"we'll change the things that need changing and that's all we'll change": the paSUKification of post-brexit politics 2021

counterpoint: calling him "Action Man" and using the phrase "every inch" is a subtle piss-take

Every inch is not that many in sunak’s case tbf

lol xp

Labour are so skint they can't even afford individualised starmerbot accounts.

It's possibly even weirder than that. The Metcalfe tweet is, unfortunately, real, the 'Flora Gibson FBPE' one is a copy and paste from an account with an AI-generated avatar. It's definitely a bot but unlikely to be a Labour one as the bulk of the recent tweets are about Israeli war crimes or boosting cryptocurrencies, neither of which the Labour leadership is particularly interested in.

I'd guess it's designed to copy semi-popular tweets with a view to marketing Dogecoin but the idea that FBPE / Starmer fans are seen as particularly susceptible to overhyped scams is probably a solid one.

they've worked out that it will be like selling candy to a baby with gullible fucks like Paul Mason!

You are the original and the best John, don't worry about the competition.

— Simon Hedges (@Orwell_Fan) June 3, 2021

I must say, the increasingly fashionable spectacle of city-dwelling graduates vaguely involved in the media generalising about senior citizens in often deprived, neglected post-industrial places is quite a thing

— John Harris (@johnharris1969) June 3, 2021

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2-5atmX0AQPR3L?format=jpg&name=large

that Hedges post was succinct .. and funny!

Ignoring all the other laughable stuff about that Harris tweet, I suspect what he actually means by "generalising about" is "reading and interpreting statistics", as it's all based on the Ben Walker New Statesman piece. From what I've seen, people have generally been making interesting comments based on material and demographic analysis, which indirectly I supposed discredits Harris' whole oeuvre.

yes he's trying to kick back against them voting demographic stats, because it means his whole oeuvre - to put it very politely - is fraudulent.

the guy has been a fraud from the day he plopped out. I once made a fair but harsh comment about a terribly myopic bullshit piece he wrote on UK special education and my main takeaway was that this prick is barely a human being.

from his response I mean, as well as the really dubious shite he wrote

I wish at some point on his various safaris he'd got beaten up very badly

“We’ve got students who are breaking into school because they want to be in school so much.”

Labour’s @peterkyle says the government is not “matching the ambition” young people have for themselves. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/J3EOl5tUNT

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) June 3, 2021

lol what a classic tory wanker, he hates teachers and knows fuck all about children.

some solid Brass Eye content as well

obv these kids that vaulted the steel fence had an impromptu o level geography sesh

Have I missed some choice Harris content?

the northern safari pioneer, without a trace of irony complained about educated posh people commenting on interesting 2019 GE voting data.

"I must say, the increasingly fashionable spectacle of city-dwelling graduates vaguely involved in the media generalising about senior citizens in often deprived, neglected post-industrial places is quite a thing"

and duly got ripped for it of course

Oh right, LOL, that was him! Amazing.

because the data revealed that a much greater % of low wage working people voted Labour in 2019 + it's in fact retired pensioners giving us tory landslide victories, counter to frequent media narratives of w/c ppl breaking Tory. It's troubling his thoughts for some mysterious reason

like someone already pointed out, no wonder Kier's genius strategy of targeting retiree tory voters with slogans like Jobs Jobs Jobs isn't really cutting it.

(xp) Tough if you've been living a lie. Mind you, he's getting paid enough for it.

Pensioners basically scuppered Scottish independence too, shitloads of the selfish greedy grasping auld cunts thought their pensions would go down - honestly.

I think the only way Corbyn + McD could have won over the selfish old cunts would be to promise more foodbanks, massive benefit cuts and triple lock on state pensions until every last young person is dead!

Ignoring all the other laughable stuff about that Harris tweet, I suspect what he actually means by "generalising about" is "reading and interpreting statistics", as it's all based on the Ben Walker New Statesman piece. From what I've seen, people have generally been making interesting comments based on material and demographic analysis, which indirectly I supposed discredits Harris' whole oeuvre.

― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 3 June 2021 21:19 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah i mean harris is horrible and but he is especially susceptible to believing his own ventriloquistic vox pops because: a) he is incredibly stupid and doesn't understand the basic premise of how qualitative work can be used as evidence and b) he clearly has a very fraught and self-loathing/self-satisfied relationship to 'class.'

I've seen people having discussions about how the left could win over this demographic, like radical state funded social care reforms that isn't an inheritance tax on wealth etc. If you were dealing with rational people it might work but the Tories could be bold enough to get away with fudging some diluted version again. And if these bastards get an inkling that young people might be getting policy offers as good as they had it, then that's what they will always vote against.

xp

I can't get over that image of Harris at Select, taking on the persona of a Mancunian lout because of the hypnotic power of Oasis.

i have been wondering a bit lately about what journalists are taught as there seems to be a fairly endemic problem of understanding how to interpret information. anything that reports the findings from 'a study' in the guardian for instance seems invariably to misinterpret the findings and translate them into something that the study couldn't possibly claim based on its data/method (and upon inspection, the studies almost never do make the claims theguardian makes for them). This seems to be particularly uh *problematic* in the area of news reporting and my guess is that its rooted in absolute disregard for critical thinking. My guess is that this stuff is taught in journalism classes but that its shaken out of you as soon as you arrive for your internship by some 'forget what they taught you!' asshole and the endpoint is harris or cadwalladr.

This assumes they’ve taken journalism classes. Harris, for example, did PPE at Oxford. Cadwalladr also went to Oxford but idk whether she has formal journalistic qualifications subsequent to that.

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 46% (+3)
LAB: 30% (+1)
GRN: 9% (+1)
LDEM: 6% (-2)
REFUK: 2% (-1)

via @YouGov, 02 - 03 Jun
Chgs. w/ 28 Mayhttps://t.co/qQE6NGf5D9

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) June 4, 2021

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1200x675/p02c7hw2.jpg

who are Harris's journalistic role models? probably complete dickheads like Parsons and Nick Kent.

It’s notable that law journalists, for example, tend to be much, much better than other fields and old guess that’s partly because you effectively need a formal qualification. In the subject you’re covering. A lot of the general journalism The Guardian publishes on education, science, etc, seems to be ‘talk to three people and synthesise a line from what they’ve just told you’.

*i’d guess*

Yeah I did journalism back in Portugal and scientific journalism was consistently the worst because no one who'd studied journalism had any background in it.

This only got worse as papers cottoned on to "study shows people who have milk in their coffee more likely to get laid" type items being guaranteed lots of shares on social media.

there was never going to be a transition from fake Mancunian wide-boy to decent thoughtful + principled journalist because he's too much of a narcissist to just knuckle down and do some serious journalism. Everything has to be centred around him.

And he’s only, at worst, the fifth or sixth most objectionable former music journalist turned current affairs commentator! They are a scourge.

Yes, that's a very good point ShariVari. An uncanny number of these people. It hasn't especially happened with, say, film journalists, has it?

This is the kind of topic where someone says it should be a poll, isn't it?

Harris. Sawyer. Barbara Ellen. Moran. More?

Burchill and Parsons, I suppose, but I no longer even think of them as music journalists.

Paphides says bad things, maybe not on current affairs. Petridis I think just does fashion.

Parsons, Burchill, Barlow, Lynsky....

I forgot Lynskey - an awful case.

Who is Barlow? Ken?

I was thinking this has the makings of a classic "who is the worst" poll

lol, Eve Barlow is the former NME deputy editor now making a name for herself, via Fox News and others, as an expert on antisemitism - calling pro-Palestinian online activity a ‘digital pogrom’, etc.

What has Sawyer done?

Wonder if any of these are still lurking here.

lol I didn't even know she was former NME, but no doubt long after my time.

even one of the more benign horrors like Maconie have managed to boil my piss a lot in recent years!

Talking of journos.

I would just urge everyone to have a think about what the American intelligence sector is and what it does, and how well it does it - often very badly, as in the last few years - and have a think about how hard we want to endorse this one. pic.twitter.com/E4INYqyWgo

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) June 4, 2021

is OJ happy to disseminate any old bullshit as long as it has been "fact-checked" by the BBC these days?

Dunno what you're on about xyzz, think there's a pretty wide consensus the americans created covid in a lab.

xpost

'these days?'

White blonde Tory woman goes BNP in this one. Another excellent day all round.

i mean, the first tweet is basically just "foreigners bring disease" isn't it?

— michael (@Sisyphusa) June 4, 2021