Brendan O'Neill - Spiked

That's why, in the case of Spiked, there's so much confusion about whether they are on the left or the right

Why does a publication with multiple contributors NEED to be one or the other?

Spiked’s big thing is free speech absolutism.

For a free speech website to be all left wing or all right wing would be nonsensical.

i think you go hard on resisting the idea that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. And you look at anyone who’s teaming you with a very clear eye.

it’s shit though, I agree. I think lots of us are feeling lonely at an existential level. I know I am.

PS, @Tarragone - I couldn’t actually read your link because I’m not a subscriber - are you?

Did you read The Spectator article you shared or did you just find a headline that suited your aim of trashing O’Neill?

I looked to see if a non-paywall copy of it had been archived, nope.

So I tried a Google search for ‘Feminism Islamism Brendan O’Neill’

Still no joy.

But I did find other bits and pieces that O’Neill had written on those subjects, from a ten year time span:

2013:
brendanoneill.co.uk/post/57274982403/you-know-which-other-countries-cover-up-lads-mags/

2015: brendanoneill.co.uk/post/130326326709/let-yourself-be-offended-its-good-for-you/

And here is a 2021 podcast episode:

‘Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Brendan O’Neill discuss how migration without integration has eroded women’s rights’

www.spiked-online.com/podcast-episode/multiculturalism-has-failed-women/

Here’s a very recent one: www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/08/the-shameful-silence-on-the-talibans-war-on-women/

so it seems to me (and remember, I cannot read your supplied link) that Brendan’s 2015 critique of feminism is likely to be of it’s tendency towards being censorious, to shut down speech and curtail choice rather than stand up and make a positive case for the opposite.

And ten years on from when O’Neill said that feminism was behaving like islamism, when the name of Feminism has been thoroughly hijacked by the sex work is work pro pimp lobby, by men who claim to be women telling us not to mention our female biology because it isn’t ‘inclusive’, when women’s speech has been interrupted by ‘intersectional feminist activists’ banging on windows, when women have been hounded out of their jobs, when they’ve been forced out of rape crisis support groups (supposedly run by feminists for women) for daring to ask for a female only option…

Don’t you think that, in hindsight, Brendan O’Neill might’ve had a bloody good point?

So tell me, please, did you actually read the article you linked to?

Bonus: I even found a 2015 tweet for the link you posted, it only has one comment… ironically, the lone commentator is a male comedian… who now identifies as non binary!

Spiked are a funny lot with an odd backstory. Now I've heard gender critical pieces mocked because they appear in the Daily Mail or on GB news but my question is, if the part of the spectrum one normally disagrees with is just about the only one talking sanity, what does that say about the part of the spectrum you agree with.

If the "progessive"/left shut down anything but affirmation, where are you supposed to go?

Despite the facial feminisation surgery, the plucked eyebrow and the makeup, Mulvaney is still obviously, recognisably male.

And I very much agree with Arabella, in as much as you can generally dislike a person, but find an article they've written to be very powerful and entirely on point.

This. Brendan O'Neill is no friend to feminism. He and the LM/Spiked crew are cut from the same contrarian cloth, weirdly, as both Trumpism and Queer Theory - populist Lords of Misrule who will say or do anything they perceive to be transgressive or 'disruptive' because they know that ultimately, the groups whose interests they support will benefit more from chaos than stability. That's why, in the case of Spiked, there's so much confusion about whether they are on the left or the right.

NicolaSturgeonsSOGIbottom · Today 12:50

It’s hard to ignore the elephant in the room when the elephant puts on lipstick and starts dancing around suggestively, demanding we all say it looks JUST like Audrey Hepburn.

Ha ha hah! 😂

I don't believe Dylan had the amount of surgery he says he's had.
I agree he's hedging his bets for when his con is over.
The most obvious thing is a nose job and brow lift.
The reveal video was all lights and filters.

Comments on are not supportive, which is unusual because YouTube top comments tend to be fawning and sycophantic.

Indeed.

Are you aware of how feminism has been hollowed out as to be so useless to the material reality of women that most of us here on the feminist board routinely critique feminism too?

This.

I think you'd find that the majority of women on this board would no longer consider themselves feminists.

"Mulvaney is the furthest thing from a feminist I can think of. He’s jumped on this because he’s a cynical grifter, and he’s taking people that believe him like mugs. God I hate how easily people are duped."

Yep, that works.

When the TQ lobby and the political parties such as the SNP start to worry about the company they keep and the signs they stand under, then I might pay more attention. I'm not playing double standards games.

Great article. And, not to
lower the tone but, the 5 o’clock shadow in the top photo had me chuckling.

Are you aware of how feminism has been hollowed out as to be so useless to the material reality of women that most of us here on the feminist board routinely critique feminism too?

I couldn’t be arsed to scroll any further back than a year but O’Neill hasn’t just jumped on bandwagon the week that it became socially acceptable to call rapists men again!

from last February:

www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/23/trans-privilege/

Gosh a veritable slew of new posters today!

Dunno, if they did a few rounds of laundry, the boring end of the grocery shopping, emptied the dishwasher etc etc etc week in week out AND put up with patronising male colleagues for a few years that might be fun. For a moment.

Far right?

🤣🤣🤣

Now come on. Where would the fun be in that? That would spoil the moment.

Very male - no attempt at all to think themselves into a female mindspace.

And are you aware we don't live in communist China and are allowed to learn and change our mind?

Whereas I always think how irritated I would be with a man who behaved like that. As there currently seem to be a lot that do

Because like you I don't know this type of woman. It's very....male isn't it?

GrumpyPanda Nuts tucked away everywhere.

Oh, gosh, are we supposed to be condemning someone again? Apologies - I missed that memo.

In future, I will be sure not to express admiration at any well written article with points that I agree on lest it tarnish my dazzling reputation.