Fair enough, Squid.
I honestly think OJ represents part of the bigger problem we have.
But it goes without saying that the largest problem we have is the current government and its aims.
Yes. Please let's talk it through with civility.
I do think that one issue - which Red has talked about again and again - is the reduction of politics to extremes and the abolition of nuance & compromise.
This thread is a wonderful place to re-introduce that.
I don't think we have to accept Owen Jones' style of polemicism as unproblematic just because the alternative is so dire. Not here, on this thread.
Maybe elsewhere, yes, we do. (I've gone campaigning with him, for heaven's sake. I know all about either/or choices.)
But here, here on this thread, surely it is permissible to allow ourselves the necessary luxury of a more unconstrained way of thinking - where we can say, 'There are problems with the kind of political engagement OJ represents and actually does.'
Because there are.
To unpack those problems is necessary to beginning to articulate a way out of the mess we're in, and to develop a politics beyond our contemporary carnage.
And it couldn't be more necessary because, let's be blunt, in the current situation we are losing.
And we badly need to stop losing.
Sadly, I don't think it's age, Squid. Or not age alone. I read a fantastic breakdown of political attitudes that demonstrated how attitudes have shifted, and are continuing to shift, across all ages, towards progressive values.
And I felt heartened - and then I thought, 'But we still have a massively right wing government, with a majority, and right-wing populism is enormously succesful outside the UK.'
So, we are clearly going to have to re-think how we do politics.
Because, at the moment, we are simply not doing politics well enough to win against the hard right.
🤷♀️