Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

The Chapo with the closest Kriss association is Amber (the podcast that stopped after a few eps). I think the podcast does need to do an episode on abuses on the left - this, the LA DSA harassment allegations, their Cosby tweet, etc.. They've tackled 'woke lib' creeps before, they should acknowledge it in their own backyard too.

Kriss's conduct was vile top to bottom and the bragging about his family's wealth makes me think of other privileged leftists who went bad later on (ala Hitchens).

Expect this one to run on and on around new-ish UK left media and certain sections of the left - with hopefully something good coming out of this.

God, I hope so. Abuse and harassment in left orgs is a *massive* problem that needs to be convincingly dealt with everywhere.

here's the full story, as i mentioned before it's pretty vile

https://www.facebook.com/notes/monitoring-the-lefts-support-for-r-pe-culture/metoo-and-sam-kriss/1518056408275666/

Yeah.

On the left in the UK this all ties back to cover up of abuses around SWP - many of those on the anarcho left fighting the SWP had no time for SK at all. As did many really but SK did occupy this curious middle ground between far-left and Guardian left.

(jepsen is a/the woman who brought the LA DSA sexual harassment allegations)

Kblocki‏ @kblocki 28m28 minutes ago
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Okay Sarge, but wrong response for a couple of reasons. Your point isn't technically wrong, but doesn't absolve the left because it's an...
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Kblocki‏ @kblocki 27m27 minutes ago
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Issue everywhere else. Second, it's a unique issue on the left because so many leftist women/men are willing to defend/overlook because...
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Kblocki‏ @kblocki 24m24 minutes ago
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Of other percieved good qualities (Chapo Trap House) or as you point out (it's a problem everywhere so why are we getting called out) or...
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Kblocki‏ @kblocki 23m23 minutes ago
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It's just dismissed as HRC delusion or relitigating and ignored as an issue.
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crawly rage jepsen‏ @CApuffin 22m22 minutes ago
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This is really disgusting. I'm a leftist woman & men across the political spectrum have been horrible to me.
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crawly rage jepsen‏ @CApuffin 20m20 minutes ago
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Don't you dare use my harassment to denigrate left politics as a whole-so many womn are leftists and fighting this.
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Don't you dare use my harassment to vilify left politics as a whole. Liberal institutions are horrible to harassment reporters too.

— crawly rage jepsen (@CApuffin) October 17, 2017

It's more disappointing in leftist men, but the left provides a better framework for fixing these problems than liberalism.

— crawly rage jepsen (@CApuffin) October 17, 2017

Also my abusive ex loved second wave feminism and hated Chapo.

— crawly rage jepsen (@CApuffin) October 17, 2017

I'm not convinced he's any kind of left really and that big house comment appears to confirm that, but he's a guy who hit on an online persona that worked very well for him for a while. You always get the sense there's an ageing reactionary lurking within self-styled bad boys of the British intellectual left and there's been a nasty misogynistic tone to a lot of Kriss's posturing.

The linked story is horrible and worse than I would have expected but he's always come across as transparently loving the approval he got from a crowd of gross enablers.

as others have already said more eloquently than me, the left has the burden/responsibility to be/do better on these things since it's the left that wants to replace the existing order.

I'm suspicious of the move some have made to say that [x dirtbag they don't like] "isn't really left", as though having left-wing politics is some sort of cleansing property. (I don't think that's what you were arguing Matt but I have seen it elsewhere)

Yeah he might be but it's difficult to adequately judge motivations when someone is so transparently egotistical and self promoting, and Britain has had a lot of similar figures making a left-right journey over the years.

Whether he's left wing or not isnt especially relevant here except that he's already being used to attack left-wing feminists.

So when is Taibbi going to be called our & disgraced, getting impatient here

out*

what, on ilx or in the public sphere?

Public sphere obv

Forced to resign, or get fired by Jann. Then again he’s selling RS and might feel inclined to keep Taibbi as he’s the only prominent political writer they have atm

That “which Chapo will be next” thing was actually posted by an alt-right/fake rose acct, wasn’t it?

since I'm sure you were all dying to know how they were going to address all this on the show, Amber opened the latest premium ep by saying a) she vetoed doing a whole episode on issues of sexual assault due primarily to the hosts' gender imbalance and the fact that she didn't want to talk about rape in her day job at a comedy podcast, and b) they donated $10k to Victim Rights Law Center. hardly the most comprehensive response but I can think of plenty worse tbh

and then later matt started to say that trump had down's syndrome but caught himself after saying 'down's' and switched to saying 'brain damaged' instead

swings and roundabouts!

god's working on all of us

I noted Tim Faust self-correcting to say pregnant "people" as opposed to "women" on his last appearance - I guess people were being snarky with him about it so he went on twitter shortly afterwards to say "hey it's a small effort and it hurts no one, fuck off"

xp lmao picture of jesus guiding trump's hand signing legislation, except now he's holding christman's microphone

in other news, DSA-LA's leadership needs to be completely dismantled. what a shambles.

Imagine releasing a report on someone's harassment and never contacting them. https://t.co/yA85FN4nUr

— crawly rage jepsen (@CApuffin) October 20, 2017

Yeah I liked the opener. I agree it would not have been a good idea to do a show about sexual assault. I thought maybe they could have apologized for the Cosby thing, but they also weren't the ones who tweeted it, and I don't think they had any responsibility to speak about Sam Kriss, in fact it was probably a bad idea to do so.

*would have been a bad idea, I mean

FWIW I have a few friends who are pretty active in DSA in Brooklyn, and one of them seems to be very hands on, and although I'm not involved I follow him on social media and read a lot about what they're up to and he offers his insights a lot. I think there's a lot of learning by trial and error going on regarding organizational politics, but in the best way. I hope LA and other chapters can learn from this incident too.

the excerpts I've seen from the report are mortifying. they're not even ready for the learning stage yet.

heard there was some "charity fiasco" with the DSA chapter in Charlottesville, anyone know anything about that

https://medium.com/@dsarichmond/statement-on-the-dsa-funds-for-victims-of-terrorism-in-charlottesville-b9f05b6da98c

gotcha, thanks simon. bureaucratic drag

saw a flyer for a screening of Battleship Potemkin hosted by the local DSA chapter here

I mean this (mostly) unironically: This is what democracy looks like.

meanwhile Labour have set up an internal whistleblower system, which y'know might be a good idea

Our local chapter is setting up a grievance system to handle matters like harassment.

A lot of this stuff really does feel like the growing pains of a shitload of people flooding into a group who are really earnest and fired-up yet seriously inexperienced and lacking in logistics or how to run a group

There was another local group had a meeting earlier this year which had like 200+ people show, and the leaders were clearly not prepared. They were doing ice-breakers and whole-group introductory exercises that were never meant for any gathering larger than like 10 members.

A lot of this stuff really does feel like the growing pains of a shitload of people flooding into a group who are really earnest and fired-up yet seriously inexperienced and lacking in logistics or how to run a group

otm, reminds me of Occupy, but it certainly seems to be going better than that fiasco

From what I have been hearing, at least, it is miles beyond Occupy, at least in NYC.

yeah there's a lot of improvements: more people across the country, new generations, enthusiasm & energy from ppl that supported Bernie & resent the DNC for fucking us all

The trick will be responding swiftly and definitively enough to fuckups like the ones we've seen in the last few weeks to ensure that they don't start to peel off members or scare off prospects. A mass socialist movement is needed too badly for these things to keep happening.

On a vaguely related tip, I just posted an episode talking with one of the guys at Zero Books about the pitfalls and advice for newly activated leftists. DSA splitting and losing members as they focused into specific platforms/goals over the evolution of the group was brought up, too.

I'm kind of skeptical of Zero Books of late. The original crew that started it bailed and started another organization, leaving their publisher (which is kind of varied and shady) to run Zero. There's some decent stuff, but editing and communication have kind of sucked. Whoever was running their twitter account a few months ago is kind of a dick.

If their twitter person is also their FB book, that’s probably the publisher, who hosts their podcast

he's always come across as transparently loving the approval he got from a crowd of gross enablers

otm

I liked some of Kriss' writing a lot (esp the weirder stuff) but tbh after that awful non-apology he wrote I don't plan to think about him ever again

I hated him from hearing him on podcasts but I put it down to my anglophobia, I read little of his writing and didn't follow him on twitter. Turns out I was right, go me.

btw this was discussed directly on the excellent latest ep of Delete Your Account

"this"

don't know what kind of snark you were going for but i meant the Kriss thing specifically

the excerpts I've seen from the report are mortifying. they're not even ready for the learning stage yet.

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, October 20, 2017 3:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nice job staying on-message, I guess?

I mean this (mostly) unironically: This is what democracy looks like.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Friday, October 20, 2017 4:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

things i just learnt: bernard snowy is on uk time