The Guardian left the comments on…

[TheOutlaws]

…and then closed them while I was composing my (supportive) response!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/21/sex-education-final-season-four-review-one-long-list-of-frustrations

Sex Education turned into such a bore fest, I stopped watching it after Season 2. I note that lots of its stars were in the (fairly GC) Barbie movie.

Pleasingly, you can “report” the community mod comment about comments being opened in error. Think we should all report for trolling.

"If Sex Education were staying true to its early, far more radical roots, it might have questioned the idea of surgery on healthy bodies as a cure for anything, but although it hints later at the potential downsides of relentless positivity, here the rule remains absolute affirmation only."

https://archive.ph/dn9FI#selection-1429.665-1429.955

I am finding it grimly amusing every time I'm seeing a comment about cheerleading of Russell Brand by The Guardian. An example of the genre:

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/549533037281959936

I thought I’d have a look at that Guardian article in the tweet (apparently lauding Russell Brand as one of the Guardian’s heroes of 2014), but the Graun seems to have disabled it. 1984 is alive and well and history will be rewritten (or at least deleted).

Very brave of Lucy M. I hadn't read the review (I don't watch much TV anyway, and Sex Education's not my kind of thing) but I do like her writing.

The article is still there - probably just a dodgy short url in that tweet that has decayed over time.

In praise of ... Russell Brand
Heroes of 2014: Russell Brand
George Monbiot 29 Dec 2014
The volatile comedian-turned-activist’s ability to be openly and honestly flawed sets him apart from the grand old men of the left

No one is better at attacking Russell Brand than Russell Brand. He takes the lavish criticisms aimed at him and, like Cyrano de Bergerac, shows his opponents how to do it properly.

He is volatile, vulnerable, troubled, mercurial, but unlike most people in public life, he makes no attempt to hide it. His emotional honesty helps to explain his appeal, and his ability to inspire people who had switched off from politics.

Yes, his politics are rough and inchoate, but he doesn’t claim to have all the answers. Sometimes he can be incoherent. But even that is a refreshing change from the stifling coherence of some of the grand old men of the left, for whom everything must conform to a rigid scheme of loyalties and enmities, and who appear unable to admit mistakes. This obnoxious and dishonest rigidity, often enforced by a cult-like following, is, I believe, one of the reasons why the left often struggles to build support.

Brand’s openness about his flaws makes him a good leader, and allows those who admire him to be good followers. He’s the best thing that has happened to the left in years.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/29/russell-brand-comedian-turned-activist

Archived: https://archive.ph/Oeu1a

All the Guardian's "Heroes of 2014"
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=allintitle%3A+%22heroes+of+2014%22+site%3Awww.theguardian.com

Ah, it was George Monbiot- he wrote an article a few years later saying that it's a shame that Brand (who probably did some good encouraging young people to vote) had completely lost the plot. So effectively a 'correction' I'd have thought.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/10/russell-brand-politics-public-figures-responsibility

There. I don't think we can judge papers for printing positive things about people before any allegations have come to light, can we? They haven't deleted the article. They haven't supported him.

They have censored Lucy though.... I'm not saying they're not spineless.

Coming back to this thread to share this rather good letter from Prof AM Celâl Şengör of Istanbul Technical University. Should be required reading for all at the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/29/sheer-stupidity-is-a-threat-to-our-scientific-progress