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.
“So when you said “Thank you but I think we already knew what a civil war is”, you didn’t.”
I did. Obviously either you don’t or you have no idea of what is happening in Syria. It is a civil war.
Fred, it isn’t simply a civil was in Syria. I spoke to a young woman with a German father and a Syrian mother. Yes, there’s civil conflict but she said “Everyone (meaning other countries) has an agenda” (her emphasis). She was distraught.
The media tried to paint it as a civil war. Commenters on this blog have known for years that our neocon “alies” Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf Monarchies and Turkey had been infiltrating proxy forces to try to force “regime change”. Now the evidence has become impossible to suppress.
And I think you know all this, so shame on you, Fred.
Fred, this young woman mentioned the civil side of the conflict but didn’t stress it. It was the clearly outside forces, the other agendas, that truly angered her. I asked her for more details but she was too distressed to discuss it.
Fred, don’t feed the neocon lies. You object to that in Palestine. You need to look into this more. Remember, Israel is occupying parts of Syria and is attacking the government forces there. Israel is a neocon force.
And so is Westminster, to a large degree.
John that is only a layer in the onion!! This is the admitted omission you have come across, what are those omissions that are not owned up to? The unknown unknowns in rummy talk.
There are no reports of up to ten thousand refugee children who are missing in Europe. Furthermore no reports of women being sold for a mere ten dollars by the very Daesh that has been set up by the Saudi money and US training.
You read correctly for a price of a curry people are being sold, god knows what happens to these women after their owners have paid the premium of ten dollars? Evidently the price rises with lower age and better looks even climbing up so far as a thousand dollars!!!
The darker facts that some of these people are bought for their organs we will not get into. The dark facts are not entertained in the oligarch owned media and instead there is the constantly refreshed narrative of barbarians at the gate; immigrants swamping our fair lands!
Fred, look at this map, and think like a strategist:
http://www.killick1.plus.com/map.jpg
There are only two ‘sides’ – Russia to the north, neocon to the south. The map is out of date but still relevant. Listen to former general Wesley Clark; the neocons couldn’t keep to their timetable, but the campaign continues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Iraq, SYRIA, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran.
Please stop playing dumb, Fred.
My wife and I went to see this band tonight and we came back home on the last bus after a Totally Brilliant Night Tonight..It seemed All Our Friends were There…tonight
I am extremely pleased with my photography
Not easy to do in such low light…
and it was really nice to see a couple of our mates from years ago in the same pub together and talking to each other..
the photos are really good and the video is awesome.
Thank You – My Friends
Tony
I think the secret is to have the smallest camera with the biggest lens with the best onboard stereo mikes too…which you can plug into your heavy gear too..if you think the situation demands it..and it all fits in your pocket…
But its the low light photography which I really love…I don’t need no flash or monopod, tripod or any more gear…
I just love it when the most beautiful girl there not only buys me a pint but gives me a kiss and says stuff like I just experienced..like what the band just did – it was mentally orgasmic for the boys…and the girls are dripping – and tells you.
“I’m in Heaven”
Yes, The Band were that good tonight.
How can I Thank Them?
(Yes, they are skint – I was talking to them at half time)
Tony
The band tour…and normally you have to pay to get in – and they are playing on the stage in a Stadium..and there is security to prevent the teenage kid to just get up on stage with them…had a little bit too much to drink….???
I think it quite phased them for a minute…but did you see what happened when the teenage kid came back into the audience at the front..I moved to the front to protect him and so did all the girls..O.K. he was a bit out of order..but he was just a teenage kid who one day will be a Rock Star like you.
Tony
Another one for the planet watchers, especially RobG, who has long been saying what this well-annotated article shows. Yet the liars in Japan, US, UK fail to admit that Fukushima is a disaster of life-extinction proportions. All nuclear power-stations should immediately be decommissioned and any country buiding one or proposing to build one should be stopped. Instead dickheads like Cameron want to build more.
“Japan has also seen a skyrocketing of childhood Cancer rates, particularly, thyroid Cancer.[10] As of August, 2013, TEPCO admitted that between “20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels[11] of radioactive tritium may have leaked into the sea since the disaster.”[12] Since it’s been shown over and again, that TEPCO repeatedly lied and covered up the true extent of the disaster, that number is most likely far greater.”
https://dougmichaeltruth.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/fukushima-the-extinction-level-event-that-no-one-is-talking-about/#_edn10
No one sensible doubts the seriousness of Fukushima – but to say it “is a disaster of life-extinction proportions” or that Japan has seen a “skyrocketing of childhood Cancer rates” are just the ramblings of those with no understanding of the actual statistics.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/children-who-live-near-fukushima-have-alarming-cancer-rates_us_56168961e4b0082030a15ccc
Resident Dissident, good morning, how are you today? I feel like shit. My body is shivering, my head hurts and there’s a constant ringing in my ears. I think I’ll have to go back to bed.
John Goss, RobG assigns all the effects of climate change / global warming to the Fukushima disaster. I don’t know why he does this, but it corresponds quite closely to the Koch Brothers’ agenda, obviously.
Resident Dissident, the reason we need rid of the nuclear power stations is because there’s as much potential pollution in ONE power reactor as there would be in an ENTIRE nuclear war.
Sometimes people are right, for the wrong reasons.
“the reason Habbab and echoes want to see the blog closed down while Craig is on Sabbatical is because they are opposed to free speech.”
________________________
Mr Goss shouldn’t be talking about Craig being on Sabbatical leave because that implies that this blog is Craig’s principal activity.
Most of us know, however, that it is not.
Moreoever, we know that Craig is finishing off his book and has been/is in Ghana on business.
The evidence would suggest that some “commenters” – perhaps with no other home to go to? – need Craig somewhat more than he and his blog need them.
All information is corrupted because nearly everyone has an agenda to promote. I suppose I must have an agenda too; I can’t be better than everyone else. I don’t know what that agenda is, so it must be unconscious. So maybe no one knows what their agenda is; I can’t be worse than everyone else.
Oh God.
We’re never going to find our way out of we can’t see.
“the reason Habbab and echoes want to see the blog closed down while Craig is on Sabbatical is because they are opposed to free speech.”
________________________
Not at all opposed to free speech, Mr Goss – you are putting up straw men again.
Fine with me that Craig is exercising his right to free speech in the UK°bu blogging.
It’s just that most of the “comments” posted by the dozen or so Eminences (and their hangers-on) I listed a while back are worthless dross.
Free speech would not be affected if comments on here were disabled because the “commenters” would be free to post their obsessions, phantasies and chimerae on any number of other websites and blogs.
And Craig and his blog would be spared inevitable reputational damage.
It’s a win-win, I tell you 🙂
Habbabkuk, what we all need here is community. And I think probably we have a need for conflict too. How to overcome this? How to reconcile these needs? Sport, I suppose.
Clark, I am sorry to hear you are unwell but does anyone else watch the multi-culti show with Nicky Campbell on Sunday mornings? It’s meant to be a cross-religious discussion but inevitably ends up with Mooslims shouting at each other about Islam this and Islam that. It’s given me a splitting headache already.
I’ve been following the exchange between Mr Spencer-Davis and Fedup with some interest.
It is clear that the former has, through a series of politely cunning posts, made it clear that we only have Fedup’s word for the assertion that there is a damning photo of Leon Brittan out there somewhere on the internet; Fedup cannot tell us where that alleged photo can be found
Fedup has failed to put up.
Will he now shut up?
Anon1
“It’s meant to be a cross-religious discussion but inevitably ends up with Mooslims shouting at each other about Islam this and Islam that.”
___________________
Is Guano on the panel?
The comments on the blogs run by Brian Barder and Charles Crawford are of a very different nature to most of the “comments” on here.
On the whole, one gets the impression of an attempt to engage seriously with whatever Brian Barder and Charles Crawford happen to be blogging about and a complete absence of the sort of megaphone shouting and cuckoo behaviour one sometimes sees elsewhere
“Fred, it isn’t simply a civil was in Syria.”
Are you saying there is no civil war in Syria?
“Fred, don’t feed the neocon lies.”
I don’t. There is a civil war in Syria. If you don’t believe me go take a look. Ask the refugees desperate to get away from the civil war if there is a civil war or not.
Anon1, no, I don’t ever have the telly on at home; I don’t enjoy the polarised, sensationalised impressions it seems to promote.
If you find Muslims so distressing, don’t watch them. I lived part time in Bradford for a few years. The Muslims, in the flesh, were never a problem to me. Quiet, somewhat repressed people, it seemed.
I spent some of the recent holiday period with Muslims. Some agonised to me that public or media impressions of their faith seem all about terrorism and strict codes of dress and sexuality. These people were Muslims in the sense that you and I are Christians; a shared cultural background.
Habbabkuk, does Charlie Crawford actually get a discussion going these days? I thought I was the only one doing so when he was defending torture with the ‘Ticking Bomb’ fantasy.
Fred, please don’t try to force shades of grey into black-and-white. Yes, there is civil conflict in Syria. That conflict is fuelled and stoked by much more powerful forces. THAT is what a SYRIAN told me.
“Clark, I am sorry to hear you are unwell but does anyone else watch the multi-culti show with Nicky Campbell on Sunday mornings? It’s meant to be a cross-religious discussion but inevitably ends up with Mooslims shouting at each other about Islam this and Islam that. It’s given me a splitting headache already.”
I don’t normally watch it but caught it this morning. I see Anon1 gets his racist slurs in before the programme is over. He must have been watching a totally different programme to me. He should have listened to the arguments. Most of the airspace was given to one, Adam Keen, of the Quilliam Foundation – a right wing neocon-funded so-called Think Tank. Fortunately this favoured one in the blue jersey talked so much nonsense he did a justifiable disservice to his masters. The programme tackled issues like Sharia councils, segregation, women’s rights and radicalisation. No wonder it gave the racist Anon1 a headache.
On the issue of segregation nobody made the perfectly sensible point that half the cabinet (hyperbole) were segregated at Eton. Not that it matters. It did demonstrate that Islam is multi-faceted and not totally dogmatic. The most dogmatic of all was Adam Keen.
Sorry his name was Adam Deen not Keen.
Fred, did you make a full recovery from the injury you suffered since I last saw you? I don’t think I’ll ever recover from the emotional damage my adoptive mother inflicted on me. I recover a bit, but there is so much interpersonal abuse between humans, I keep getting knocked back. Of course it wasn’t entirely her fault; she’d been emotionally scarred, too, and back and back it goes. This is presumably the proper meaning of ‘original sin’, a bit like the ‘first cause’ invoked by creationists.
“Yes, there is civil conflict in Syria.”
Thank you. That is what I said.
John Goss, people are scared of Muslims. I remember when I was that way. Remember, remember…
Islamophobia – Islam, and phobia, or irrational (ie. out of proportion) fear.
Aggression is one of the psychological responses to perceived threat.