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Guessing Talcum X will be spitting chips over this one. Cracking article in the Guardian! Well done Nick.

39 replies

JustcameoutGC · 02/10/2021 18:33

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/02/if-labour-is-afraid-to-fight-those-who-stifle-free-speech-it-will-pay-dearly

My favourite line is.

"But – and surely I do not need to spell this out – when the means include the suppression of debate you open the door to every variety of grifter and fanatic."

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Abhannmor · 04/10/2021 10:50

@zanahoria

I have never liked Nick Cohen but that is a great piece.

It always shocks me how quick some activists are to dob someone into their employer.

Me neither - but this is a coruscating piece of writing. I've been saying his closing lines to anyone who will listen for years. You can bully people online, threaten them and even get them fired. But you can't follow them into a polling booth.
Sickoffamilydrama · 03/10/2021 08:07

[quote NutellaEllaElla]**@Sickoffamilydrama* and @PickAChew*, as a wavy girl I had not ventured into that corner of the internet. I just googled the big chop thing and my mind is well and truly blown. How sad, the world is becoming more divisive.[/quote]
Yes I'm thinking of leaving that group it was very toxic and apparently they are one of the more sensible ones! Sommer were saying they needed to keep going until she was "reducated" & were making extra accounts to do just that.

Sickoffamilydrama · 03/10/2021 08:00

Yes and the younger ( 18-25/30) more woke demographic are probably less likely to watch the news or at least when I was that age we didn't really. They are also the ones that don't really vote aren't they?

So that could well mean it's those who will actually be voting who have watched the coverage and they've not liked what they've heard.

allmywhat · 03/10/2021 07:22

Do conferences ever boost polls much?

Traditionally yes, just from the impact of whatever news coverage the conference gets I suppose. I wonder if it’s still as much of thing now news is so fragmented and decentralised.

merrymouse · 03/10/2021 06:09

Or is this directed at party members and just laying the groundwork for a leadership challenge?

merrymouse · 03/10/2021 06:07

Wasn't sure where to put this, but it was this thread that made me check OJ's twitter, and he is affecting surprise that the Labour party conference didn't result in a boost in the polls. His solution is, of course, to pander harder to the woke wing.

Do conferences ever boost polls much? Aren’t they just fundamentally uninteresting to most people?

NutellaEllaElla · 03/10/2021 04:48

@Sickoffamilydrama and @PickAChew, as a wavy girl I had not ventured into that corner of the internet. I just googled the big chop thing and my mind is well and truly blown. How sad, the world is becoming more divisive.

allmywhat · 03/10/2021 01:40

Wasn't sure where to put this, but it was this thread that made me check OJ's twitter, and he is affecting surprise that the Labour party conference didn't result in a boost in the polls. His solution is, of course, to pander harder to the woke wing.

twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1444388088487235587

I don't think he'll rest until he's finally able to do a smug I TOLD YOU SO dance on the Labour party's grave.

FlyingOink · 03/10/2021 01:21

The left need to collectively delete their Twitter accounts and stop reading the guardian and start to bloody well challenge the tories on policy and social deprivation and workers rights rather than prancing around expending all their energy on appeasing people who generally would rather wank into a sock than get out of bed on a rainy Thursday to vote.

This is spot on.

Drably · 03/10/2021 01:03

@JustcameoutGC

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/02/if-labour-is-afraid-to-fight-those-who-stifle-free-speech-it-will-pay-dearly

My favourite line is.

"But – and surely I do not need to spell this out – when the means include the suppression of debate you open the door to every variety of grifter and fanatic."

Ah, dear Rosemary Duffield, following in the footsteps of Suzanne Moore and all the other "silenced" grifters.
PickAChew · 03/10/2021 00:34

The textured hair online stuff is extremely toxic in places. I looked and learned enough to tame my own mop and then backed the fuck off.

Sickoffamilydrama · 03/10/2021 00:26

Kind of of topic but came across this post straight after seeing a post on a FB group I'm in that actually made me uncomfortable but I couldn't work out exactly why.
A instragrammer who posts about curly hair said they were having a big chop which some POC find offensive & appropriation. So people tell her this but not only do they tell her it using their usual another's they made other accounts to tell her. She probably could have handled it better as she started to block people. Anyway woman apologises and still that isn't good enough. See the screenshot below. I don't follow this woman but it transpires that English isn't her first language so I can easily understand even more so getting it wrong. It's an example of the toxicity of left culture.

Anyway back to my link The first part of the article nailed it for me it's an example of authoritarianism, and that people must speak in the way we tell them otherwise they deserve to be punished.

It's interesting how it is happening everywhere.

Guessing Talcum X will be spitting chips over this one. Cracking article in the Guardian! Well done Nick.
TimeToDateAgain · 02/10/2021 23:07

@GCAcademic

I found it shocking that it took a Cambridge academic six weeks to find 25 academics prepared to sign a motion supporting free speech.
I'm impressed the academic found that number who were so confident in their tenure or careers.
exwhyzed · 02/10/2021 23:02

Isn't it funny how you can be anything on the right as long as you have money and enough nouse to hopscotch the tricky questions if cornered. Two women leaders/ prime ministers, many people of colour in more recent years in top positions. The issue I have with the tories is very simply rich man/ poor man and their complete lack of understanding that not everyone has savings to fall back on.

But on the left... it's still overwhelmingly pale and male and independent thought of no avail. Any one that (I.e most people,in the real,world) dare step out of the box are rounded on. They party is like a warring couple refusing to divorce 'for the sake of the kids' without recognising that kids have already abandoned ship and are staying at auntie Anne's as much as possible and are refusing to take sides.

Then they wonder why people who should vote for them are choosing not to.

The left need to collectively delete their Twitter accounts and stop reading the guardian and start to bloody well challenge the tories on policy and social deprivation and workers rights rather than prancing around expending all their energy on appeasing people who generally would rather wank into a sock than get out of bed on a rainy Thursday to vote.

My rant ends with the assertion that if Owen Jones should go and start his own party and stop destroying what is left of the guardian and Labour.

SpindleWhirl · 02/10/2021 22:52

I've seen this on here before, posters understandably getting optimistic about something that appears in the Guardian, when in fact it's the separately-edited (Sunday) Observer.

The Observer is far superior and not in thrall to the US 'Silicon Valley' influence that has destroyed much of the Guardian under its current editor.

GCAcademic · 02/10/2021 22:47

I found it shocking that it took a Cambridge academic six weeks to find 25 academics prepared to sign a motion supporting free speech.

RoastChicory · 02/10/2021 22:45

Absolutely excellent article.

Totally echoes my time at a large public sector institution. We had to have ‘diversity training’ from Morgan ‘Cotton Ceiling’ Page and to repeat phrases such as ‘sex assigned at birth.’ No one dared speak for fear of being outed as a heretic.

Geluksvogel · 02/10/2021 22:40

He's a columnist for the Observer but the piece came up in the Opinion section of the Guardian.

Cracking article.

NotBadConsidering · 02/10/2021 22:20

What I find interesting is that it’s been filed under “Transgender/Opinion” even though that isn’t the whole theme and only a few paragraphs discuss women’s rights.

Childrenofthestones · 02/10/2021 21:52

The Guardian has been at this shit for years behind closed doors. As bad as the DM in their own way. Check out Melanie Phillips book Guardian Angel, or any of her YT interviews on her time there.

KohlaParasanda · 02/10/2021 21:23

I don't do Twitter, but the "pregnant people" on The Guardian homepage today prompted me to get on and cancel my subscription instead of just muttering that I was going to cancel it. Not only is it a denial of elementary biology, its timing, straight after The Lancet's apparent ignorance about who has a vagina, makes it look like deliberate goading of women.

ChattyLion · 02/10/2021 20:38

Nick Cohen’s book ‘What’s left?’ is a good read, it’s old now but he’s been commenting on the changes to ‘the Left’ for years now.

zanahoria · 02/10/2021 20:10

I have never liked Nick Cohen but that is a great piece.

It always shocks me how quick some activists are to dob someone into their employer.

merrymouse · 02/10/2021 19:47

Like creationists, they have locked themselves into anti-Darwinian obscurantism. But unlike the religious right, they cannot claim that God made them do it.

Could ‘they’ means ‘Owen Jones’ Grin

HatsOnHatsOff · 02/10/2021 19:46

What a relief to read this article. Thanks for sharing.