Novara Media

Fizzles: it's not that I am unfamiliar with 'pushback' or 'pushing back' in general, just that in Tysky Sour's case it is the *default* term for 'disagree', to a possibly amusing extent.

As you can tell, I don't share your view of Novara Media. I think it's good. While other media organizations do indeed have historic crises of funding, etc, it doesn't currently appear that Novara shares this problem, and I think that's good too.

We need to genuinely consider the possibility that the Tories are now actively trying to lose. https://t.co/bWNN1PZMjF

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 7, 2022

Dr Bastani makes identical observation to ILX.

ILX expresses contempt for Dr Bastani's judgment.

It was already reported on the bbc that some Tory MP's at the conference expressed the opinion that the party might benefit from a period of opposition to rebuild their brand. They might well be preparing to lose and perhaps some on here might agree. That doesn't mean when Bastani starts telling people that it may be a stark choice, but they HAVE to vote for Kieth he will be any less of a wanker!

There are many opinions on ilx. ILX doesn't think one thing, for one.

I don't think they are trying to lose. A wing of the Tory party that doesn't care for veterans has taken over.

"That doesn't mean when Bastani starts telling people that it may be a stark choice, but they HAVE to vote for Kieth he will be any less of a wanker!"

I think that's a reasonable statement, but it's hypothetical - he hasn't said it yet.

What he has repeatedly said is that he will vote for a party that promises PR, and not for one that doesn't. He has also said that KS would never introduce PR.

He is not always reliable so may change his stance in some way, I agree.

I didn't expect this. Oliver Eagleton, on Novara, on the need for a peace deal in the Ukraine war.

https://novaramedia.com/2022/10/07/liz-truss-doesnt-care-about-stopping-the-war-in-ukraine/

Elon Musk was proposing something similar in Novara the other week

To generally answer the points Fizzles raises, and looking back over yesterday's discussion on Butler and his joining the LRB in the aftermath of Grenfell, I think the word I am looking for is...integrity.

wrt Butler he is -- as Fizzles says -- a good writer, analyst and commentator. He wrote very good criticisms of Corbyn's time at the head of Labour, and I guess since Butler joined the editorial board they haven't made as bad an error as Grenfell. I don't think (as Daniel first said) it was unemployment or LRB. They are making enough money to pay staff @ Novara, but I think that's enough speculation on one person and we all have to eat, pay rent and the like.

But overall this is where Novara fall short. In the main they really lack integrity if you look at Bastani and Walker especially they really are chancers and I think what I look for in this left-wing ecosystem is integrity, a sense that this is serious (none of the Luxuru Commnunism claptrap), that these people have things I want to read and learn from.

The folk at New Socialist (https://newsocialist.org.uk/) seem to have that except it falls down on a second criteria in that the writing and editing are just lacking. I find the pieces over-long or not organised well enough but I think the people at the helm sound really good to me. They also run collective sessions where you can talk to the board and debate/agree on future direction and content. But, they are very much crawling, by the sounds of it.

I hope that this isn't taken as cheap cynicism or the "no ethical consumption under capitalism" get out of jail free card, but I don't think I've ever expected integrity from leftist media, or at least not in the sense xyzz is using it here. Which is to say, I take it as a given that any for profit venture that has the reach/media savviness to penetrate into the mainstream (even to the very small degree Novara has) will contain its fair share of chancers and opportunists (I think this also holds true for political parties, i.e. labour under Corbyn of course still had enormous amounts of these types). So I look at left media as a tool, and judge it by how efficient it is at throwing the ideas I'd like into the mainstream; the motivations of the writers I always take as suspect, I don't think of them as my parasocial comrades.

Within that point of view, I think Novara's obviously had some success, but as per anvil I think the problem is they're blithe and complacent. They seldom manage to cut through in a way that goes beyond the (admitidely enjoyable) "get Piers Morgan angry" stunt. I can't imagine anyone who isn't already a leftist being convinced by much of what they publish, and for those who already are, I don't think they have that much to offer. I know pinefox disagrees with me on this point, but I've stopped listening to their shows because I almost never get any info or insight that I didn't already have from them; what I do get is a strong emotional charge of anger at whatever right wing fucks they're talking about on any given episode, and while that can be cathartic ultimately it just leaves me with a lot of impotent rage, which I imagine is what right wing ppl get out of LBC or whatever.

New Socialist is an interesting counterpoint because I do agree that they probably have this integrity xyzz speaks of but fail completely in terms of cutting through anywhere, really, their audience is made up entirely of those knee deep into academic leftist circles and the writing seems designed to make sure they never ever go beyond that.

I send money to both, lol.

I liked xyzzzz's point about something that would interest him would be if the shouting 'I am a communist!' at Piers Cunt got expanded.

fwiw this shows up in my recommended feed a lot. It's labelled as the kind of expansion asked for, but alas I do not think I am up for spending an hour and a half on a sunny Saturday finding out if it is indeed that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p53yVAD4n1s

re: Mieville: "He’s awful, and has somehow not been visited by the MeToo fairy."

sorry something like this needs some follow up.

There was a public accusation but I heard it was "lawyered off the internet", seen little bits about his behavior on forums but not much.

The public aren’t stupid. Labour are on course to form the next government. And as I’ve said previously Starmer has executed an effective strategy. But he comes across as dishonourable & dishonest (he is). In office that would become v toxic, very quickly. pic.twitter.com/giRXLJf3K7

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 8, 2022

The public aren't stupid.

lol what "effective strategy" is he talking about? he's been less than useless for 18 months and if the Truss bomb hadn't blown up the other lot there wouldn't be any serious talk about the inevitability of a Labour govt

I am assuming the effective strategy has been to sideline the left-wing of the party and (so they think) making them ok for Tories to switch.

It's odd how the focus group people can't easily say 'smarmy' and say 'swarmy'.

I think if I were being filmed for a focus group I would try to make an effort to talk clearly and incisively. I might fail. But the people who actually get filmed for these things don't even try.

it's not even worth calling a strategy if it's success is almost entirely dependant on the Tories imploding

I mean to know what he means we would have to click on and read an Unherd link which

Bastani's emphasis in that post is not that KS has been effective, but that KS is seen as dishonest and this could be a problem for him if he does get into government.

Is that true?

It appears plausible.

AB can be relied upon to say things that are hilarious as well as insightful.

Here he is seriously saying that William Shatner is "worth reading".

(He's right.)

“Grief”. This is worth reading by Shatner on his flight to space.

I think it’s likely any attempted colonies on Mars or the Moon would create a renewed sense of how extraordinary our planet is, & how we have a duty to protect it. Analogous to seeing Earth from Space as a moment. https://t.co/7YzVnOyld9

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 9, 2022

I mean to know what he means we would have to click on and read an Unherd link which

― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 9 October 2022 bookmarkflaglink

Not really, he's not like a deep thinker. Quite happy to assume based on his tweets.

Deep thinkers are the only ppl you should assume the positions of without reading them, actually.

That's right

"There was a public accusation but I heard it was "lawyered off the internet", seen little bits about his behavior on forums but not much."

I read the wayback archive of the essay that was removed and TBH, it is practically incomprehensibly overwritten, and at no point does it seem to actually outline what I think the courts would call 'abuse'. it sounds like he was dishonest and perhaps fucking around. maybe I'm missing something.

Good post. AB often strong on housing.

The thing driving unaffordability is rent-seeking by the ultra rich who, in a context of low returns elsewhere, view real estate as the golden goose. This mindset below just ends up basically accepting slums and doss houses. https://t.co/9974HDHdwr

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 9, 2022

All we need to do is fix the tax codes lol

Tax cuts which save ordinary people a few hundred quid but the ultra rich a few hundred thousand don’t leave everyone better off.

Why? Because the rich put that money into assets, which appreciate in value, and make ordinary people comparatively poorer. pic.twitter.com/1eIBYQGqIg

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 9, 2022

Strangely Novara also hosts this recurring audio series about ... music? ACFM. I don't know what it stands for.

https://novaramedia.com/2022/10/09/acfm-trip-27-magic/

Not my scene but demonstrates how much Novara Media offers.

ACFM is a podcast: FM is the old-tiems radio frequency indicator, AC apparently stands for "Acid Corbyinism"

Getting back to the parallel CM discussion:

"There was a public accusation but I heard it was "lawyered off the internet", seen little bits about his behavior on forums but not much."

I read the wayback archive of the essay that was removed and TBH, it is practically incomprehensibly overwritten, and at no point does it seem to actually outline what I think the courts would call 'abuse'. it sounds like he was dishonest and perhaps fucking around. maybe I'm missing something.

― akm, Sunday, October 9, 2022 7:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Serial headfuckery probably isn't illegal but it's still wrong, and people that do it need to be called out otherwise they just continue making other's lives a misery. Assuming it's true of course, which I'd guess it is.

A tweet on Eagleton's piece (I'm not reading it).

I think this is a really crass and insensitive piece to have run. I'm aware that many of the dissenting responses are from liberal/centrist types, so it makes this seem like an issue of left versus centrist. I think it's worth saying (as a left voice) that's not what this is https://t.co/v1tR3roBB7

— Rachel Connolly (@RachelConnoll14) October 10, 2022

Sarkar will broadcast from Mexico.

I’m back on #TyskySour (reporting from Novara’s unofficial Oaxaca City desk) tonight! Tune in from 7pm, as me and @michaeljswalker dissect the day’s biggest news. pic.twitter.com/pspC1UorWm

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 10, 2022

Not my style generally to say things like this, but I write for this outlet too occasionally and frankly I'm embarrassed by the association

oof! I'm not interested if British people have strong opinions on the Ukraine War and the support they are getting from the UK govt. I'd be more interested in what people who live there have to say.

zombie brezhnevism in the guise of anti-imperialism vs imperialism in the guise of liberal humanitarianism is such a dismal debate to be trapped in and the left needs to do *much* better (because the right/centre never will)

for a start forget about what "britain needs" for a moment ffs

Serial headfuckery probably isn't illegal but it's still wrong, and people that do it need to be called out otherwise they just continue making other's lives a misery. Assuming it's true of course, which I'd guess it is.

This is essentially what happened and the person who it happened to was once a very close friend, so I did not appreciate ~boys~ weighing in on how my old friend wrote about the way she was unwillingly turned into this creep’s victim, and the fallout that continues to haunt her interactions to this day. His MO seems to be to target women who are intellectual or professional equals and then act to diminish them. Another friend of a few of us here who knows him but who has never been involved with him *like that* said, after I mentioned knowing his victim, ‘that’s how he rolls…’

Looks like a good demolition of Eagleton Jr.

This is complete shit. Yes there are pro-NATO liberals in a tizzy about it, but this doesn't detract from the mundane realpolitik liberalism of the article itself which barely, if at all, sets out an anti-war perspective. https://t.co/JGOOuj7gRN

— libcom.org (@libcomorg) October 10, 2022

Seems accurate.

That means I don’t trust a thing he says. But there’s also a lesson there for the labour left and soft left: a laser like focus on ends (democratising the party, vanquishing toxic enemies, ensuring a permanent policy legacy). Without knowing what’s necessary you will rarely win.

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) October 11, 2022

This amounts to "Corbyn wasn't ruthless enough" which is hardly a novel take. And also imo ignores that achieving your ends when your opponents have just suffered a huge defeat and you have the entirety of the media establishment on your side isn't all that impressive.

Feel like I hear these kinds of criticisms every now and then about the right being pragmatic and strategically sound in a way that the left isn't, and you just can't compare ppl trying to change the system with ppl whose mission statement is to maintain the status quo, the challenges aren't equivalent.

The polling wasn't shifting much till Kwarteng's budget. To say that Lab is 30 points ahead today because Starmer pounced on a faction of the party is Labour brain worms.

Also ethically it isn't right to simply copy the Lab right. And anyway it isn't as if the right were good at doing this, as the Left took the leadership in 2015.

xp

Also going on about 'power' when the policy amounts to re-arranging the decks chairs on the Titanic is not using your brain and asking what is it all for.

I really like this short piece from @Maoskyist on what NS should be doing in the current context - and I hope it can open up wider discussion of what a left publication ought to be doing. https://t.co/5xN4WofPOB

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) October 12, 2022

Look who's going.

The Strasser Brothers memorial festival pic.twitter.com/EQHwvDYivN

— Sunlight bathed the golden glow (@mypalfootfoot7) October 13, 2022

Why would anyone go to hear SPIKED! nonsense at the 'Battle of Ideas'

— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) September 29, 2012

lol should've known xyzz would be quicker than me in posting this one

🤗🤗🤗

fucking glinner tho, I had the impression that even the terf-sphere had decided he was a liability/not the best messenger for their Reasonable Concerns.

He’s a liability alright but there’s always the chance he screams the quiet part loud

he is hardly the only liability there tho

Disappointed in Coppola, The Conversation is still a banger tho.

This is pretty good.

canal-boats, garment factories, sugar production & consumption, & the bourgeois machismo of the contemporary british left: presenting the ~director's cut~ of my talk at TWT!https://t.co/T9mBSw6Pro

— josie sparrow (@ofthesparrows) October 14, 2022

Slightly surprised by implication that Sarkar has strong views on Coltrane's extensive back catalogue of work.

I mean, *this* is the best Robbie Coltrane bit isn't it? https://t.co/QD7cjbnnL8

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 14, 2022