"There's an illusion in the United States that we have free press. And it is purely an illusion. The censorship that takes place here doesn't just come from the government...
... It is a result of the editorial viewpoint of the people who own the individual broadcast licences, the invididual newspapers and magazines. None of these people are liberal. 90% of the people who own media are of an extreme right wing persuasion..."
... In fact, one of the things that these right wing broadcasters have done is to create a smokescreen. A few years ago, they started this campaign, that worked like this:
They had people from right wing organisations go on TV and complain that the media had a liberal bias...
... And then spent a year or more having debates and arguments between these people - who would talk about whether or not the media was too liberal.
And it never was liberal. It was always right wing...
... But by bringing these people from the right wing onto television to challenge the liberality of broadcasting, they created a situation where they could claim that in order to have more fairness in their broadcasting, they had to inject a more right wing element into it..."
... "They've created the myth that American broadcasting and American media has a liberal bias it never has had. It couldn't have. Because the people who own it are in no way liberal".
Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) isn't just fearless. I regard her as THE smartest, sharpest, brainiest commentator in New Left Media. Nothing gets past her. Nothing.
I do have a few points though. These aren't criticisms in any way. They're more like additions.
1. There are plenty of poor Jews. Antisemitism often punches up but it punches down too. And Jews, like Muslims and other minorities, have been disproportionately killed by Covid-19.
Personally, I find the idea that Priti Patel didn't know the harm she was causing 100% plausible.
And why? Because people without a shred of empathy do not know and do not care about the consequences for others. They live in their own self-aggrandising, self-promoting world.
We live in a world in which narcissists, sociopaths, even psychopaths rise to the top (as such things do). The reason for that is because our culture celebrates and encourages extreme ruthlessness, selfishness and yes, bullying. At all levels.
Until recently, it was still a problem if someone got caught. But now that no longer matters either. Because these bullies, narcissists and liars are surrounded by a culture which actively enables them and punishes not just whistleblowers, but decent people with integrity.
Yesterday, I discussed how powerful narratives are. But the thing about narratives is: we all use them to make meaning of our lives and the world.
Very many on the left have a (mostly, factual) narrative about recent years too. This thread tries to put myself in their shoes.
That's something I should've done far, far, far more of. It's just that Twitter really doesn't allow it.
Please keep that in mind if you complain about the length of the thread. Detail requires length, nuance, subtlety even; and cannot be explained in 280 characters.
The context here isn't just of a literally, intellectually and philosophically bankrupt Labour Party in 2015. It's of a political system which had been failing many millions for decades on end... and had simply abandoned them altogether.
So here's a complicated position (or set of positions?) for you. My own ones.
1. The narrative about antisemitism in Labour was a disgrace, a nonsense, and 99.7% false (and provably so).
2. This narrative was what terrified British Jews. Those who did that should be ashamed.
3. The narrative was, however, essentially impossible to challenge, for reasons I explained in January of last year. In such a scenario, anything Labour said or did would be twisted and lied about by people acting in horrifically bad faith.
4. The narrative was so successful, so powerful and so all-enveloping that it unquestionably played a part in Labour's defeat. Not just because of so many British Jews voting against Labour - but non-Jews who, quite naturally, were horrified.