh.
Stark bilge, Ben Jones. Reminds me of that idiot lead singer of the (inexplicably) popular rock band U2 telling his adoring fans that the best way to deal with ISIS was to laugh at them. Good advice would you say for those about to be beheaded or burned alive?
False dichotomy. That one must kill ISIS barbarians at every opportunity is not in contradiction to the fact that nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them.
...nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them(?!)
Do you seriously believe that?
The fundamentalists who slaughtered the Charlie Hebdo staff (to take but one example) may have feared the possibility of being undermined by humour but humour certainly didn’t stop them – it merely provoked them.
Anyway, it seems to me that the reverse is the true. Our humour has been thoroughly undermined by mirthless fundamenalists – or are you unaware of the growth of cancel culture? Where is the mockery of Antifa, Transactivism, Pride month, Black history month?
...nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them(?!)
Do you seriously believe that?
The fundamentalists who slaughtered the Charlie Hebdo staff (to take but one example) may have feared the possibility of being undermined by humour but humour certainly didn’t stop them – it merely provoked them.
Anyway, it seems to me that the reverse is the true. Our humour has been thoroughly undermined by mirthless fundamenalists – or are you unaware of the growth of cancel culture? Where is the mockery of Antifa, Transactivism, Pride month, Black history month?
Complete Strawman argument. I never suggested it was how you ‘deal’ with authoritarianism. I suggested it was good to lampoon it. Indeed, desirable. The bilge, I’m afraid, is yours.
Precisely. Charlie Chaplin drove Hitler to distraction in ‘The Great Dictator’, his performance demonstrated the lunacy of totalitarianism to the masses.
Check your history. That movie, far from driving Hitler to distraction, was actually enjoyed by him.
Not by me though! If anything it demonstrated bad comedy to ‘the masses’. Apart from the hopelessly inept humour it is blighted by Chaplin’s trademark sentimentality. That final speech (by The Phooey!) calling for niceness is utterly cringeworthy. The idea that this effort demonstrates the lunacy of totalitarianism is laughable (perhaps that’s wherein the true humour lies!). Satire for dummies.
Check your history. That movie, far from driving Hitler to distraction, was actually enjoyed by him.
Not by me though! If anything it demonstrated bad comedy to ‘the masses’. Apart from the hopelessly inept humour it is blighted by Chaplin’s trademark sentimentality. That final speech (by The Phooey!) calling for niceness is utterly cringeworthy. The idea that this effort demonstrates the lunacy of totalitarianism is laughable (perhaps that’s wherein the true humour lies!). Satire for dummies.
No, I haven’t seen that movie. I remember a bit of media fuss when it was released but I couldn’t muster any interest. Funny it may be but did it undermine any fundamentalists – beyond blowing raspberries at them?
Precisely. Charlie Chaplin drove Hitler to distraction in ‘The Great Dictator’, his performance demonstrated the lunacy of totalitarianism to the masses.
No, I haven’t seen that movie. I remember a bit of media fuss when it was released but I couldn’t muster any interest. Funny it may be but did it undermine any fundamentalists – beyond blowing raspberries at them?
False dichotomy. That one must kill ISIS barbarians at every opportunity is not in contradiction to the fact that nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them.
Complete Strawman argument. I never suggested it was how you ‘deal’ with authoritarianism. I suggested it was good to lampoon it. Indeed, desirable. The bilge, I’m afraid, is yours.
Stark bilge, Ben Jones. Reminds me of that idiot lead singer of the (inexplicably) popular rock band U2 telling his adoring fans that the best way to deal with ISIS was to laugh at them. Good advice would you say for those about to be beheaded or burned alive?
I was just going to make a similar comment, but maybe in a more objective way, that the “Marxism-in-the-field” described in this article IS a religion, at least as many social anthropologists define “religion.” The parallels to “fundamentalist” [spiritual] religions are many.
Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, and he is right! He just self-described the movement taken after his name. Oh, the irony.
It’s very much a religion. One of the blokes in my cycle club is one of them. He takes the collected works of V I Lenin on holiday with him. Everything is a struggle between the ‘workers’ and the ‘bosses’.
He is a retired science teacher. When he retired he bought a very expensive carbon fibre racing bike – a beautiful, svelte, sleek embodiment of market competition at it most dynamic.
I was just going to make a similar comment, but maybe in a more objective way, that the “Marxism-in-the-field” described in this article IS a religion, at least as many social anthropologists define “religion.” The parallels to “fundamentalist” [spiritual] religions are many.
Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, and he is right! He just self-described the movement taken after his name. Oh, the irony.
It’s very much a religion. One of the blokes in my cycle club is one of them. He takes the collected works of V I Lenin on holiday with him. Everything is a struggle between the ‘workers’ and the ‘bosses’.
He is a retired science teacher. When he retired he bought a very expensive carbon fibre racing bike – a beautiful, svelte, sleek embodiment of market competition at it most dynamic.
Ben Jones
10 months ago
Commies are funny. It’s a religion, really, with it’s own false gods and fake prophets. Commies are also, overwhelmingly, wimps. The idea of them taking to the streets is hilarious, which is why they try to manipulate useful idiots to do it for them. In the meantime, they can meet up for their performative, angry, circle-jerking sessions and give the rest of us a laugh.
Allison Barrows
10 months ago
A “festival” celebrating the most deadly philosophy ever created, one that killed 100 million people and counting? It’s beyond perverse, but these profoundly stupid people have no idea what would happen to them should they mange to succeed in their “revolution” (not gonna happen: the rich guys always win). As idiots they’re not even useful.
Possibly but only I think because religion has been the only game
in town for the past 1500 years.
Before then the Roman Empire wasn’t particularly ‘religious’ in any modern sense and yet it was extraordinarily violent and bloodthirsty.
Britain I think ditched religion and replaced it with Empire. When the Empire fell, well, you ended up with the sort of democratic crusade that resulted in the bloodbath that was Iraq.
Given time I can quite easily see secular societies ratcheting up the body count.
Possibly but only I think because religion has been the only game
in town for the past 1500 years.
Before then the Roman Empire wasn’t particularly ‘religious’ in any modern sense and yet it was extraordinarily violent and bloodthirsty.
Britain I think ditched religion and replaced it with Empire. When the Empire fell, well, you ended up with the sort of democratic crusade that resulted in the bloodbath that was Iraq.
Given time I can quite easily see secular societies ratcheting up the body count.
A “festival” celebrating the most deadly philosophy ever created, one that killed 100 million people and counting? It’s beyond perverse, but these profoundly stupid people have no idea what would happen to them should they mange to succeed in their “revolution” (not gonna happen: the rich guys always win). As idiots they’re not even useful.
Seb Dakin
10 months ago
At 10 quid fifty per hour it must have taken that socialist chap ages to save up for the jacket and jewellery. Maybe they pay Amazon workers more in the States. Perhaps an early investor in BLM.
Vive la revolution! We’re all in this together comrade! Follow me..
Seb Dakin
10 months ago
At 10 quid fifty per hour it must have taken that socialist chap ages to save up for the jacket and jewellery. Maybe they pay Amazon workers more in the States. Perhaps an early investor in BLM.
Vive la revolution! We’re all in this together comrade! Follow me..
Richard Craven
10 months ago
“And aside from a brief scuffle with some far-Right counter-protesters, all goes smoothly.”
*And aside from a brief scuffle with some anti-fascists, all goes smoothly.
Richard Craven
10 months ago
“And aside from a brief scuffle with some far-Right counter-protesters, all goes smoothly.”
*And aside from a brief scuffle with some anti-fascists, all goes smoothly.
Dougie Undersub
10 months ago
It would be almost worth having the SWP in power, just to see the look on their faces when they realise that all those Somali economic migrants and Albanian drug dealers rushing through their open borders don’t actually want to work on the collective quinoa farm in exchange for food and lodging.
Dougie Undersub
10 months ago
It would be almost worth having the SWP in power, just to see the look on their faces when they realise that all those Somali economic migrants and Albanian drug dealers rushing through their open borders don’t actually want to work on the collective quinoa farm in exchange for food and lodging.
Jonathan Nash
10 months ago
I didn’t know Adam Tooze was a marxist, or that his grandfather was a Soviet spy (as I’ve just found out). The Deluge is one of my favourite recent reads.
Jonathan Nash
10 months ago
I didn’t know Adam Tooze was a marxist, or that his grandfather was a Soviet spy (as I’ve just found out). The Deluge is one of my favourite recent reads.
Derek Smith
10 months ago
Alex Callinicos! He’s still going? I used to pass his office on campus years ago…
I’m best mates with his nephew, and went to visit his flat recently. Floor to ceiling full to the brim with every book ever written on Marxism. I imagine his office wasn’t much different.
Trump has literally written books, on subjects as diverse as business and golf. I’m sure they’re dreadful, but probably far more lucid than the obscurantist claptrap that’s saturated the academy since Marx and Engels sat down in Chetham’s library nearly 200 years ago…
I think that you will find that Trump didn’t write any book with his name on. Chatted briefly to a ghost writer who then got on with it is most likely.
I think that you will find that Trump didn’t write any book with his name on. Chatted briefly to a ghost writer who then got on with it is most likely.
I would have voted for Trump if I was American. At the moment I’m reading The Princess Casamassima by Henry James, and L’Education Sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert in the original French.
I’m a sub-fluent French speaker and don’t find it overwhelmingly difficult, although there’s quite a lot of vocab pertaining to 19th century stuff – lots of different types of carriage etc. I read Madame Bovary a few months ago, and the only place where I became a bit unstuck was where Madame Bovary gets into debt; I found the technicalities of bills of exchange, discounted bills etc rather difficult to follow. Apart from that and occasional vocabular deficiencies it was relatively plain sailing, and in parts very amusing. You could try reading l’ES with Google Translate on hand.
I’m a sub-fluent French speaker and don’t find it overwhelmingly difficult, although there’s quite a lot of vocab pertaining to 19th century stuff – lots of different types of carriage etc. I read Madame Bovary a few months ago, and the only place where I became a bit unstuck was where Madame Bovary gets into debt; I found the technicalities of bills of exchange, discounted bills etc rather difficult to follow. Apart from that and occasional vocabular deficiencies it was relatively plain sailing, and in parts very amusing. You could try reading l’ES with Google Translate on hand.
Trump has literally written books, on subjects as diverse as business and golf. I’m sure they’re dreadful, but probably far more lucid than the obscurantist claptrap that’s saturated the academy since Marx and Engels sat down in Chetham’s library nearly 200 years ago…
I would have voted for Trump if I was American. At the moment I’m reading The Princess Casamassima by Henry James, and L’Education Sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert in the original French.
I’m best mates with his nephew, and went to visit his flat recently. Floor to ceiling full to the brim with every book ever written on Marxism. I imagine his office wasn’t much different.
Derek Smith
10 months ago
Alex Callinicos! He’s still going? I used to pass his office on campus years ago…
Tony Price
10 months ago
Hold on – trade unions are “Fighting for wage increases ahead of inflation”; surely that is not so. The distinct impression I get is that trade unions are desperately fighting to partially catch up with inflation. Can anyone reference a serious pay claim higher than inflation for their wages over the past decade or so?
The only lucky ones I see referenced are those better paid (FTSE100 board directors to the fore) without trade unions.
I finish with my usual – if you disagree that’s fine but please don’t downvote, reference evidence to the contrary please!
Last edited 10 months ago by Tony Price
Tony Price
10 months ago
Hold on – trade unions are “Fighting for wage increases ahead of inflation”; surely that is not so. The distinct impression I get is that trade unions are desperately fighting to partially catch up with inflation. Can anyone reference a serious pay claim higher than inflation for their wages over the past decade or so?
The only lucky ones I see referenced are those better paid (FTSE100 board directors to the fore) without trade unions.
I finish with my usual – if you disagree that’s fine but please don’t downvote, reference evidence to the contrary please!
Last edited 10 months ago by Tony Price
Drew Gibson
9 months ago
Who was it who said that if you’re not a socialist at twenty, there’s something wrong but, if you’re not a capitalist by forty, there’s something wrong? Young people ought to give left wing socialism a go as part of the righteous anger they ought to feel in the face of an ill-divided world, if for no other reason than to see that left wing socialism doesn’t actually live in the real world.
Drew Gibson
9 months ago
Who was it who said that if you’re not a socialist at twenty, there’s something wrong but, if you’re not a capitalist by forty, there’s something wrong? Young people ought to give left wing socialism a go as part of the righteous anger they ought to feel in the face of an ill-divided world, if for no other reason than to see that left wing socialism doesn’t actually live in the real world.
Andrew Raiment
10 months ago
Richard Seymour, who wrote an article in the New Stateman two years ago on how postmodernism became the universal scapegoat of the era, an irrational fear of the pomo or pomophobia.
A cult
Last edited 10 months ago by Andrew Raiment
Andrew Raiment
10 months ago
Richard Seymour, who wrote an article in the New Stateman two years ago on how postmodernism became the universal scapegoat of the era, an irrational fear of the pomo or pomophobia.
A cult
Last edited 10 months ago by Andrew Raiment
David Lindsay
10 months ago
Hours from now, the cruelly misnamed Rail Delivery Group will make the case for the already massively popular renationalisation of the railways as surely as that case is made daily in relation to water and in relation to the Bank of England. The venerable YouGov has found Jeremy Corbyn to be Britain’s most popular politician. His rating is only 30 per cent, but that is still higher than anyone else’s. No wonder.
Tolpuddle Village Hall has cancelled Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, so it really is over to Ben Sellers to show it at the People’s Bookshop during this coming Durham Miners’ Gala weekend. It should also be shown on Freeview, along with Killing Kelly, The Great NHS Heist, Solidarity, Adult Human Female, and SS in Britain. That this has not already happened, since there is not already an obvious channel for it, says everything about who is deplatformed.
There could be only one excuse to vote Green, and that would be to vote for Dr Cornel West, who has needed to go that way for the ballot access. A roaring critic of cancel culture, not that some of us have ever not been cancelled, and of identity politics by reference to class politics, West is already polling around six per cent. He is a viable Presidential candidate who sits on the Board of Academic Advisors of the Classic Learning Test, and whose answer to why he is not a Marxist, since his views and alliances invite the question, is that dialectical materialism is incompatible with incarnational theology.
This candidacy opens the way for a successor who recognised that incarnational theology could not be separated from fidelity to the Petrine Office, with implications that were far more radical than anything that Marxism could ever formulate, much less deliver. Or than could ever be grounded in the obsolescent, Baby Boomer liberal Catholicism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There is already a liberal Catholic President. How is that working out?
Biden clearly has dementia and is being managed. The DNC used Biden as a Trojan Horse to dissuade Democrats from voting for Warren, Sanders and other Progressive Radicals and to vote for him, assuring them that he would be ‘more moderate’ but in the end, he has turned out to be anything but. Biden doesn’t know what he believes because his entire career has been one of opportunism, in which his son Hunter has been his wingman.
Biden clearly has dementia and is being managed. The DNC used Biden as a Trojan Horse to dissuade Democrats from voting for Warren, Sanders and other Progressive Radicals and to vote for him, assuring them that he would be ‘more moderate’ but in the end, he has turned out to be anything but. Biden doesn’t know what he believes because his entire career has been one of opportunism, in which his son Hunter has been his wingman.
David Lindsay
10 months ago
Hours from now, the cruelly misnamed Rail Delivery Group will make the case for the already massively popular renationalisation of the railways as surely as that case is made daily in relation to water and in relation to the Bank of England. The venerable YouGov has found Jeremy Corbyn to be Britain’s most popular politician. His rating is only 30 per cent, but that is still higher than anyone else’s. No wonder.
Tolpuddle Village Hall has cancelled Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, so it really is over to Ben Sellers to show it at the People’s Bookshop during this coming Durham Miners’ Gala weekend. It should also be shown on Freeview, along with Killing Kelly, The Great NHS Heist, Solidarity, Adult Human Female, and SS in Britain. That this has not already happened, since there is not already an obvious channel for it, says everything about who is deplatformed.
There could be only one excuse to vote Green, and that would be to vote for Dr Cornel West, who has needed to go that way for the ballot access. A roaring critic of cancel culture, not that some of us have ever not been cancelled, and of identity politics by reference to class politics, West is already polling around six per cent. He is a viable Presidential candidate who sits on the Board of Academic Advisors of the Classic Learning Test, and whose answer to why he is not a Marxist, since his views and alliances invite the question, is that dialectical materialism is incompatible with incarnational theology.
This candidacy opens the way for a successor who recognised that incarnational theology could not be separated from fidelity to the Petrine Office, with implications that were far more radical than anything that Marxism could ever formulate, much less deliver. Or than could ever be grounded in the obsolescent, Baby Boomer liberal Catholicism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There is already a liberal Catholic President. How is that working out?
“Amy Leather from the SWP leadership declares, “we’re against all immigration controls and we say, ‘open the borders, all refugees welcome’”, how many people does she expect to win over?”.
And there you have it.
She’ll win over millions. Bring them over, win them over, then take over.
It really is a case of the electorate being dissolved and replaced with a new one. The only issue that divides most political parties (including our globalist “Conservatives”, unfortunately) is how quickly and conspicuously they will do it.
Remember, the left accuse polling places demanding ID of being discriminatory and “racist.” Open borders lead to open electorate if the left have their way.
Remember, the left accuse polling places demanding ID of being discriminatory and “racist.” Open borders lead to open electorate if the left have their way.
Only when all voters wake up and see the direct link between the State and Left’s open border mass immigration addiction and the unfolding crisis will the UK ever have hope of stabilisation and recovery. The UK State, BBC and MSM all refuse to tell this basic truth. They lie about it 24/7 as they are slaves to identitarianism and propagandists for the new equalitarian multicultural state. No audit is ever done because that would be raycist and threaten the New Order post 97. But 1m plus annual gross migration – the key figure – is a root cause of the multiple breakdowns in society, making life for the low paid majority near impossible; the 6 week wait for GPs; year long queues for operations in their broken dangerous ‘overwhelmed NHS and its the overflowing A+E wards; the no school place for Jimmy and 30+ no english spoken classes for Jane..on and on. It has caused the surge in the cost of rent or mortgage and house prices, enriching the London propetocrat elite but impoverishing millions more. Even the brain dead Greens who yelp about the dangers of growth for newts and bats bow the knee to open borders and so make a mockery of their entire programme.
Last point very true. They want to rejoin the most desperate growth coalition in the world
Last point very true. They want to rejoin the most desperate growth coalition in the world
Ridiculous, it’s nothing but virtue signalling, plain and very simple. And even if it was an actual hare brained conspiracy it would soon backfire because there are few as anti-immigrant
never mind anti-Marxist, as those who have recently settled, particularly if the new arrivals belong to a group other than theirs.
Indeed. The revolution is just a tee-shirt away.
The chief problem with leftism in general, and neo-Marxism in particular, is that it’s at best an utterly incoherent critique.
It offers no solutions, no model for governance beyond an enormous and brutal police state, and no real reason for hope, apres les deluge.
This is because Marx and practically every leftist thinker has no grounding in reality, no understanding of human nature, and no comprehension of normal, commercial life. Marx’s initial assumptions, even, are deeply flawed, as he believed labor was the only source of value, and all else was only rapacity.
For an allegedly materialist philosophy, they believe in things that aren’t truly real, such as a looming climate apocalypse, or a world defined not by competence but only power, or the ability of university professors and puffed up technocrats to run entire economies.
This is why any Marxist regime, and generally any left wing government, completely fails to generate high standards of living.
In general, history doesn’t gainsay what logic, reason, and data predict. No thinking person could observe the 20th Century and believe otherwise.
Indeed. The revolution is just a tee-shirt away.
The chief problem with leftism in general, and neo-Marxism in particular, is that it’s at best an utterly incoherent critique.
It offers no solutions, no model for governance beyond an enormous and brutal police state, and no real reason for hope, apres les deluge.
This is because Marx and practically every leftist thinker has no grounding in reality, no understanding of human nature, and no comprehension of normal, commercial life. Marx’s initial assumptions, even, are deeply flawed, as he believed labor was the only source of value, and all else was only rapacity.
For an allegedly materialist philosophy, they believe in things that aren’t truly real, such as a looming climate apocalypse, or a world defined not by competence but only power, or the ability of university professors and puffed up technocrats to run entire economies.
This is why any Marxist regime, and generally any left wing government, completely fails to generate high standards of living.
In general, history doesn’t gainsay what logic, reason, and data predict. No thinking person could observe the 20th Century and believe otherwise.
She’ll win over millions. Bring them over, win them over, then take over.
It really is a case of the electorate being dissolved and replaced with a new one. The only issue that divides most political parties (including our globalist “Conservatives”, unfortunately) is how quickly and conspicuously they will do it.
Only when all voters wake up and see the direct link between the State and Left’s open border mass immigration addiction and the unfolding crisis will the UK ever have hope of stabilisation and recovery. The UK State, BBC and MSM all refuse to tell this basic truth. They lie about it 24/7 as they are slaves to identitarianism and propagandists for the new equalitarian multicultural state. No audit is ever done because that would be raycist and threaten the New Order post 97. But 1m plus annual gross migration – the key figure – is a root cause of the multiple breakdowns in society, making life for the low paid majority near impossible; the 6 week wait for GPs; year long queues for operations in their broken dangerous ‘overwhelmed NHS and its the overflowing A+E wards; the no school place for Jimmy and 30+ no english spoken classes for Jane..on and on. It has caused the surge in the cost of rent or mortgage and house prices, enriching the London propetocrat elite but impoverishing millions more. Even the brain dead Greens who yelp about the dangers of growth for newts and bats bow the knee to open borders and so make a mockery of their entire programme.
Ridiculous, it’s nothing but virtue signalling, plain and very simple. And even if it was an actual hare brained conspiracy it would soon backfire because there are few as anti-immigrant
never mind anti-Marxist, as those who have recently settled, particularly if the new arrivals belong to a group other than theirs.
“Amy Leather from the SWP leadership declares, “we’re against all immigration controls and we say, ‘open the borders, all refugees welcome’”, how many people does she expect to win over?”.
And there you have it.
Commies are funny. It’s a religion, really, with it’s own false gods and fake prophets. Commies are also, overwhelmingly, wimps. The idea of them taking to the streets is hilarious, which is why they try to manipulate useful idiots to do it for them. In the meantime, they can meet up for their performative, angry, circle-jerking sessions and give the rest of us a laugh.
Commies are not funny. They’re fascists who inflict terror, torture, famine, and mass murder whenever they get hold of the levers of power.
I demur. They are hilarious. Mel Brookes made nazis funny. Armando Ianucci made Soviets funny. Lampooning authoritarians is essential.
Stark bilge, Ben Jones. Reminds me of that idiot lead singer of the (inexplicably) popular rock band U2 telling his adoring fans that the best way to deal with ISIS was to laugh at them. Good advice would you say for those about to be beheaded or burned alive?
False dichotomy. That one must kill ISIS barbarians at every opportunity is not in contradiction to the fact that nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them.
Sounds like debating society BS to me.
Do you seriously believe that?
The fundamentalists who slaughtered the Charlie Hebdo staff (to take but one example) may have feared the possibility of being undermined by humour but humour certainly didn’t stop them – it merely provoked them.
Anyway, it seems to me that the reverse is the true. Our humour has been thoroughly undermined by mirthless fundamenalists – or are you unaware of the growth of cancel culture? Where is the mockery of Antifa, Transactivism, Pride month, Black history month?
Sounds like debating society BS to me.
Do you seriously believe that?
The fundamentalists who slaughtered the Charlie Hebdo staff (to take but one example) may have feared the possibility of being undermined by humour but humour certainly didn’t stop them – it merely provoked them.
Anyway, it seems to me that the reverse is the true. Our humour has been thoroughly undermined by mirthless fundamenalists – or are you unaware of the growth of cancel culture? Where is the mockery of Antifa, Transactivism, Pride month, Black history month?
Complete Strawman argument. I never suggested it was how you ‘deal’ with authoritarianism. I suggested it was good to lampoon it. Indeed, desirable. The bilge, I’m afraid, is yours.
You actually said:
…a bit stronger than merely a good thing.
So, why do you think it is essential?
It is essential because it asserts our humanity – have you seen the film Four Lions by Chris Morris? It’s very funny.
Precisely. Charlie Chaplin drove Hitler to distraction in ‘The Great Dictator’, his performance demonstrated the lunacy of totalitarianism to the masses.
Check your history. That movie, far from driving Hitler to distraction, was actually enjoyed by him.
Not by me though! If anything it demonstrated bad comedy to ‘the masses’. Apart from the hopelessly inept humour it is blighted by Chaplin’s trademark sentimentality. That final speech (by The Phooey!) calling for niceness is utterly cringeworthy. The idea that this effort demonstrates the lunacy of totalitarianism is laughable (perhaps that’s wherein the true humour lies!). Satire for dummies.
Check your history. That movie, far from driving Hitler to distraction, was actually enjoyed by him.
Not by me though! If anything it demonstrated bad comedy to ‘the masses’. Apart from the hopelessly inept humour it is blighted by Chaplin’s trademark sentimentality. That final speech (by The Phooey!) calling for niceness is utterly cringeworthy. The idea that this effort demonstrates the lunacy of totalitarianism is laughable (perhaps that’s wherein the true humour lies!). Satire for dummies.
No, I haven’t seen that movie. I remember a bit of media fuss when it was released but I couldn’t muster any interest. Funny it may be but did it undermine any fundamentalists – beyond blowing raspberries at them?
Precisely. Charlie Chaplin drove Hitler to distraction in ‘The Great Dictator’, his performance demonstrated the lunacy of totalitarianism to the masses.
No, I haven’t seen that movie. I remember a bit of media fuss when it was released but I couldn’t muster any interest. Funny it may be but did it undermine any fundamentalists – beyond blowing raspberries at them?
It is essential because it asserts our humanity – have you seen the film Four Lions by Chris Morris? It’s very funny.
You actually said:
…a bit stronger than merely a good thing.
So, why do you think it is essential?
False dichotomy. That one must kill ISIS barbarians at every opportunity is not in contradiction to the fact that nothing undermines fundamentalists more effectively than laughing at them.
Complete Strawman argument. I never suggested it was how you ‘deal’ with authoritarianism. I suggested it was good to lampoon it. Indeed, desirable. The bilge, I’m afraid, is yours.
On further reflection I concede your point. Kudos for your rapid rebuttal.
Thank you Sir
Thank you Sir
Stark bilge, Ben Jones. Reminds me of that idiot lead singer of the (inexplicably) popular rock band U2 telling his adoring fans that the best way to deal with ISIS was to laugh at them. Good advice would you say for those about to be beheaded or burned alive?
On further reflection I concede your point. Kudos for your rapid rebuttal.
I demur. They are hilarious. Mel Brookes made nazis funny. Armando Ianucci made Soviets funny. Lampooning authoritarians is essential.
I was just going to make a similar comment, but maybe in a more objective way, that the “Marxism-in-the-field” described in this article IS a religion, at least as many social anthropologists define “religion.” The parallels to “fundamentalist” [spiritual] religions are many.
Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, and he is right! He just self-described the movement taken after his name. Oh, the irony.
It’s very much a religion. One of the blokes in my cycle club is one of them. He takes the collected works of V I Lenin on holiday with him. Everything is a struggle between the ‘workers’ and the ‘bosses’.
He is a retired science teacher. When he retired he bought a very expensive carbon fibre racing bike – a beautiful, svelte, sleek embodiment of market competition at it most dynamic.
Commies are not funny. They’re fascists who inflict terror, torture, famine, and mass murder whenever they get hold of the levers of power.
I was just going to make a similar comment, but maybe in a more objective way, that the “Marxism-in-the-field” described in this article IS a religion, at least as many social anthropologists define “religion.” The parallels to “fundamentalist” [spiritual] religions are many.
Marx said that religion is the opium of the people, and he is right! He just self-described the movement taken after his name. Oh, the irony.
It’s very much a religion. One of the blokes in my cycle club is one of them. He takes the collected works of V I Lenin on holiday with him. Everything is a struggle between the ‘workers’ and the ‘bosses’.
He is a retired science teacher. When he retired he bought a very expensive carbon fibre racing bike – a beautiful, svelte, sleek embodiment of market competition at it most dynamic.
Commies are funny. It’s a religion, really, with it’s own false gods and fake prophets. Commies are also, overwhelmingly, wimps. The idea of them taking to the streets is hilarious, which is why they try to manipulate useful idiots to do it for them. In the meantime, they can meet up for their performative, angry, circle-jerking sessions and give the rest of us a laugh.
A “festival” celebrating the most deadly philosophy ever created, one that killed 100 million people and counting? It’s beyond perverse, but these profoundly stupid people have no idea what would happen to them should they mange to succeed in their “revolution” (not gonna happen: the rich guys always win). As idiots they’re not even useful.
I suspect that religion has killed far more.
Except religion has actually helped people.
Possibly but only I think because religion has been the only game
in town for the past 1500 years.
Before then the Roman Empire wasn’t particularly ‘religious’ in any modern sense and yet it was extraordinarily violent and bloodthirsty.
Britain I think ditched religion and replaced it with Empire. When the Empire fell, well, you ended up with the sort of democratic crusade that resulted in the bloodbath that was Iraq.
Given time I can quite easily see secular societies ratcheting up the body count.
Except religion has actually helped people.
Possibly but only I think because religion has been the only game
in town for the past 1500 years.
Before then the Roman Empire wasn’t particularly ‘religious’ in any modern sense and yet it was extraordinarily violent and bloodthirsty.
Britain I think ditched religion and replaced it with Empire. When the Empire fell, well, you ended up with the sort of democratic crusade that resulted in the bloodbath that was Iraq.
Given time I can quite easily see secular societies ratcheting up the body count.
I suspect that religion has killed far more.
A “festival” celebrating the most deadly philosophy ever created, one that killed 100 million people and counting? It’s beyond perverse, but these profoundly stupid people have no idea what would happen to them should they mange to succeed in their “revolution” (not gonna happen: the rich guys always win). As idiots they’re not even useful.
At 10 quid fifty per hour it must have taken that socialist chap ages to save up for the jacket and jewellery. Maybe they pay Amazon workers more in the States. Perhaps an early investor in BLM.
Vive la revolution! We’re all in this together comrade! Follow me..
At 10 quid fifty per hour it must have taken that socialist chap ages to save up for the jacket and jewellery. Maybe they pay Amazon workers more in the States. Perhaps an early investor in BLM.
Vive la revolution! We’re all in this together comrade! Follow me..
“And aside from a brief scuffle with some far-Right counter-protesters, all goes smoothly.”
*And aside from a brief scuffle with some anti-fascists, all goes smoothly.
“And aside from a brief scuffle with some far-Right counter-protesters, all goes smoothly.”
*And aside from a brief scuffle with some anti-fascists, all goes smoothly.
It would be almost worth having the SWP in power, just to see the look on their faces when they realise that all those Somali economic migrants and Albanian drug dealers rushing through their open borders don’t actually want to work on the collective quinoa farm in exchange for food and lodging.
It would be almost worth having the SWP in power, just to see the look on their faces when they realise that all those Somali economic migrants and Albanian drug dealers rushing through their open borders don’t actually want to work on the collective quinoa farm in exchange for food and lodging.
I didn’t know Adam Tooze was a marxist, or that his grandfather was a Soviet spy (as I’ve just found out). The Deluge is one of my favourite recent reads.
I didn’t know Adam Tooze was a marxist, or that his grandfather was a Soviet spy (as I’ve just found out). The Deluge is one of my favourite recent reads.
Alex Callinicos! He’s still going? I used to pass his office on campus years ago…
I’m best mates with his nephew, and went to visit his flat recently. Floor to ceiling full to the brim with every book ever written on Marxism. I imagine his office wasn’t much different.
Interesting that Marxists READ, isn’t it? Contrast Trumpists who, like their leader, do not read.
Trump has literally written books, on subjects as diverse as business and golf. I’m sure they’re dreadful, but probably far more lucid than the obscurantist claptrap that’s saturated the academy since Marx and Engels sat down in Chetham’s library nearly 200 years ago…
Well said. A while ago I re-read The Commie Manifesto for the first time in about thirty years. It’s basically just a glorified Gish Gallop.
I think that you will find that Trump didn’t write any book with his name on. Chatted briefly to a ghost writer who then got on with it is most likely.
Well said. A while ago I re-read The Commie Manifesto for the first time in about thirty years. It’s basically just a glorified Gish Gallop.
I think that you will find that Trump didn’t write any book with his name on. Chatted briefly to a ghost writer who then got on with it is most likely.
I would have voted for Trump if I was American. At the moment I’m reading The Princess Casamassima by Henry James, and L’Education Sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert in the original French.
How is the Flaubert, in terms of difficulty? I want to tackle it next month but I’m worried my French isn’t up to it
I’m a sub-fluent French speaker and don’t find it overwhelmingly difficult, although there’s quite a lot of vocab pertaining to 19th century stuff – lots of different types of carriage etc. I read Madame Bovary a few months ago, and the only place where I became a bit unstuck was where Madame Bovary gets into debt; I found the technicalities of bills of exchange, discounted bills etc rather difficult to follow. Apart from that and occasional vocabular deficiencies it was relatively plain sailing, and in parts very amusing. You could try reading l’ES with Google Translate on hand.
I’m a sub-fluent French speaker and don’t find it overwhelmingly difficult, although there’s quite a lot of vocab pertaining to 19th century stuff – lots of different types of carriage etc. I read Madame Bovary a few months ago, and the only place where I became a bit unstuck was where Madame Bovary gets into debt; I found the technicalities of bills of exchange, discounted bills etc rather difficult to follow. Apart from that and occasional vocabular deficiencies it was relatively plain sailing, and in parts very amusing. You could try reading l’ES with Google Translate on hand.
…
How is the Flaubert, in terms of difficulty? I want to tackle it next month but I’m worried my French isn’t up to it
…
Oh please – when will you get over that TDS of yours?
Trump has literally written books, on subjects as diverse as business and golf. I’m sure they’re dreadful, but probably far more lucid than the obscurantist claptrap that’s saturated the academy since Marx and Engels sat down in Chetham’s library nearly 200 years ago…
I would have voted for Trump if I was American. At the moment I’m reading The Princess Casamassima by Henry James, and L’Education Sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert in the original French.
Oh please – when will you get over that TDS of yours?
Interesting that Marxists READ, isn’t it? Contrast Trumpists who, like their leader, do not read.
I’m best mates with his nephew, and went to visit his flat recently. Floor to ceiling full to the brim with every book ever written on Marxism. I imagine his office wasn’t much different.
Alex Callinicos! He’s still going? I used to pass his office on campus years ago…
Hold on – trade unions are “Fighting for wage increases ahead of inflation”; surely that is not so. The distinct impression I get is that trade unions are desperately fighting to partially catch up with inflation. Can anyone reference a serious pay claim higher than inflation for their wages over the past decade or so?
The only lucky ones I see referenced are those better paid (FTSE100 board directors to the fore) without trade unions.
I finish with my usual – if you disagree that’s fine but please don’t downvote, reference evidence to the contrary please!
Hold on – trade unions are “Fighting for wage increases ahead of inflation”; surely that is not so. The distinct impression I get is that trade unions are desperately fighting to partially catch up with inflation. Can anyone reference a serious pay claim higher than inflation for their wages over the past decade or so?
The only lucky ones I see referenced are those better paid (FTSE100 board directors to the fore) without trade unions.
I finish with my usual – if you disagree that’s fine but please don’t downvote, reference evidence to the contrary please!
Who was it who said that if you’re not a socialist at twenty, there’s something wrong but, if you’re not a capitalist by forty, there’s something wrong? Young people ought to give left wing socialism a go as part of the righteous anger they ought to feel in the face of an ill-divided world, if for no other reason than to see that left wing socialism doesn’t actually live in the real world.
Who was it who said that if you’re not a socialist at twenty, there’s something wrong but, if you’re not a capitalist by forty, there’s something wrong? Young people ought to give left wing socialism a go as part of the righteous anger they ought to feel in the face of an ill-divided world, if for no other reason than to see that left wing socialism doesn’t actually live in the real world.
Richard Seymour, who wrote an article in the New Stateman two years ago on how postmodernism became the universal scapegoat of the era, an irrational fear of the pomo or pomophobia.
A cult
Richard Seymour, who wrote an article in the New Stateman two years ago on how postmodernism became the universal scapegoat of the era, an irrational fear of the pomo or pomophobia.
A cult
Hours from now, the cruelly misnamed Rail Delivery Group will make the case for the already massively popular renationalisation of the railways as surely as that case is made daily in relation to water and in relation to the Bank of England. The venerable YouGov has found Jeremy Corbyn to be Britain’s most popular politician. His rating is only 30 per cent, but that is still higher than anyone else’s. No wonder.
Tolpuddle Village Hall has cancelled Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, so it really is over to Ben Sellers to show it at the People’s Bookshop during this coming Durham Miners’ Gala weekend. It should also be shown on Freeview, along with Killing Kelly, The Great NHS Heist, Solidarity, Adult Human Female, and SS in Britain. That this has not already happened, since there is not already an obvious channel for it, says everything about who is deplatformed.
There could be only one excuse to vote Green, and that would be to vote for Dr Cornel West, who has needed to go that way for the ballot access. A roaring critic of cancel culture, not that some of us have ever not been cancelled, and of identity politics by reference to class politics, West is already polling around six per cent. He is a viable Presidential candidate who sits on the Board of Academic Advisors of the Classic Learning Test, and whose answer to why he is not a Marxist, since his views and alliances invite the question, is that dialectical materialism is incompatible with incarnational theology.
This candidacy opens the way for a successor who recognised that incarnational theology could not be separated from fidelity to the Petrine Office, with implications that were far more radical than anything that Marxism could ever formulate, much less deliver. Or than could ever be grounded in the obsolescent, Baby Boomer liberal Catholicism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There is already a liberal Catholic President. How is that working out?
Biden clearly has dementia and is being managed. The DNC used Biden as a Trojan Horse to dissuade Democrats from voting for Warren, Sanders and other Progressive Radicals and to vote for him, assuring them that he would be ‘more moderate’ but in the end, he has turned out to be anything but. Biden doesn’t know what he believes because his entire career has been one of opportunism, in which his son Hunter has been his wingman.
What I find tragic (and insulting to women) about that statement is that she was ever really considered presidential material.
What I find tragic (and insulting to women) about that statement is that she was ever really considered presidential material.
Biden clearly has dementia and is being managed. The DNC used Biden as a Trojan Horse to dissuade Democrats from voting for Warren, Sanders and other Progressive Radicals and to vote for him, assuring them that he would be ‘more moderate’ but in the end, he has turned out to be anything but. Biden doesn’t know what he believes because his entire career has been one of opportunism, in which his son Hunter has been his wingman.
Hours from now, the cruelly misnamed Rail Delivery Group will make the case for the already massively popular renationalisation of the railways as surely as that case is made daily in relation to water and in relation to the Bank of England. The venerable YouGov has found Jeremy Corbyn to be Britain’s most popular politician. His rating is only 30 per cent, but that is still higher than anyone else’s. No wonder.
Tolpuddle Village Hall has cancelled Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie, so it really is over to Ben Sellers to show it at the People’s Bookshop during this coming Durham Miners’ Gala weekend. It should also be shown on Freeview, along with Killing Kelly, The Great NHS Heist, Solidarity, Adult Human Female, and SS in Britain. That this has not already happened, since there is not already an obvious channel for it, says everything about who is deplatformed.
There could be only one excuse to vote Green, and that would be to vote for Dr Cornel West, who has needed to go that way for the ballot access. A roaring critic of cancel culture, not that some of us have ever not been cancelled, and of identity politics by reference to class politics, West is already polling around six per cent. He is a viable Presidential candidate who sits on the Board of Academic Advisors of the Classic Learning Test, and whose answer to why he is not a Marxist, since his views and alliances invite the question, is that dialectical materialism is incompatible with incarnational theology.
This candidacy opens the way for a successor who recognised that incarnational theology could not be separated from fidelity to the Petrine Office, with implications that were far more radical than anything that Marxism could ever formulate, much less deliver. Or than could ever be grounded in the obsolescent, Baby Boomer liberal Catholicism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There is already a liberal Catholic President. How is that working out?