UPDATE
Minutes after I posted this article, the ludicrous Jess Phillips published an article in the Guardian which could not have been better designed to prove my thesis. A number of people have posted comments on the Guardian article pointing this out, and they have all been immediately deleted by the Guardian. I just tried it myself and was also deleted. I should be grateful if readers could now also try posting comments there, in order to make a point about censorship on the Guardian.
Catching up on a fortnight’s news, I have spent five hours searching in vain for criticism of Simon Danczuk from prominent or even just declared feminists. The Guardian was the obvious place to start, but while they had two articles by feminist writers condemning Chris Gayle’s clumsy attempt to chat up a presenter, their legion of feminist columnists were entirely silent on Danczuk. The only opinion piece was strongly defending him.
This is very peculiar. The allegation against Danczuk which is under police investigation – of initiating sex with a sleeping woman – is identical to the worst interpretation of the worst accusation against Julian Assange. The Assange allegation brought literally hundreds, probably thousands of condemnatory articles from feminist writers across the entire range of the mainstream media. I have dug up 57 in the Guardian alone with a simple and far from exhaustive search. In the case of Danczuk I can find nothing, zilch, nada. Not a single feminist peep.
The Assange case is not isolated. Tommy Sheridan has been pursuing a lone legal battle against the Murdoch empire for a decade, some of it in prison when the judicial system decided his “perjury” was imprisonable but Andy Coulson’s admitted perjury on the Murdoch side in the same case was not. I personally witnessed in court in Edinburgh last month Tommy Sheridan, with no lawyer (he has no money) arguing against a seven man Murdoch legal team including three QCs, that a letter from the husband of Jackie Bird of BBC Scotland should be admitted in evidence. Bird was working for Murdoch and suggested in his letter that a witness should be “got out of the country” to avoid giving evidence. The bias exhibited by the leading judge I found astonishing beyond belief. I was the only media in the court.
Yet even though the Murdoch allegations against Sheridan were of consensual sexual conduct, Sheridan’s fight against Murdoch has been undermined from the start by the massive and concerted attack he has faced from the forces of feminism. Just as the vital messages WikiLeaks and Assange have put out about war crimes, corruption and the relentless state attack on civil liberties have been undermined by the concerted feminist campaign promoting the self-evidently ludicrous claims of sexual offence against Assange.
As soon as the radical left pose the slightest threat to the neo-con establishment, an army of feminists can be relied upon to run a concerted campaign to undermine any progress the left wing might make. The attack on Jeremy Corbyn over the makeup of his shadow cabinet was a classic example. It is the first ever gender equal shadow cabinet, but the entire media for a 96 hour period last September ran headline news that the lack of women in the “top” posts was anti-feminist. Every feminist commentator in the UK piled in.
Among the obvious dishonesties of this campaign was the fact that Defence, Chancellor, Foreign Affairs and Home Secretary have always been considered the “great offices of State” and the argument only could be made by simply ignoring Defence. The other great irony was the “feminist” attack was led by Blairites like Harman and Cooper, and failed to address the fact that Blair had NO women in any of these posts for a full ten years as Prime Minister.
But facts did not matter in deploying the organised feminist lobby against Corbyn.
Which is why it is an important test to see what the feminists, both inside and outside the Labour Party, would do when the leading anti-Corbyn rent-a-gob, Simon Danczuk, was alleged to have some attitudes to women that seem very dubious indeed, including forcing an ex-wife into non-consensual s&m and that rape allegation.
And the answer is …nothing. Feminists who criticised Assange, Sheridan and Corbyn in droves were utterly silent on the subject of Danczuk. Because the purpose of established and paid feminism is to undermine the left in the service of the neo-cons, not to attack neo-cons like Danczuk.
Identity politics has been used to shatter any attempt to campaign for broader social justice for everybody. Instead it becomes about the rights of particular groups, and that is soon morphed into the neo-con language of opportunity. What is needed, modern feminism argues, is not a reduction of the vast gap between rich and poor, but a chance for some women to become Michelle Mone or Ann Gloag. It is not about good conditions for all, but the removal of glass ceilings for high paid feminist journalists or political hacks.
Feminism has become the main attack tool in the neo-con ideological arsenal. I am sceptical the concept can be redeemed from this.
“John, be fair. Clark’s following blog rules, and we’re not.”
It might be true but this post has long passed its original intent so where Clark, Glenn UK and others have expressed views not consitent with the thread perhaps we all ought to cease to comment off-topic.
I did go back and read Clark’s comments and it would appear that Glenn_uk himself is sceptical of the Chomsky apologist approach to 9/11. Perhaps now he understands why I find him wishy-washy.
John,
Since comments were re-opened I notice it is (9/11) now on every page in the blog under “Still discussing” in right column. The other two listed posts in that section have remained busy for years.
Before I go to bed, which I am about to do, it occurs to me that nobody really wants to address the very real unexplained 9/11 downing of the two world trade centres and building 7 because nobody wants to believe it was an act perpetrated upon American citizens by the US administration in order to blame foreigners whose oil and other resources they coveted.
What Chomsky does brilliantly is use governments’ own materials – statistics, policy statements, papers etc – and uncontentious facts to highlight contradictions and reveal objectives those same governments would rather draw public attention away from.
You’re looking for the “fake left”? Well how about large chunks of the Guardian, the Blairites and a large proportion of the US Democrats? I don’t think you’ll find much support from Chomsky for them.
John Goss:
I agree with it being deliberately marginalised because if it isn’t it comes to obscure all other issues. But for those who want it, a margin has been provided.
Herbie:
Exactly, and the demolition theories are remarkably divisive. When they lead to rejection of Chomsky, rejection of this…
https://chomsky.info/20060121/
Thanks Squonk for pointing that out. Nevertheless I have not clicked on that or either of the other topics. The trouble is you are going to be speaking to yourself. What’s the point of writing if nobody engages. Look at it yourself and you will see what I mean. 🙂
John,
I personally think it is quite possible some people could have stopped it. I don’t think the administration actually ordered it although clearly somebody did and Bin Laden seemingly denied it was him. But then maybe I’m even more naive than I think.
John,
Takes times for search engines to bump it up but they will slowly but surely especially if comments stay open. Which may be a touchy subject if I may be cryptic.
John Spencer-Davis 18 Jan, 2016 – 11:44 pm : Thank you for continuing to post these sources.
I have a tactic which I employ when I can. If something breaks, I fix it or replace it better than it was before. I try to make a positive out of a negative.
If someone deliberately breaks something I value, it’s important that they don’t profit from their action, and even better if they can be made to regret it.
John Goss: “This is one which made me very suspicious of Chomsky. My colleagues at NJP might not agree.”
Perhaps – and no disrespect to you – you have not spotted what Chomsky is about. He’s about the absolutely unarguable, established history. What he does is take the official narrative, often from the very highest sources (including public statements by heads of state), and link these pieces of inarguable fact together, to make his case.
That case – with which the Establishment would find it impossible to disagree, because they make up most of the narrative – is an inarguable and damning indictment of our motives, and facts of history testify to their successful implementation. This is diametrically opposed to the public perception, because of a quite deliberate management of the media.
So why don’t you accept him for the brilliant resource he is, instead of expecting him to get bogged down in the vastly more dubious stuff which are matters of high dispute? Why not leave that to others?
None of Chomsky’s work is “conspiracy theory” stuff. It is all unarguable fact, which is why the neo-con/fascist right is reduced to calling him names – they have nothing else. What Chomsky argues cannot be disputed, even by the his most rabid enemy.
Chomsky on 9/11, from the article I linked earlier:
“Wishy-washy”?
Really enjoyed the debate in Westminster Hall on banning The Donald from entering the UK, and the women certainly stole the show, showing that their being there is much more than a neo-con ruse.
And Chomsky is too dogmatic about conspiracy theories, as I well know when I invited him to gove a well paid lecture, though he was totally unwilling to even discuss the JFK assassination being one.
“And Chomsky is too dogmatic about conspiracy theories, as I well know when I invited him to gove a well paid lecture, though he was totally unwilling to even discuss the JFK assassination being one.”
Again, Trowbridge – you entirely miss the point. Why would Chomsky want to entertain anything not a fully accepted fact of history, when the Official Record is more than enough to hang the entire lot of them?
There is no need to bother with a measly little JFK assassination, or something as trivial as a 9/11 or – and this make come to a shock as some – not even the Great Dustcart Conspiracy as revealed by that respected revealer of truths, Spivey himself.
Why bother with this sort of piffle, when the actual record is on show? Is the murder of MILLIONS of people, and the economic enslavement of many, many more not sufficient for you?
RobG
Craig mentioned travel plans for Ghana.
Radio 4 Today
Ms Morgan Education Secretary:
“I want to protect young people from coming under the influence of twisted ideologies”
Such as rabid Thatcherite NWO neo-con Tory state terror in Libya and now Syria?
Glenn_UK
Thanks for your reply:
“This is fascinating, Giyanne. You’re actually saying that decent, honourable men who happen to be Muslims are directed to assault women, sexually molest under-age girls – and they just do it, no questions asked?”
Yes that’s exactly what I am saying. This is what I have observed in my own case when the mosque, in conjunction with the imam, wanted to cause me some harm. They set a bunch of very respectful, young Pakistani / Afghani men living next door to create the false impression that strangers had been visiting my house in my absence.
re- anti-Merkel bots and New Year assaults, I see that voltairenet.org has an article linking it to US pressure for her to submit and sign up to TTIP, much against her national interests.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article189972.html
For myself I have often declared that much of what I say here is speculation, because I am not an insider to any political class, neo-conservative or neo-caliphate, they are exactly the same fascist idea. i observe true phenomena in the microcosm of my own life and use my understanding the darker absurdities of the turbulent times in which we live.
In Afghan traditions, tribal loyalties are a major force and somewhat contradictorily human loyalties may over-ride even those. So US servicemen have reported being helped by their Afghan enemies where they have been abandoned. But yes they would do harm out of tribal loyalty even if they did not want to do it of themselves.
Glenn
Firstly, thank you for your gracious welcome back.
Secondly, you write:
“What Chomsky argues cannot be disputed, even by the his most rabid enemy.”
Surely you don’t mean that? I’d thought that only His Holiness was infallible (and that only in matters of doctrine).
…i use my understanding to interpret…
Flabbycock
easter holiday – surely you don’t mean that – you must mean shavrot/ pentecost
““This is fascinating, Giyanne. You’re actually saying that decent, honourable men who happen to be Muslims are directed to assault women, sexually molest under-age girls – and they just do it, no questions asked?””
____________________
I’m afraid he is saying that, Glenn – and the imams are working hand in glove with western govts to boot (according to Giyane). I must say I share your sense of disbelief. Judging by the absence of posts supporting Giyane on this point I should guess that most commenters are similarly sceptical.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Yes that’s exactly what I am saying. This is what I have observed in my own case when the mosque, in conjunction with the imam, wanted to cause me some harm.”
_____________________
The above neatly illustrates the problems which arise when one attempts to generalise from the particular, especially when there are doubts about the mental stability of the person making the generalisation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“re- anti-Merkel bots and New Year assaults, I see that voltairenet.org has an article linking it to US pressure for her to submit and sign up to TTIP, much against her national interests.”
_________________
I imagine that most readers have no illusions about “voltairenet” and so I will limit myself to saying that signing up to the TTIP would seem very much in Germany’s national interest.
Oil price for a certain US brand of oil has gone to $1.50, but some say its gone to Zero. Still the chancellor is ripping off consumers until the next crash, you can see it on the horizon,. is going to take out more than just the steel industry.
The CDU message from Yesterday to ‘shut up’ about the refugee crisis in Germany and the criticism against Ms. merkel has not worked, some Alexander Dobrindt badgered her and made comments about Border closures, he must be very worried about losing his seat to a Pegida candidate.
Osborne hiving off public assets to his friendly bankers, has hurt the economy more than any global force could ever achieve, he single handedly has ensured that 1% of the global rich owns as much as the rest of us, an idiotic achievement par excellence. 1000 people in Port Talbot loosing their job, the last big steelmaker is being mothballed until???
The Tory’s announced new British nuclear submarine’s to be built, but with what steel? Will it be cheap Chinese steel; from his mate Xi Ping? or will it be steel from our German EU partner? The undermining of the British economy is not haphazard, its led by Osborne and the Conservatives who want to make Britain into a shopping arcade for multinational private vested interests, selling them cheap public services so they can exploit the taxpayer directly.
As for the TTIP, its being already implemented before nits adoption, say NGO’s, the lobbyists are chumping that they managed to get into and diminish the law making processes, before they even come to be ratified by the MEP’s who are increasingly looking like EU puppets they are, hanging on the unelected Commissioners strings.
http://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2016/01/dangerous-regulatory-duet
Oh yes its all down to the nasty Germany again that we can’t stop our own politicians using the public services like sweets, handing them out to all comers who do not like paying taxes.
So much for sitting on the fence and not getting into the real discussion, because we don’t like the club anymore, want to get divorced from it.
I bet that the non tax paying accountancy structures for the NHS are already set up off shore by those US multinationals who, after making us ill by their industrial processes, gimmickry, lifestyle and personal habits introduced, want to ensure that their pirates gain is siphoned away to their island of choice, plundering the public, just as pirates do.
Flabbywinkie
Oh sorry you weren’t available, owing to re-education on your cabbatical week, to see my link to this collective murder of a woman for criticising an imam for selling amulets.
He shouted out that she was an American and had been seen burning the Qur’an.
Simply on the calling up of tribal hate against the US, and without any evidence at all they murdered her with stones, dragged her by car, and set her mutilated body alight.
You got off lightly by comparison on your winter break. By easter nobody’ll see the scars.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3008987/Afghan-woman-beaten-death-streets-murdered-dared-speak-against-superstitious-mullah-NOT-burned-Koran.html
The latest give away to those who might want to grace us with some housebuilding in future, eight MOD sites to be flogged off to the highest bidders.
•Kneller Hall in Twickenham
•Claro and Deverell barracks in Ripon
•RAF sites Molesworth and Alconbury in Cambridgeshire, and Mildenhall in Suffolk.
•Lodge Hill in Kent
•Craigiehall in Edinburgh
•HMS Nelson Wardroom in Portsmouth
•Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire
•RAF Barnham in Suffolk
Mildenhall does not need housing but jobs, you can’t run an economy by flogging houses to people whop have no means to pay for them, no jobs to go to, no assets to pay for them.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/raf_mildenhall_and_raf_barnham_to_be_sold_to_pave_the_way_for_housing_defence_minister_announces_1_4383803
Nevermind
I have been meaning to say to you that Elliot Johnson being bullied by the Tories may have been politically motivated because he believed in old-fashioned Thatcherite conservative values like selling off the NHS, but not state terror in Libya and Syria.
Erdogan used to be the pin-up boy of the Muslim world, reviving Islam in secular country, and guiding the economy with a steady hand. for some reason better known to NATO who give him his orders, he has now turned Turkey into an Afghanistan war-zone.
I have no doubt that this change has come about by mr Nasty Bullyngdon Cameron’s hand.
What ever will Norwich City do now, they bought a new player from Switzerland a forward defender called Klose for near enough 8.5 million, and they are looking at buying Naismith from Everton, a striker.
And Stephen Fry has stepped won/resigned his directorship to make place for Delia’s nephew. d balls, ex politician never to retuin one hopes, has been part of the board since December.
How any club can hope to better themselves by a few individuals is beyond me. Its not individuals that win a game but the team as a whole, a message Britain as yet has failed to grasp.
C’mon NCFC you can do better.
Sorry Giyanne, if you want to talk about the appalling treatment Elliott Johnson received under the Tory bullies, I will engage.
If you want to talk religion on this political blog which rarely raises such personal habits and/or disabilities in its headers, then you are on your own.
I have no time for any religion, it just too precious.
Nevermind etc. Oil at $1.50?? Yesterday Koch acquired a consignment of high sulfur crude in North Dakota of MINUS $0.50/bbl. Constructing an economic paradigm that enables commodities to trade at negative numbers should be informative as to the true state of the economy.
What do you want the British to do with steel – keep producing it so that it too trades at negative rates? Besides the last best hope is to crush residual industrial demand for electricity. Any failure to do so will likely result in near term power outtages. Technical constraints means that you cannot import electricity from China!
Herpesballs
” I must say I share your sense of disbelief. Judging by the absence of posts supporting Giyane on this point I should guess that most commenters are similarly sceptical.”
A couple of years ago I started a job for a brother i didn’t want to associate with because he belongs to political Islam. On the first day, he stole my car keys and the car was written off and torched.
The police found it the same day but didn’t inform me for 3 weeks. They also came round with cocknbull stories about a local homeless man having confessed to entering the building from the scaffolding, to throw me off the scent of who stole my keys.
If anyone had entered the house from the roof level, they would have had a 6 meter fall down the stair well in the pitch darkness, because I had removed the access ladder.
The police are up to the eyeballs with political Islam and political Islam is up to its eyeballs with them.
Do keep up, there is a war going on , it’s lasted 5 years, maybe you heard about it, jointly by USUKIS and Al Qaida and Israeli creation Islamic State.
On second thoughts, just carry on picking your big troll nose.
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSFty404PfN4_H4Ez-lrnNwrs49ZA4By5BvNRWiIo5lJYZBRQMZIg
Nevermind
A war… against islam ….20 years.
it’s politics my friend.
What do you want the British to do with steel – keep producing it so that it too trades at negative rates? Besides the last best hope is to crush residual industrial demand for electricity. Any failure to do so will likely result in near term power outtages. Technical constraints means that you cannot import electricity from China!
Loony, thanks for the news of Koch’s hyst. I would like the EU to practise limited protectionism, the only way to stop the march of multinationals tramplin over our assets, tax laws and the public/workers.
I also thin k that you ability to manufacture and create and supply and grow food and generate electricity, should be sustainable, we should not be dependent on steel from China or Germany, ideally, but then, we should not be building new subs at all but shore up our old sea defences and marry them with tidal energy generation etc.
Britain wastes most of its electricity Loony, they are bereft of any simple mechanical ideas to garner free electricity from tide’s waves, wind , sea currents etc.
Instead we are being forced into more dangerous dependencies on French/ Chinese nuclear power. what bad decision to subsidise foreign powers with NFFO’s.
Giyanne, the war is perpetual and useless, a war nobody can win, why burn religions in its fires if you believe in peace?
Religion is poison for those who are dependent, who can’t think independently as human beings, who need esoteric fables to keep pretences alive. Detestably sad, my last word on the issue.