Interesting David Malone piece

[UndercoverElephant]

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Something I have noticed, UE, is that in recent years, for fairly obvious reasons I suppose, I have veered significantly to the left. I was a bit of a leftish teenager as a consequence of growing up in a poor household the North East in the mid 60s to mid 80s, but without any deep political or philosophical conviction. As I entered adulthood, it waned. Not as a consequence of actively moving to the right, but more out of apathy and disinterest. However, as I have really thought about stuff in the last decade or so, I look back over that decade and realize I have become seriously radicalised.

Capitalism will simply not work in the storm to come. based, as it is, on an endless exploitation of the environment. It doesn't actually matter what anyone thinks about it. IT WONT WORK. As the pie gets smaller, we either share it out equitably, or there will be endless conflict where we drag ourselves and the rest of life to hell. No matter how difficult or how implausible a socialist egalitarian society may be to enact, we have to try. It is our only hope of getting through what is to come.

I don't think there is any "we" who are "going to to get through" what is coming. Stuff is just going to keep getting worse. As for the capitalists who are endlessly exploiting the environment? They are also endlessly exploiting ordinary people too. They couldn't give a shit about either, because all they care about is grabbing as much of everything they want for themselves. For me it is not so much about "saving" anything or anyone, or even "getting through", but about the blowing away of vicious falsehoods and the delivery of justice.

[Little John]

How did they get Robert Mugabe to take the test?

They'll have appealed to his vanity I would guess. Either that or, more likely, they extrapolate someone’s position from their known political actions

[emordnilap]

they extrapolate someone’s position from their known political actions

Bang on.

[emordnilap]

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Something I have noticed, UE, is that in recent years, for fairly obvious reasons I suppose, I have veered significantly to the left. I was a bit of a leftish teenager as a consequence of growing up in a poor household the North East in the mid 60s to mid 80s, but without any deep political or philosophical conviction. As I entered adulthood, it waned. Not as a consequence of actively moving to the right, but more out of apathy and disinterest. However, as I have really thought about stuff in the last decade or so, I look back over that decade and realize I have become seriously radicalised.

That's maturity for you, I suppose. Some people never mature. Or mature too late.

Last time I did that test, a couple or three years ago, it was -10/-10. I blamed it on becoming more right wing as I got older.

[marknorthfield]

The David Malone piece is certainly worth reading, as most of his stuff usually is. He is a passionately engaged (but humble) thinker and writer. The Renegade Economist interview he's linked to in the previous post on his blog is also worth a gander.

The political compass thing? A curious exercise, but the binary nature of the questions gets a little annoying... Still, I ended up in the middle of the bottom left square, so that seems about right.

As an aside, I happened to catch David Dimbleby being interviewed yesterday morning on Radio 2, and he rather brazenly declared that the three mainstream parties were all occupying the centre ground. I think I may have snorted some tea out at that point.

[Little John]

The David Malone piece is certainly worth reading, as most of his stuff usually is. He is a passionately engaged (but humble) thinker and writer. The Renegade Economist interview he's linked to in the previous post on his blog is also worth a gander.

The political compass thing? A curious exercise, but the binary nature of the questions gets a little annoying... Still, I ended up in the middle of the bottom left square, so that seems about right.

As an aside, I happened to catch David Dimbleby being interviewed yesterday morning on Radio 2, and he rather brazenly declared that the three mainstream parties were all occupying the centre ground. I think I may have snorted some tea out at that point.

He means the "centre ground" of the top-right quadrant of that political compass, which is basically the extent of Dimbleby's political world view. He probably committed this error of political reasoning without even realizing it, so entrenched is that world view. These people are allowed to flourish and prosper in the MSM precisely because their world views do not diverge significantly from the prevailing power structures. So, as an individual, he doesn't need need to be knowingly a part of any kind of conspiracy of political silence in the MSM. That doesn't mean he's not a part of one though.

[UndercoverElephant]

The David Malone piece is certainly worth reading, as most of his stuff usually is. He is a passionately engaged (but humble) thinker and writer. The Renegade Economist interview he's linked to in the previous post on his blog is also worth a gander.

The political compass thing? A curious exercise, but the binary nature of the questions gets a little annoying... Still, I ended up in the middle of the bottom left square, so that seems about right.

As an aside, I happened to catch David Dimbleby being interviewed yesterday morning on Radio 2, and he rather brazenly declared that the three mainstream parties were all occupying the centre ground. I think I may have snorted some tea out at that point.

He means the "centre ground" of the top-right quadrant of that political compass, which is basically the extent of Dimbleby's political world view. He probably committed this error of political reasoning without even realizing it, so entrenched is that world view. These people are allowed to flourish and prosper in the MSM precisely because their world views do not diverge significantly from the prevailing power structures. So, as an individual, he doesn't need need to be knowingly a part of any kind of conspiracy of political silence in the MSM. That doesn't mean he's not a part of one though.

Yep.

[emordnilap]

David Malone, documentary maker and blogger has posted an interesting piece
http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2013/11/the-n ... he-nation/

Part two.

While the Conservative (Tory) party here in Britain, would rail about Europe ‘stealing away our sovereignty’, the truth was that those same Tory politicians had been delighted, in 1995, to sign away far more sovereignty to GATT. The difference for them was that Europe was seen as still harbouring some vaguely Socialist ideas about environment and employment rights, while the WTO very specifically did not recognize such things and in fact regarded them as exactly the sort of barriers to trade it was there to get rid of. Such was and is the hypocrisy of the Tories, and now UKIP (UK Independence Party), about sovereignty and Europe. Labour was at least consistent in happily handing over soverignty to anyone and everyone. And the faithful western main-stream media never bothered to say a word nor to offer even an analysis let alone a critique.