Billy Bragg is a wanker

[Anydaynowonewouldhope]

just read his new statesman word vomit

All very word salad

but what he is saying - but doesn’t have to balls to actually write it down clearly is:

the idea that there are two sexes and women are oppressed by men is reactionary and right wing

people (ie almost all women) must be accountable for this wrong think to - well - to him and other right thinkers

its so disingenuous

and just so soaked in misogyny

and worded in such a fluffy manner that the right on folx can nod away with it and bask in the glow of being so wonderfully righteous

he’s such a dickhead

Accountability starts from the position thst the ideas are wrong

that is what was so clever about Graham nortons framing - he didn’t come out and say he doesn’t think there’s two seeds and all the other stuff that sounds insane when you say it outloud - but heard it very clear he is on the tra side because by talking about accountability the whole assumption is that it is wrong think. A genuinely clever love - but also obviously an arsehole disingenuous move.

and then Billy came along but Billy is nowhere near as clever as Graham and hence you have his Twitter diarrhea

Visions of Billy getting a shiny new super-authoritarian clipboard for Xmas to help him keep track of all the nasty wimms and their wrong opinions…

Except that accountability can be positive and help people do better, eg governors hold head teachers to account, meaning that they require them to justify their decisions.

You think? I think it was an incredibly stupid move. Classic "I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face" stuff.

Not that Silly Bragg is much smarter.

‘Accountability’ is just one of those nuspeak bastardised buzzwords of the TRA lexicon.
It is a signal to the mob that you are one of them.

@PaleBlueMoonlight no I’m not talking about accountability in general I’m talking about in this case.

norton didn’t say jk Rowling is wrong. He said she should
be held accountable - which in its framing presupposes that she is wrong (because if not why would she need to be “accountable”).

but it’s sufficiently word salady that in five years time he’ll be able to deny that he actually took a position

and he threw in the talk to trans children as a sop

the logic does not stand up to scrutiny as Bragg discovered on twitter

i think Graham Norton is quite nasty

Same here. One of the joys of liberating myself from the left is no longer having to pretend to like the output knobs like him.

Just read through BB's exchanges with Sal Grover. I can't decide whether he's completely disingenuous, utterly cowardly or thick as pig shit. Possibly all three.

Fair enough. I think I have only just stopped to think about what "accountability" actually means.

As for Norton, am I right that he an JKR are friends, but disagree on this, hence the weasel words?

i can’t imagine they’ll be having Xmas drinks after this

It was awful timing, his article seems to have come out just before the Daily Mail published the story of the sexual assault survivor denied medical care for being 'transphobic'.

Every time he opines on something women's rights related on twitter, I end up singing the first few lines of "Valentine's Day Is Over" to myself
Some day boy you'll reap what you've sown
You'll catch a cold and you'll be on your own
And you will see
That what's wrong with me
Is wrong with everyone
That you want to play your little games on

I can't decide if he's just thick or he really hasn't been paying the slightest bit of attention.

I don’t really understand what Billy Bragg is saying. It seems to me that this whole thing boils down to “do you accept that trans ideology means collateral damage occurs and who are you more bothered about it affecting?” The mealy mouthed refusal to accept the collateral damage seems so disingenuous and we should welcome those who highlight and try to tackle the nitty gritty issues of this ideology rather than those who wax lyrical about being kind and don’t raise the problems because otherwise your words kill. I’m not interested in what a celebrity or politician has to say unless they talk to the blunt realities of what’s going on here. Nicola sturgeon I’m looking at you- just say what collateral damage is more acceptable to you, stop pretending it doesn’t exist.

Collateral damage to young people who might calm their dysphoria by long term therapy (that doesn’t exist) instead of harming their bodies in the short and long term, that kids/ people will die by their own hands if they can’t trans as quickly as possible, that women will die / be harmed by predatory men (of whatever persuasion) who use trans as a perverse entry pass to “safe” single sex spaces, that the end point of trans ideology will ensure data collection and allocation of scant sex based resources won’t occur and women be harmed as a result of that, that denying the reality of sex based experience will harm women versus that rejecting sex based experience will make trans people feel better and therefore less likely to self harm and that a society that labels people instead of accepting their dysphoria as fact means trans people will be victimised and harmed.

JK is an expert communicator. She is clear as day in all she says. Her refusal to STFU and accept, hide or minimise the inevitable collateral damage to this ideology for women but also trans people is brilliant.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again.

Billy Bragg’s singing sounds like a moose that’s popped a bollock.

OP 👏
Awesome thread title 👏
Wanker is such an inclusuve term for all persons with cocks, however they identify.

When he says

“I have long believed that what right-wing media call “cancel culture” is nothing more than the tendency of reactionaries to cry wolf when caught conducting a rearguard action against the progress made by minorities over the past half-century.”

I think, why?

On what evidence?

Where did that belief come from? What informed it Billy?

He’s like a brainless weathervane waiting for a gust of wind to point him in the direction of what to believe.

A complete absence of actual thinking.

I feel annoyed about the attention that gets wasted on this gormless nobber.

IIRC the first casualties of ‘cancel culture’ were Julie Bindel, Germaine Greer and Meghan Murphy, just before intersectional feminism was weaponised by pornsick men.

Except that accountability can be positive and help people do better, eg governors hold head teachers to account, meaning that they require them to justify their decisions

Well yes, that’s what it should mean when you are talking about ideas, or advocating for policy or legislative changes. It should mean being accountable in terms of being prepared to have your ideas rigorously critiqued and debated and being able to robustly argue and defend your position. You know, in the way that Stonewall et Al completely failed to do with their ‘no debate’ position. Was BB criticizing them for failing to be accountable? Was he praising FPFW for wanting to be accountable by engaging in public debate with Stonewall? Anyone got the screenshots of this?
And you know, cancelling people is the precise opposite of holding them to account, as it’s an attempt to stop their ideas being scrutinized and debated.

Nicola sturgeon I’m looking at you- just say what collateral damage is more acceptable to you, stop pretending it doesn’t exist

The cowardice of refusing to face head on this key issue disgusts me.

Exactly.

The normal meaning of ‘accountability’ is something that goes hand in hand with ‘responsibility’.

It now means ‘your enemies vengeance is justified no matter what form it takes’.

Sorry missed an apostrophe there

Accountability = I can hurt you because I don’t like you.

Oh dear Billy, have womens sexual politics left you all in a muddle?

😂
And the thread dies because nobody can top that line!

Bragg just used the phrase “my missus” on his Twitter.

I rest my case.

Mic drop.

Oh good God. Now we also know he attempts to initiate sex with her by asking for a bit of how's your father and keeps his socks on throughout.

@ReneBumsWombats he also just wouldn’t be able to find anything in the house without her. What’s he like!

I would bet my life savings that he doesn’t know where the linen closet is.