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    He's not bad, but the Character He's playing on LBC is wearing.

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      ....and he addresses people he doesn't know as "mate".

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        My friends in London like O'Brien (brobably cos he's not as right-wing as the average radio host). He has a great interview on Youtubve with Akala.

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          Originally posted by Tactical Genius View Post
          My friends in London like O'Brien (brobably cos he's not as right-wing as the average radio host). He has a great interview on Youtubve with Akala.
          It was particularly good as Akala was tying him in knots. O'Brien couldn't keep up.

          I fucking love Akala.

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            Armando Iannucci can be a piss annoying centrist as fuck fucker on the tweets, relentlessly anti Corbyn (and god knows I’m no fan of Corbyn), smug #FBPE or whatever those cunts self identity as. But then he did vote Lib Dem, apologist for Cleggist coalition obvious stupidity in 2010 so he’s obvs a bit of an arse. Death of Stalin was shite as well.

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              Authentocrats has made me reassess the cult of Chris Morris (more the fanboys than Morris himself) as well. And being honest, 4 Lions was really shite. And watching again, so was half of Brass eye.

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                My Blue Jam Warp cd remains a treasured possession but. Which the likes of Nighty Night have mined the queasily uncomfortable humour way more successfully than subsequent Morris stuff. Julia Davis ftw.
                Last edited by Lang Spoon; 01-10-2018, 19:48.

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                  Originally posted by EIM View Post
                  Anyone else sing this thread title to 'My Lovely Horse' in their head?
                  My particular earworm for this thread goes "If you have a centrist mate, now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end"

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                    Originally posted by EIM View Post
                    It was particularly good as Akala was tying him in knots.
                    Aye, Cub Scout leaders have that skill in their locker.

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                      I thought Death of Stalin was great, as was Brass Eye, and Partridge, and The Thick of It. Doesn't mean that Ianucci isn't a wanker though. Which he is.

                      He's followed a long line of Oxbridge comedians and writers who have been infesting our screens since the 1960s (Jack fucking Whitehall is my particular bete noire); they're only really satirical in a gentle Radio 4 kind of way, and will always be LibDems/Centrists or thereabouts, because they don't actually want any real change. If there was, their educational and financial advantages would come crashing down.

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                        Charlie Brooker as well. Just about every Black Mirror ep has the same plot. Screenwipe became unbearably smug

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                          Stewart Lee becoming a Lib Dem is almost crushingly predictable as well.

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                            I'm pretty sure that 99% of the people who work at the BBC - or, indeed, in independent mainstream media sectors - are deeply establishment people. The kind of people who get those gigs are Oxbridge types, or people who're appealed to by Oxbridge institutional norms. The BBC is the worst of the lot, of course. It might be "left wing" in a vague, PCish, as inoffensive as possible, kind of way. But it's never really had much ideology apart from adoration of the established order, whatever that happens to be at the time. Boat race and Varsity match every year, every Royal event ever, wasn't it better when cricket was gentlemen and not players, stand for the FA Cup Final hymn, here are our token jew, muslim and catholic on thought for the day but every other religious thing on the BBC is the established church. 5 years ago, staying in the EU was the establishment position and that's where the BBC stood. In a rapid shift, the establishment is now all pro Brexit, so the BBC follows along.

                            Anyway, establishment types want to maintain all the normal order. Satire is great for mocking variations from the established order. So is it any surprise that our nations satirists, funny though they are, are basically liberal, establishment centrists who want to find the stable middle ground bang in the middle of the Overton Window...

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                              Satire seems more and more a useless thing as we enter (or return to) real barbarism in the UK and US at least. A safety valve for the comfortable. There are few things more disgusting than the joke parts of Private Eye.

                              Nothing new under the sun suppose. Swift was a horrible reactionary cunt in the main.

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                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                I'm pretty sure that 99% of the people who work at the BBC - or, indeed, in independent mainstream media sectors - are deeply establishment people. The kind of people who get those gigs are Oxbridge types, or people who're appealed to by Oxbridge institutional norms. The BBC is the worst of the lot, of course. It might be "left wing" in a vague, PCish, as inoffensive as possible, kind of way. But it's never really had much ideology apart from adoration of the established order, whatever that happens to be at the time. Boat race and Varsity match every year, every Royal event ever, wasn't it better when cricket was gentlemen and not players, stand for the FA Cup Final hymn, here are our token jew, muslim and catholic on thought for the day but every other religious thing on the BBC is the established church. 5 years ago, staying in the EU was the establishment position and that's where the BBC stood. In a rapid shift, the establishment is now all pro Brexit, so the BBC follows along.

                                Anyway, establishment types want to maintain all the normal order. Satire is great for mocking variations from the established order. So is it any surprise that our nations satirists, funny though they are, are basically liberal, establishment centrists who want to find the stable middle ground bang in the middle of the Overton Window...
                                All this. That's why I'm one of those 'the BBC is generally shit' people, who is constantly toying with cancelling my license fee, for what it's worth.

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                                  The British Museum has an exhibition on "dissent" curated by Ian Hislop and sponsored by Citibank

                                  Private Eye was vicious crude and brilliant and its still produces the best investigative journalism in Britain. Ingrams Paul Foot Peter Cook were angry public school boys with drawings from the likes of Steadman and .Scarfe But the jokes are now soft 50 year old formulae, with a topping of racism and homophobia.

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                                    Originally posted by EIM View Post
                                    It was particularly good as Akala was tying him in knots. O'Brien couldn't keep up.

                                    I fucking love Akala.
                                    Yep, so do I. James O'Brien had the good sense to keep quiet and let him do most of the talking.

                                    I shared a flight with him from Jamaica to the UK back in June. had a long talk and found him a very intelligent guy.

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                                      I went out and bought Akala's book straight after I heard the podcast. It's a great read. Explains beautifully why British (well, English...) people are always the bad guys in films in a way history at school never did.

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                                        Every time I come across him on telly he impresses me so much, I have to assume that he's some sort of secret chicken strangler, because we're not allowed have nice things.

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                                          Originally posted by EIM View Post
                                          Anyone else sing this thread title to 'My Lovely Horse' in their head?
                                          Originally posted by Fussbudget View Post
                                          My particular earworm for this thread goes "If you have a centrist mate, now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end"
                                          This is where the party ends
                                          I can't stand here listening
                                          to you and your centrist mates.

                                          I know politics bore you
                                          but I feel like a hypocrite
                                          talking to you and your centrist mates.

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                                            Oh yeah I enjoy Black Mirror Reg, but as the seasons roll on there seems more and more a formula.

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                                              Part of me would like here to be a bit critical of this blanket condemnation of everyone who exhibits "centrist" tendencies. One of the things that most irritates me about them is their blanket sneering supercilious ridicule of anyone who is vaguely progressive*, so to do the same and sort of abuse everyone who harbours one or two dodgy views seems to fall into the same trap

                                              (yesterday I came across "Maomentum". Hilarious. They really are such geniuses - and to think many of them are actually writers by profession)

                                              But...but...but... I am getting increasingly angered by the centrist position on Palestinian human rights, holding Hamas responsible for all ills that befall the Palestinians or at best presenting the occupation as a struggle between Likud and Hamas, such that there is no "good" position to take and tacitly therefore approving of the status quo. Believing every piece of propaganda that comes out of the IDF but shooting down any reportage that dares to suggest that killing innocent people is a bad thing and actually Israeli policy. There are so many people that I actually like and believe deep down are actually good people who nevertheless are awful and vile on the subject of Palestinian humanity. It makes me utterly sick. Jo Rowling is one of them, to be honest, and there are a lot of ex-OTFers who fall into this category too. It saddens me and causes me to believe that there really is no hope for the Palestinian cause. If "left"(ish) people can't see the racism and brutality and mass murder for what it is and actively oppose it, then what hope is there? Sickening and tragic.

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                                                Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                                Part of me would like here to be a bit critical of this blanket condemnation of everyone who exhibits "centrist" tendencies. One of the things that most irritates me about them is their blanket sneering supercilious ridicule of anyone who is vaguely progressive*, so to do the same and sort of abuse everyone who harbours one or two dodgy views seems to fall into the same trap

                                                (yesterday I came across "Maomentum". Hilarious. They really are such geniuses - and to think many of them are actually writers by profession)

                                                But...but...but... I am getting increasingly angered by the centrist position on Palestinian human rights, holding Hamas responsible for all ills that befall the Palestinians or at best presenting the occupation as a struggle between Likud and Hamas, such that there is no "good" position to take and tacitly therefore approving of the status quo. Believing every piece of propaganda that comes out of the IDF but shooting down any reportage that dares to suggest that killing innocent people is a bad thing and actually Israeli policy. There are so many people that I actually like and believe deep down are actually good people who nevertheless are awful and vile on the subject of Palestinian humanity. It makes me utterly sick. Jo Rowling is one of them, to be honest, and there are a lot of ex-OTFers who fall into this category too. It saddens me and causes me to believe that there really is no hope for the Palestinian cause. If "left"(ish) people can't see the racism and brutality and mass murder for what it is and actively oppose it, then what hope is there? Sickening and tragic.
                                                I think those people want credit for "progressive" politics, but don't want to actually risk anything or do any proper analysis. They've always been around and their opinions are always far less relevant than they believe.

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                                                  Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                                  Part of me would like here to be a bit critical of this blanket condemnation of everyone who exhibits "centrist" tendencies. One of the things that most irritates me about them is their blanket sneering supercilious ridicule of anyone who is vaguely progressive*, so to do the same and sort of abuse everyone who harbours one or two dodgy views seems to fall into the same trap
                                                  I get you and I worry that I'm guilty of that, sometimes. Not everyone who harbours opinions different to mine is an asshole and the modern Left is not without flaws (I think we've all acknowledged as much during our time on OTF). So when I post anything on this thread I occasionally feel a little ashamed that I'd probably find it difficult to say the things I say here to the people I'm describing were I to meet them in real life (not that I'm likely to).

                                                  But then, as you say, one looks at social media and comes across people who seemingly reserve most of their hatred and bile for ostensibly their "own" side. It goes beyond Palestinian or Jewish rights (although protecting both of those demographics is fundamental to any leftist agenda). The planet is dying. It's beginning to burn before our eyes and the reason it's doing that isn't because of a few neglectful corporations or states. It's doing that because of capitalism. The political philosophy that we're repeatedly told is the Only Way To Do Things is destroying our planet because the inherent flaw in capitalism is that continuous growth of any kind is impossible - there is only a finite amount of resources. So the only way to save the planet is to ditch capitalism. It's literally a matter of life or death. And many of the people who I've (perhaps unkindly) described as centrists are sabotaging even the most tentative attempts (Corbyn's Labour, Sanders' Democrats) to halt the slide towards extermination because... because they found something on Twitter that they don't like. Because someone was rude to them on social media. They remind me of that bit in The Simpsons when Stampy the Elephant is charging towards the peanut factory and the manager, seeing this, closes the doors to deliver a grandstanding speech to his charges about how justified his behaviour was... before the elephant barges in and tramples over everybody. This is one of the reasons I find it so frustrating. A lot of the people you describe are, fundamentally, good people who want a fairer, safer society. But they either won't or can't accept that there's no "going back" to the way things were when they were young and that, if the world they want is to be realised, it means making sacrifices.

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                                                    I use brackets too much.

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