Of course, politicians have always played fast and loose with the truth. But there's something about the scale, depth and sheer brazenness of political lying today, and the degree to which it is tolerated or even amplified by a largely compliant press...
I wonder whether this is the real cause of our failing democracy. Instead we're continually told that the greatest threat to democratic life comes from new technology and foreign enemies - major algorithms, Russian bots, etc. Of course all of these things pose serious risks...
But the reach and impact of rampant falsehoods pumped out by a Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, major corporations and media institutions dwarfs anything that blows up in social media bubbles...
Deflecting and projecting existential threats on to the 'new' and the 'other' has always been a staple of capitalist ideology

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More from @jrschlosberg

3 Oct
It's interesting that in amongst the usual spewage of hate bile that right-wing and centrist extremists love to heap on socialist Jews, is the reference to 'kapos'; a derogatory term used to describe Jews who collaborated with the Nazis...
One of the great and tragic ironies is that the majority of Jews who were on the front lines of the ghetto uprisings, who confronted and fought the Nazi collaborators, who embodied the spirit and tradition of Jewish resistance, were almost entirely socialists...
It's a double irony that they were also ardent Zionists, who believed passionately in equality and cooperation between Jews and Arabs, a mutual right to self-determination or a binational state with equal rights for all...
Read 5 tweets
13 Sep
A thread on why @UKLabour's ever more brazen targeting of left wing Jews reflects one of the most appalling bi-products of the anti-Corbyn movement: the normalisation of a particularly insidious form of antisemitism...
There are of course some Jews on the left who have downplayed or ignored the very real problem of antisemitism within the Labour movement. This was wrong, even if the extent of the problem was indeed exaggerated by others for political gain...
But this futile and damaging debate about the 'scale' of the problem overshadowed a disturbing trend that has been roundly ignored even by left wing commentators with mainstream platforms...
Read 10 tweets
6 Jul
Why are the left so angry with @Guardian? Like many other newspapers, it does some very good journalism, sometimes makes mistakes and has its own ideological blind spots. But I don't think the anger is as much to do with its coverage as a systemic failure of accountability...
When the NY Times was exposed over its disastrous pre Iraq war coverage, it famously published a front page apology to readers. Although it went on to repeat many of the same mistakes, the apology mattered. It was an important moment of humility and self-reflection...
In contrast over the last 5 years @guardian has proved itself institutionally and almost pathologically resistant to meaningful accountability at every turn...
Read 10 tweets
13 Jun
Quick update on this.. since @EuanPhilipps and @LabourAgainstAS studiously ignored my requests to disclose the 'substantial body of evidence' they claimed to have compiled and submitted on me in relation to antisemitism, I made a subject access request to @UKLabour...
Unfortunately, in keeping with other examples of the party doing everything it can to undermine the most basic of democratic rights, @UKLabour have unlawfully ignored my SAR in spite of repeated requests for a response...
I will now be making a formal complaint to @iconews. In the meantime, I reiterate my appeal to @LabourAgainstAS and @EuanPhilipps to disclose the evidence they claim to have on me...
Read 4 tweets
20 Apr
A thread in response:

I’ve always admired the work of @medialens. Both their critical alerts on mainstream media coverage and their efforts to engage politely and constructively with journalists has been a big influence on my own research as well activism. However...
their critical review of this new book about @Guardian betrays, I think, a fairly recurrent and fundamental flaw in their analysis of the media...
Their review opens with a reference to what Chomsky and others have articulated as the ‘non-conspiratorial conformity’ of mainstream media journalists...
Read 16 tweets
13 Feb
since @LabourAgainstAS seem to have gone a little coy about this, I'll take an educated guess at what's in their 'substantial body of evidence' against me...

1. They'll accuse me of sharing a platform with Jackie Walker whom I have publicly criticised...
Because like anyone with an ounce of sanity, I don't believe a person with Jewish heritage who then chooses to marry and spend their life with another person from an orthodox Jewish family, who observes Jewish rituals and customs, actually hates Jews...
2. They'll say I defended/supported/campaigned for Chris Williamson because I objected to his suspension and believe that, like Ken Livingstone, people who say insensitive and silly things sometimes are not necessarily antisemitic...
Read 16 tweets

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