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.
Ben
It was Chomsky that started his scale of evil. I’m afraid measurement and relative positions come with indexes – my own preference is to judge things for what they are but Glenn and Macky seem keen to do otherwise.
Fedup
“Evidently you have not heard or read about “the jungle” in Calais!”
_________________
I have, actually. I have also been there – have you?
You are very silly if you really believe that conditions there are the same as in a Nazi concentration or extermination camp.
Of course you know there is no comparison at all – you are just scrabbling around desperately, saying the first silly thing that comes into your silly little head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“There again these Muslims get what they deserve don’t they?”
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I’ll let you into a little secret, Fedup – Muslims only represent a small majority of the people outside Calais and Dunkerque.
Heiland
It’s easier just to virtue signal to your followers than do anything that requires action and sacrifice.
‘That said – are you seriously comparing the treatment of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis to the UK govt’s treatment of asylum seekers?’
Habba- Fedup does this all the time, like a broken record or one of Pavlov’s dogs.
‘Of course you aren’t, so stop being so silly.How many ‘refugees’ has the multi-millionaire Banksy taken into his home(s)?” ^
I have no idea and nor do you. Whatever the answer it does not disqualify him from commenting via his art on their plight.’
Agreed Heiland- and the comment implied by Banksy’s latest masterpiece is pretty much what you’d expect from an old bristolean hippy after a few spliffs, with all the faux profundity that goes with that territory.
RD: Your understanding of the term ‘hypocrisy’ is about as strong as Trowbridge’s of the concept of ‘free speech’.
My own behaviour does not extend to the actions of foreign governments. Do you understand? So criticising my own government is more appropriate than that of another, where criticism is due.
Furthermore, I am entitled to criticise my government without making a criminal of myself by withholding taxes due. That does not make me a hypocrite either.
But I fully understand why you’d far prefer to dismiss all such criticism without giving it any discussion at all, and find fault in the person making those criticisms instead, with these childishly simplistic complaints. That’s very, very clear indeed (and pretty much all you ever do).
I do hope these points are concise enough for you.
re Chomsky (with special reference to Glenn)
“..you keep repeating that Chomsky must be right about everything because what he says is based on known facts. It’s which facts you use and how you use them, dear boy”
________________________
and the interpretation you put on those facts.
As so often, Anon1 hits the bail on the head.
Alcyone
24 Jan, 2016 – 5:03 pm
“If he, Sanders, has ‘better’ social policies in mind, wonder why his ratings with the blacks and hispanics is that low?”
………………………………………………………………………………..
A good question Alcyone. Do you have any answers?
Anon1
““Banksy’s London artwork criticising the migrants treatment in Calais”
How many ‘refugees’ has the multi-millionaire Banksy taken into his home(s)?”
_____________________
I have the answer to that? Anon – no more and no fewer than the Mary of blessed memory.
I claim my prize and hope it will be a bottle of that rather pleasant Israeli wine you enjoyed over Christmas. 🙂
Cheers!
Glenn
I have specifically not attacked the right to criticise as you falsely claim – the only one who has dismissed criticism without giving it any discussion is yourself. Chomsky is entitled to criticise but chosing to pay taxes to a government he considers the most evil in history when he has a choice to do otherwise is hypocritical – at least within my definition of what constitutes morality.
I will quite happily argue the point that what the Nazis, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, and the Khmer Rouge (and what did St Noam say on that I wonder) did was far worse and more evil tnan the abuses carried out in Latin America in the excerpt you linked to in Chomsky’s rather old book.
“I have the answer to that? Anon – no more and no fewer than the Mary of blessed memory.”
That’s highly convenient for you though, isn’t it? You can (with this ridiculous charge, let’s be fair) denounce both people who highlight a problem on one hand, and dismiss the actual problem on the other.
Rather than indulge in such poor behaviour, why don’t you either say how many refugees you’re putting up yourself, or make your arguments as to why the state shouldn’t do so.
Of course – as you well know, surely – it’s not up to individuals to make provisions when it’s the entire country tackling a problem. Just as chicken-hawks surely now this when they thump the tub for military action, without having the slightest intention of ever fighting these wars themselves.
RD, 5:28pm : “I’m afraid measurement and relative positions come with indexes – my own preference is to judge things for what they are but Glenn and Macky seem keen to do otherwise.”
RD, 6:10pm : “I will quite happily argue the point that what the Nazis, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, and the Khmer Rouge (and what did St Noam say on that I wonder) did was far worse and more evil tnan the abuses carried out in Latin America in the excerpt you linked to in Chomsky’s rather old book.”
Hypocrisy, thy name is RD.
Glenn
You’re being a real twat tonight.
Habbabkuk: “As so often, Anon1 hits the bail on the head.”
The bail? Heh, maybe that’s why he’s back out posting again? 🙂
Kind of you as it is to through Anon1 a bone (to coin a phrase), his was a very content-free point. As with all his many critics here (and elsewhere), Chomsky’s passionate haters have failed to land even the weakest blow. Just slurs, innuendo, baseless assumptions and so forth.
I would very much like to see an example of a point of Chomsky’s being properly challenged, instead of his detractors claiming victory all the time with such feeble nonsense.
*
In any case, I think you lot (and you know who you are!) have taken a sufficient beating from me for one day, I’ll leave you to lick your wounds for now.
Have a good evening all!
JFK’s American University speech was at that university’s commencement ceremony in May 1963.
The cretinous acting rabbi is besides himself, to find any comparisons between the misery of those in The Jungle and those of the concentration camps in WWII!!! Evidently The Jungle a camp without any buildings and permanent structures, no sanitation, no infirmary, and no provision of any kind of food or heat is a fate better than the concentration camps which were apparently worse than, worse than, worse than, ………
The copyright to WWII misery of the refugees of the war, and dissidents etc prohibits any comparisons, even when the Hungarians were using trains to transport the Muslim refugees into destination unknown under detention without letting them off the train, the Media somehow did not dare to compare the unfolding events before their eyes to the events past! The copyright breaches could not be tolerated!!! Soon the Hungarians were “bussing” the refugees, and the trains were no longer used!!! The long train of buses were not trains now were they?
The excuser of genociders, mass murderers, thieves, brigands, child abusers, and child torturers is only concerned to keep the copyright of misery and suffering, as ever in the rightful hands!!!
Hence this brain fart;
the unconscious drivel that wreaks of animus and disregard for the humanity of those in the Jungle.
Thus goes the satanic dialogue of triumvirate of goons; acting rabbi at the point followed by old mark, not forgetting the racist anon is supposed to be projecting the concerns of the majority!
Which majority?
The majority of the zionist miscreants whose only aim is total destruction of the Palestinians and their Muslim brethren, or their total capitulation!!! All the while these weak blunderers and groupies of genocide pretending they are one of the “natives” and concerned for the welfare of the indigenous population!!
========
How dare Banksy to draw attention to the light of the immigrants in the Jungle?
To deny that the right to free speech must exist in a social context where people are discussing something makes it meaningless.
People who reside in the most repressive police state, according to you, can be said to have the right as they are free to say whatever they want, as long as they are the only ones hearing it.
Glenn is sounding a bit hysterical now. Like most Chomsky acolytes he becomes agitated when his master is criticised. It is no surprise to see him run away from the argument. Chomsky is just correct on everything and that is the end of the matter.
How sick can they get. Scrawling graffiti on a dead body.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-35400884
And I did properly challenge Chomsky, Glenn, about what he said about JFK after the settlement of the Missile Crisis, and you have made no reply.
Chomsky’s theory about the President is that he was a most repressive anti-communist dictator, a forerunner of loony Ronnie and his ilk.
Re the Calais Jungle, one has to wonder, why so many immigrants already in Europe are intent on reaching Britain.
What fascination does Britain hold for them that other well developed and prosperous EU nations are to be used only as staging posts, to reach Britain, by hook or crook.
I may come in for some criticism for this comment, and although I disagree with David Cameron, on many many issues, the opening of the flood gates at Calais isn’t one of them.
“GM crops, ‘doctored’ vaccines ……are among the methods being used to control foreign populations.
Evidence please ”
There is so much evidence you could easily search for it yourself. Don’t be so lazy! 😀
But by coincidence this has turned up and it looks like the Yanks have brought with them to the Ukraine Californian flu to inflict on the populace, having failed to get their way with a proxy war. They are so evil.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-25/20-dead-200-hospitalized-after-reports-us-lab-leaks-deadly-virus-ukraine
Glenn
No hypocrisy in the two views what so ever – the fact that I am happy to engage in comparisions even though it isn’t my preferred way of going around things just demonstrates how easy going and tolerant of different ways of doing things I am. You on the other hand will stick to your set support of Chomsky’s indisputable and demonstrably provable view of the world.
On the subject of St Noam this little rejoinder from the late Great Hitch has not a little relvance, and might make those with open minds realise that there hero sometimes has feet of clay.
http://www.thenation.com/article/rejoinder-noam-chomsky/
“But by coincidence this has turned up and it looks like the Yanks have brought with them to the Ukraine Californian flu to inflict on the populace, having failed to get their way with a proxy war. They are so evil.”
This is getting ridiculous now. Is Mr Goss so fucking thick that he simply believes everything he sees on the Internet at first reading? It’s no wonder that Craig is on the verge of closing the blog down.
“How sick can they get. Scrawling graffiti on a dead body.”
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Fred, I had an image of a dead person with graffiti, scrawled upon their body. You didn’t make yourself clear.
I then clicked in the link to see a Sperm whale,(it gets its name from the milky fluid in front of its skull) I was rather relieved.
There is of course a possibility that the whale the largest toothed predator on the planet has died due to ingesting contaminated prey.
Several Orcas from a unique New Zealand pod have died eating prey (stingrays) that had been contaminated by flame retardants. The apex predators of the sea virtually always amass the greatest concentration of man made contaminants, within their bodies.
I therefore completely understand the reasons for spraying slogans on the Sperm whales carcass. I understand that this is the fifth Sperm whale to have die in recent days, which is rather unusual for that species, but not for Pilot whales.
The blog loonies sense the impending doom of the Craig Murray blog, so they are letting go their most loony theories in a hurry before time is called, in desperation that their voices might never be heard again?
“It’s no wonder that Craig is on the verge of closing the blog down.”
________________
Anon1, can you back the above assertation up, with evidence, or are you as per usual being flippant.
“. . . the fact that I am happy to engage in comparisions even though it isn’t my preferred way of going around things just demonstrates how easy going and tolerant of different ways of doing things I am.”
I’m going to have to blame Putin for your newly-acquired ‘easy going’ tolerance for ‘different ways of doing things’. Was it a New Year resolution? 😀
Meanwhile the five book publishers from Hong Kong, including one man Lee Bo whose daughter claims he’s a British citizen, are still missing since October.
The men wrote popular books criticising Beijing and its corrupt government, one such book claimed Chinese president Xi Jinping had numerous affairs.
However two week ago one of missing men wrote a letter to his wife claiming he was in Beijing and intended to stay awhile. The man had no visa to visit the mainland.
Recently the man’s wife had managed to contact her husand, who now claims he’s helping Chinese authorities with a investigation.
In my opinion the Chinese government have had the men abducted and are in the process of trying to find ways of prosecuting and eventually convicting the men, for their free speech in Hong Kong, that criticised the Chinese government.
Russia didn’t just subvertly convert China to Communism, it also helped to impose lawless actions by its government as well, which have been used in this instance.
The difference between the Calais “jungle” and a concentration camp is that the inhabitants of the jungle are free to leave it at any time and apply for asylum in France. They don’t because they are desperate to get to the UK where they believe everything is so much better. Some of the commentators here should go an do some outreach work to educate them in the realities.
“Migrant fatally stabs Swedish refugee centre worker”
http://m.france24.com/en/20160125-migrant-fatally-stabs-swedish-refugee-centre-worker-police?ns_campaign=reseaux_sociaux&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_linkname=depeche&aef_campaign_ref=partage_user&aef_campaign_date=2016-01-25
“The attack came as National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson on Monday requested 4,100 additional officers and support staff to help fight terrorism, carry out migrant deportations and police asylum accommodations.
“We are forced to respond to many disturbances in asylum reception centres. In some places, this takes significant police resources. This was not the case six months ago and it means that we won’t be able to respond as effectively in other areas,” Eliasson told Swedish news agency TT.”