Madigan is 20 years old and in politics. Not a kid
I don't like Lily. I think Lily needs to take responsibility.
But i'm going to point this out, as its been bugging me today.
Lily wanted to be a woman. So was going to do a fashion degree. Nothing says style like a pink hoodie.
Its quite the change to go from that, to getting a taste of politics, suddenly deciding that Labour is your new family, and now you want to be an MP so you've switched to wanting to do a fashion degree.
Its difficult to get away from seeing a pattern of a very narrow view of the world, where one thing leads to another in an obsessive way.
Lily's twitter is also telling, given the sudden switch in chosen degree. Someone wanting a career in politics, just starting out today, given the profile they already have following 86 Twitter feeds? All of which are voices that Lily approves and agrees with.
Not only is this an echo chamber, and will hugely restrict Lily's general knowledge but it also makes Lily the perfect political tool.
Lily doesn't critically think. We know this. Shouting down your political opponents might get you so far in politics but only if you suck up to the right people.
You are only ever going to be someone else's useful idiot. If that someone else falls out of favour you are screwed because you've built your entire career off the back of just repeating other people, never learning to understand the opposition point of view and never acquiring a broad base of general knowledge. All you can do us repeat what others have told you.
Lily isn't aware of this. For all nastiness and ignorance and the damage done to work out of whatever issues Lily has. No matter how much of a MRA Lily is, Lily is being used. And eventually will become a victim of it. Perhaps deservedly, but a casualty no less. Its not down to Lily's age. This is not simple naivity and lack of experience. Its more than that.
I repeat again. Lily wants to do a politics degree and follows just 86 accounts on twitter. Go look through them. All labour. Lily is not capable of a single original thought. Lily gets fed an idea and scrambles it around and just repeats it. Lily can not hold a conversation with anyone outside of Lily's world. Lily's solution to that is to try and beat them to their way of thinking too or to see it as a personal affront.
I can't argue the point for any of the others.
As Lily gets older, I doubt it will change either. The entitlement isn't simply privilege manifesting itself. Its a coping strategy.
And sadly, if your chosen career path is going to be to represent people you have to be able to do more than that and have the potential to do more than that, and for mentors to recognise that limitation.
Why hasn't a single one of Lily's mentors said, 'you should improve your general knowledge by following opposition figures or x journalist?'. Instead all Lily is, is a rent a gob on Lily's life and identity. Its not even vacuous. Its worse than vacuous. It thrives off voyeurism of the car crash. Its reality star politics.
If Lily was in music, Lily would be in a boy band, with an image someone else had given them. A few years down the line, the fans are all gone and no one cares anymore. Unlike the others, who have ability in their own bullshit, Lily won't make money off the back of it. Someone else will.
Do I feel sorry for Madigan. Not particularly. But I do see Madigan in a different way.