the day after the deadline: can the union survive brexit and other deep questions

that francis fukuyama interview is quite good and worthy of discussion, although obviously its beneath the weary intellectual titans of ilx

Genuinely surprised you'd want to go to bat for Fukuyama

Should we all read it? IDK, it's nice out.

It's a toss up between that and a Trollegraph list of their dreamiest fascios

can’t help but chuckle at the fact Frank Field was included on the Daily Telegraph’s list of the '100 Most Influential Right-Wingers' https://t.co/jto627cURa pic.twitter.com/VjVupoeix7

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 1, 2018

proper and genuine titans of intellect feign to have read the latest Fukuyama interview and follow up with a witty "Bofa deez nuts in yr mouth, chump" type putdown to whoever they are having a discussion with!

I personally witnessed the end of history at Sug Con

I don't have the intellectual chops to engage with the nuances of his assertion that post structuralism is "complete bullshit" tbf

ofc its mostly an objection to anyone chiming in with 'lol intellectuals' about an interview they haven't read with someone they don't know much about

fukuyama is p unique, a former conservative darling who has gradually moved left in his old age. there isn't much controversial in that interview really unless yr a big trump fan. he's become a bit of a boring moderate and I don't love his philosophy, but the origins of political order is imo a fun book w/ huge scope that is rich enough to be v rewarding regardless of what you make of his thesis

His conviction that Derrida was a moral relativist even after supposedly attending his seminars is post-historical code for 'I played truant'.

And I still have no idea what 'postmodernist Marxism' means, at least within the confines of academia.

I do think he's mostly otm re: identity politics, though.

I'm still of the opinion that "postmodern marxism" is an oxymoron

OK ogmor that was a better-reasoned rationale than FF offered for his inane dismissal of Derrida.

rationale for why FF might be worth reading, I mean

took me a sec to realise we’re not still talking about frank field and ‘ff’ was fukuyama

another great thinker of the modern age!

the end of history in a container under the m53

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks adding to the already dismaying proliferation of Jordan Petersen content on our national broadcasters schedules, might make me want to leave the country if it was a realistic option. But as it is it makes me want to launch the radio out of the window.

I personally witnessed the end of history at Sug Con

― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Sunday, 2 September 2018 15:03 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this a ref to lunagate

i think simon is referring to the sugondese contingent’s performance in the breakout ligma session

hm

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/03/labour-must-reconnect-with-its-roots-to-heal-uks-rifts-says-stephen-kinnock

This is more 'turning up a dial taht says "Racism"' stuff from Kinnock which had me wondering why anyone would bother commissioning a book from him, and his clique, when everyone has heard it a thousand times before.

I'm not the only one apparently - as there are currently lots of people on Twitter trying to find any evidence that the book actually exists. There's no mention of a publisher, almost nothing on the web about it, etc.

I assume there's an element of "who you know" in publishing, especially nowadays, especially for that kind of book, but he

he's pretty much outed as a fantasist by now nicht war?

It's craven doublespeak and I hope he gets voted out asap tbh

Surely the main revenue stream for such a book doesn’t come from the fewer than 500 copies sold to the public, but from getting serialisation/excerpt dosh from a paper. Or a buy-in that’s given free with Progress subs.

god imagine the state of the fucking mutants who would willingly pay money to read the collected thoughts of stephen kinnock

actually i dunno if I can imagine them, do they even exist?

Frank Field seemed to have been knocking out a book a year since the 70's, the flow of great knowledge is far more important than profit in this strange realm!

The prevailing theory is that it’s a pamphlet that will be given away as a free PDF like Tristram Hunt’s heavily-trailed opus.

If you thought Ten Cities That Made an Empire was fucking riveting, this one will really have you bouncing off the walls!

Momentum clean sweep in the NEC election again.

Izzard unable to beat Willsman but closest of the bunch.

Great minds think alike:

absolutely howling that Stephen Kinnock and Will Straw's new centrist book uses the exact same cover as Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell's old libertarian fantasy manifesto pic.twitter.com/Gne49vN2m9

— Alex Sakalis (@alexsakalis) September 3, 2018

cover image available here: https://www.istockphoto.com/gb/vector/making-a-new-uk-gm525016070-92310513

Kinnock and Straw, together at last. It's like a nightmare.

The Willsman thing is very depressing but I guess a lot of the votes were cast some time ago?

Yes, people would normally have voted weeks beforehand.

It’s a good reason to look at who makes up the left slate in future, and how that’s decided, but not particularly significant in itself.

Possibly not weeks, actually, but certainly some time beforehand. It takes about thirty seconds to vote and a lot of people would do it more or less as soon as the ballot opens.

A few people who’ve repeatedly said they’re leaving Labour are now really, definitely leaving Labour because Willsman was elected. Does anyone think he’ll decline his own election and cede the position to Izzard?

No chance.

Regardless of the mechanics of voting, the most charitable of all interpretations is that its a terrible look for a party trying to show its serious about antisemitism.

The least charitable interpretation is pretty obvious.

The mechanics are absolutely crucial to the outcome.

The worst indictment is that you could have put Harambe as the 9th member of the Momentum list instead of Willsman and he would have been posthumously elected. The party needs better democratic structures.

Bannon headlining The New Yorker Festival?????

perhaps the biggest problem of left/Labour antisemitism is that 95 percent of these cocks genuinely don't understand or believe that they're saying antisemitic stuff. I say this not as an excuses but in pure despair

oh sorry wrong thread. xpost.

Has as much impact on our politics as yours at the moment, tbf.

I voted for Willsman and the rest of the Momentum slate very early doors and without any due diligence. Probably best leaving it till a bit later next time. All that JC9 mob are an embarrassment, just because there are troubling double standards and hypocrisy from the media it doesn't justify applying double standards to dickheads within the Labour party and deluding yourself that they are beyond criticism, and of course its an MSM fit up etc.... ad nauseum.......

Idiots like Williamson and Willsman's offhand and offensive dismissals of Labour AS have been much more damaging than the imbalanced BBC coverage or Margaret Hodge's latest rant, or the latest Dan Hodges smearjob, or whatever. Because I feel if I were Jewish, their attempts at trivialising something very real would have my AS radar beeping very loudly.

[SHAMELESS] lol my own novel's cover reads like an unwitting parody of those covers [/SHAMELESS]

For the uninitiated, how much of a centrist dad is Izzard?

Self-described Blairite in the past, backed heavily by the anti-Corbyn factions within the party but much less vocal than a lot of people in criticising Corbyn. He talks a good game about being a bridge between the different wings and probably wins some respect from the left on that basis.

I voted for Willsman and the rest of the Momentum slate very early doors and without any due diligence.

Yeah, me too.