bastani put a lot of energy into reasonably entertaining twitter memes at a time when ppl were feeling very low and defeated (early 2017), when his affect (roughly speaking) wasleft-corbynism-for-the-lads-wahyey! afterwards he gave us fully automated gay space luxury communism etc, tho i don't think anyone took his line on that especially seriously, they just enjoyed the phrase (it's a good phrase). the book itself wasn't particularly well reviewed and i actually don't know a single person who read it lol (maybe it's great!)
as sysiphusa sourly notes he's a 2010 student-movement legacy kid (tho he was active then as aaron peters; he switched from his mum's to his dad's name for some personal family reason i don't recall)
anyway i feel that's the beginning and the end of the time ppl had for him?
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:08 (one year ago) link
wahyey s/b wahey
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:09 (one year ago) link
Unlike Mark S I think it's a bad, not good, phrase.
I own the book. It starts with a series of speculative fiction vignettes about how technology could shape the future.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:13 (one year ago) link
I never did to the extent I've ever watched Novara, paid subs, but he was hard to avoid during the Corbyn years as the thing has been taken in (at various degrees of seriousness) across "left twitter". And I think James Butler is a serious person, a good writer and fairly solid commentator.
I think it's worth watching how (though not too hard, this is stuff I see in passing), as Corbyn and many of his supporters have been hounded out of mainstream political life,he has given up any pretence of "luxury communism" (that clip is basically don't even look at the West) as a thing altogether and is now being assimilated by the commentary class.
xxxp - maybe that's something Mark s has seen a few times but I haven't, much.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:15 (one year ago) link
not really no (if you mean have i seen many ppl take AB seriously): i think he's always largely been treated as "our knockabout buffoon", with some apparently thinking "but it's probably good we have one of those" and others routinely saying "ffs get a grip u clown"
in the abstract -- in terms of building a robust left media project -- i'd probably include myself with the first set* (with the instant caveat "this buffoon tho? really?")
*that abstract is i guess a version of mark-fisher-encounters-rusty-rockets: our project shd include battalions that we hipsters are inclined to disdain etc, but i can't pretend that episode ended well (mark's dead and r.brand is whirling wildly off in QAnon-world) and it's not an instinct (of mine) that i've ever interrogated, beyond "we need more than just the chaps the LRB will publish"
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:25 (one year ago) link
"not really no (if you mean have i seen many ppl take AB seriously)"
No I mean ppl who start in left-wing media/projects and then you see them turn right, or be assimilated in to the right-wing media ecosystem.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:33 (one year ago) link
This is such a disingenuous figure. Sure, if the global financial crisis never happened, & preceding (& unprecedented) boom in financial services had continued (literally impossible) we would be this much wealthier.If I kept growing like I did from 10 to 16 I’d be 20 feet tall. https://t.co/aEs6xTJP57— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) March 20, 2023
"If I kept growing like I did from 10 to 16 I’d be 20 feet tall."
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 11:39 (one year ago) link
ppl who start in left-wing media/projects and then turn right or be assimilated
oh right, yes, i've seen that happen quite often -- and am very interested in it historically (john ganz has written abt it illuminatingly in the french third republic, viz from the 1870s to the 1930s; christopher hitchens wrote a long and i think still good 1980s essay* on it in re conor cruise o'brien before himself -- hitch i mean -- taking the exact same floor-crossing path)
(the latter perhaps suggests that "taking an interest" soon betokens "doing it yrself" so let me just dispel yr doubts now… !!)
*it quotes tom paulin in the form of the excellent phrase "creon's think-tank" (which is a very effectively weaponised ref to sophocles' play antigone)
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 12:01 (one year ago) link
Yeah I haven't seen it happen in real time much but the history of the left is littered with those people really.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 12:07 (one year ago) link
Tom Paulin is one of Mark S's most cited authorities. I suspect you could find Mark S referring to Paulin on ILX in 2002.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 12:19 (one year ago) link
i love him!
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 12:24 (one year ago) link
first ilx ref: 4 june 2001post by: mark s
:)
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 12:25 (one year ago) link
This demonstrates that I am to Mark S as Mark S is to Tom Paulin.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 13:31 (one year ago) link
❤️
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 14:13 (one year ago) link
Superb deep dive on the Met and police corruption from @trillingual in the next @LRB, published early online and of screaming, appalling relevance today: https://t.co/M4DQPyeqt9— James B (@piercepenniless) March 21, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 14:22 (one year ago) link
Not that Bastani is an intellectual but thoughts bits of this are relevant to today's discussions
Here's a bar https://t.co/gro0tVkW3e pic.twitter.com/iyJwijYjX8— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) March 21, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 March 2023 16:43 (one year ago) link
I finally watched the whole Bastani / Hallam interview. It's a different experience from a brief clip.
It's quite disturbing, a bit of a painful experience. Why?
1: What they're talking about is so serious and bad. It has no upsides whatever till in the last moments, quite inspiringly, RH talks about 'the joyfulness of resistance'.
2: RH is maybe a disturbing figure. The grey prison sweater, the Gandalf beard, the intense eyes, the accent, the intense delivery. A strange combination of utter insistence on action here and now ('Praxis') and reference to academic research (which he says tells him the truth about human nature - this usually seems simplistic).
3: The fact that it's so combative; simply, watching people so antagonistic is uncomfortable.
4: AB, unfortunately, mostly does a bad job. I could describe this at length but will stop at saying that he interrupts far, far too much - something cited by most of the YouTube commentators.
I don't think that AB quite grasps that RH doesn't want to conduct an interview on AB's terms, but to stage an intervention, reach the Novara audience - and, repeatedly, to request that AB himself 'lead a march' (would that be popular? Not very; AB is for once wise in realising this) and potentially get arrested. AB's diversions from these demands are, again, embarrassing in a way that's painfully awkward. It's as though Novara Media has been 'called out' and can't respond.
And yet, the intensity and unusual character of this conversation does make it different from almost anything else I've watched for a long time.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 22 March 2023 15:32 (one year ago) link
The Port Vale speech is the most effective blow @Keir_Starmer has ever landed on the Tories and will resonate in every working class community 💥 pic.twitter.com/AFIGeyRqi5— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 23, 2023
― the pinefox, Thursday, 23 March 2023 12:35 (one year ago) link
cutting crime and more bobbies on the beat pledges might sound impressive if you've had a frontal lobotomy and are hearing a politician speak for the first time in your life
― calzino, Thursday, 23 March 2023 13:02 (one year ago) link
I didn’t make the longlist in Labour's selection for Mid & South Pembrokeshire. Thanks to all here in the CLP who pledged their support. If you’re in St David’s tonight come and hear me talk about the cost of living crisis...and why I will always stand with workers on strike✊🏴 pic.twitter.com/X1ognHYrom— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 25, 2023
― the pinefox, Saturday, 25 March 2023 09:36 (one year ago) link
loool! where next, Paul? "I've always felt an affinity with the people of The Outer Hebrides and have decided to stand for..."
― calzino, Saturday, 25 March 2023 09:54 (one year ago) link
does he have any other caravans?
― conrad, Saturday, 25 March 2023 10:15 (one year ago) link
This is Jeremy Corbyn defending Ralph Miliband a few years ago. We won’t see another leading U.K. politician with this much integrity and backbone for a long time pic.twitter.com/xDUcxtZphL— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) August 2, 2019
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 28 March 2023 10:50 (one year ago) link
enjoying Bastani's latest incarnation, Charles Windsor stan
― soref, Friday, 31 March 2023 09:15 (one year ago) link
A point not often mentioned about AB is his Catholicism.
― the pinefox, Friday, 31 March 2023 10:09 (one year ago) link
Where are you going with that?
― limb tins & cum (gyac), Friday, 31 March 2023 10:31 (one year ago) link
oh come off it Aaron— James B (@piercepenniless) March 31, 2023
― devvvine, Friday, 31 March 2023 10:49 (one year ago) link
bookmarking for future use
"Nice voice, Drake's ties, radical green politics in an understated way, a quiet internationalism"
lol, is this cunt for real? His droning voice is awful. Well yes they are very quiet and polite when they need to be these days (including his German uncles who were members of the SS) and this isn't through choice. Yes, radical green politics from a hypocritical old rich cunt who flies everywhere in private jets and helicopters.
― calzino, Friday, 31 March 2023 10:56 (one year ago) link
AB is a very traditionalist thinker in some ways. Religious, community-focused, very family-oriented. Maybe his appreciation of the King goes with that. He also opposes much modern architecture, as does the King.
I think AB's latest praise for the King may be somewhat naive, though.
― the pinefox, Friday, 31 March 2023 11:00 (one year ago) link
I don’t think those things are related.
― limb tins & cum (gyac), Friday, 31 March 2023 11:09 (one year ago) link
A general rule that will never steer you wrong is that when someone starts saying shit like “bleating about how everyone who disagrees with you is racist” you pretty much know what path they’re on and you can safely dismiss them as anyone worth paying attention to
― michel goindry (wins), Friday, 31 March 2023 11:11 (one year ago) link
there's an entry in Chris Mullin's diaries where he meets Charles and effuses about what an insightful thinker and great humanitarian he finds the prince to be.
― soref, Friday, 31 March 2023 11:13 (one year ago) link
I don't he has any deeply held convictions on anything, he's just a weathervane prick playing a calculated game to get numbers on twitter and maintain a career.
― calzino, Friday, 31 March 2023 11:53 (one year ago) link
That's no way to talk about the King!
― the pinefox, Friday, 31 March 2023 12:01 (one year ago) link
I know Big Bas has some very regal qualities about him: his nice voice, his muscles rippling under his expensive fitted shirts as he takes another *brave* foray into classic liberalism and his fluid hottakes in his debates with Hitchens ... etc etc ... but "King" is a bit of a stretch!
― calzino, Friday, 31 March 2023 12:11 (one year ago) link
apologies I have flea-bombed my house this morning and I think the left-over toxic fumes are making me high!
― calzino, Friday, 31 March 2023 12:15 (one year ago) link
If you run something with any kind of principles you are more likely to face closure
We are incredibly sad to announce that gal-dem is closing. Several factors that have contributed to this difficult decision, including numerous challenges with running a small, mission-driven, independent media company. We’ve shared more here https://t.co/0jAK94fG55— gal-dem (@galdemzine) March 31, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 31 March 2023 12:28 (one year ago) link
Unusually weak edition of Novara Live on 31.3.2023.
https://novaramedia.com/2023/03/31/trump-indicted-awful-april/
Stories include AB discussing ... AB's tweets on the King. His defence of them becomes, itself, surprisingly weak - "the climate movement is going to need respectable people like the King". He wouldn't have dared to say that in his interview with Roger Hallam, who made him look rather a dilettante.
It's an oddly low quality AB - like watching an AB created by AI.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 1 April 2023 08:23 (one year ago) link
really feeling that luxury automated monarchism. He's been on a bit of a journey but if he can't see that so called respectable millionaires/billionaires need to be eradicated like the bloodsucking fleas that they are - then he's a fucking tool. If not for the sake of the planet then at least for some urgent social justice before it becomes uninhabitable.
― calzino, Saturday, 1 April 2023 08:35 (one year ago) link
"Respectable" millionaires all already pretend to be very concerned about climate change, but they're not gonna approve of any plan that eats into profits. Total waste of time to try to get them onside.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 1 April 2023 08:37 (one year ago) link
It would probably be easier just to liquidate the bastards rather than have pointless concerned royal guy campaigning for some weak gradualist greenwashing bullshit, when what he's really thinking is some Malthusian Africa/Asia blaming shit anyway.
― calzino, Saturday, 1 April 2023 08:49 (one year ago) link
When the Taliban were negotiating with the US installed regime, one of their leaders said why are even negotiating with you when we could overrun and defeat you much quicker than this is going to take. Not saying I'm a fan of the Taliban, but that's the kind of spirit I do admire!
― calzino, Saturday, 1 April 2023 09:01 (one year ago) link
AB has never been high quality. If he put in a prompt in AI on random opinions a socialist should hold it would probably give him a checklist which would improve what he's coming out with!
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 1 April 2023 10:14 (one year ago) link
Issuing correction on my previous post about the taliban
― michel goindry (wins), Saturday, 1 April 2023 10:27 (one year ago) link
Embarrassing.
I would have voted against that NEC motion but tell me how a man who has defied an instruction to withdraw his name from StW's pro-Kremlin BS, and named Lowkey as a patron of his foundation, passes our party's due diligence to be a candidate?— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) March 31, 2023
― the pinefox, Saturday, 1 April 2023 10:39 (one year ago) link
"defied an instruction" lol I know the Labour Party is as anti-democratic as Putin, but you aren't meant to say that if you are a Starmer supporter
― calzino, Saturday, 1 April 2023 10:57 (one year ago) link
Inspired by Pinefox, I watched the AB/Hallam interview...what an oddly intense thing that is.
― bain4z, Saturday, 1 April 2023 12:28 (one year ago) link
Yes!
― the pinefox, Saturday, 1 April 2023 13:11 (one year ago) link
Spare a thought for Paul Mason who is wrestling with the dilemma of how long to keep the redundant Welsh translation in his bio after not getting selected in Pembrokeshire. pic.twitter.com/CVKC6E4tSJ— Rich Simcox (@RichSimcox) April 3, 2023
I thought this too.
― the pinefox, Monday, 3 April 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link