[Oldmanmatt]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Labour could lose this election.

[monkoffunk]

It’s been badly handled and it has terrible optics.

So what is the left doing trying to use this to rip down the party?

After 14 years people are choosing between food and heat and going hungry for their children. Literally. And the Labour Party is being attacked on a matter of principle? Priorities, no?

[Will Hunt]

There's no real evidence for this view is there? Is John McDonnell standing? Surely if what you're saying is true then he would have been a prime target for deselection?

Faiza Shaheen was a candidate and then was deselected. That is much easier to do than deselecting a sitting MP. They have tried to deselect sitting MPs via trigger ballots (eg Zarah Sultana). Luke Akehurst actually tweeted regarding deselecting John McDonnell say "don't tempt me". https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-selection-process-keir-starmer-maurice-mcleod-lauren-townsend/

There still isn't really any evidence for what you're saying. You're just trying to make the circumstances fit your view of the party leadership.

[ToxicBilberry]

Apart from the evidence that she ‘liked’ some tweets which were considered inappropriate and this was leveraged to get rid of her.

It’s how the current regime of ‘liberal democracy’ works. They’re like a bunch of teenage girls who’ve just been given smart phones. It’s the feminised use of power - one minute they’re besties and the next they’re gone. Non of them can answer a question honestly and they all mix lies with the truth. It’s like this scene from the exorcist -

https://youtu.be/qAJSgw0nfJ4?feature=shared

[Oldmanmatt]

Apart from the evidence that she ‘liked’ some tweets which were considered inappropriate and this was leveraged to get rid of her.

It’s how the current regime of ‘liberal democracy’ works. They’re like a bunch of teenage girls who’ve just been given smart phones. It’s the feminised use of power - one minute they’re besties and the next they’re gone. Non of them can answer a question honestly and they all mix lies with the truth. It’s like this scene from the exorcist -

https://youtu.be/qAJSgw0nfJ4?feature=shared

Sometimes, I feel you can, almost, see reality from where you’re standing.

Then you write something like that.

You are obviously comprehensively read ( I almost wrote “well’, but couldn’t).

You are passionate, but seem defeated. Don’t give up, give us the solution (I think we all grasp the judgement). What’s your answer? What would get us out of the hole you feel we’re in?

Of course that’s slightly mocking (gentle though, right? And, you’re fond of a “mocking” yourself) but I am genuinely interested.

[BrutusTheBear]

It’s probably worth trying to understand the inner workings of the Labour Party, although I don’t fully. However this decision will be from the National Executive Committee, not Starmer directly, even though he is part of it. The internal workings of the party do have their own logic that might be disagreeable to an outsider at times. But as you mention I really don’t think any of that then applies to how the elected representatives then govern.

Certainly the reported reasons for deselecting Faiza look pretty weak right now, a really bad look.

Not many have been paying attention, you show that the LP machine has done a good job misdirecting folk.   
'The selection for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local Party members  should select their candidates for every election.'  Keir Starmer 04/02/2020.
F Starmer and those in charge of the LP.
Scarey to think what will happen if their authoritarian bent is applied to governing us.

Steady diet of Guardian and MSM ain't going to reveal what's going on.  Try some independent media Novara Media, Owen Jones, Double Down News..

[BrutusTheBear]

Durham folk your LP candidate was just imposed by the NEC and is none other then Luke Akehurst who is currently very busy attempting to delete the many vile posts he has made on social media.

Compare and contrast to the social media activity Faiza has been purged for.

[teestub]

Steady diet of Guardian and MSM ain't going to reveal what's going on.  Try some independent media Novara Media, Owen Jones, Double Down News..

Owen Jones has a column in the Grauniad…

[ToxicBilberry]

Apart from the evidence that she ‘liked’ some tweets which were considered inappropriate and this was leveraged to get rid of her.

It’s how the current regime of ‘liberal democracy’ works. They’re like a bunch of teenage girls who’ve just been given smart phones. It’s the feminised use of power - one minute they’re besties and the next they’re gone. Non of them can answer a question honestly and they all mix lies with the truth. It’s like this scene from the exorcist -

https://youtu.be/qAJSgw0nfJ4?feature=shared

Sometimes, I feel you can, almost, see reality from where you’re standing.

Then you write something like that.

You are obviously comprehensively read ( I almost wrote “well’, but couldn’t).

You are passionate, but seem defeated. Don’t give up, give us the solution (I think we all grasp the judgement). What’s your answer? What would get us out of the hole you feel we’re in?

Of course that’s slightly mocking (gentle though, right? And, you’re fond of a “mocking” yourself) but I am genuinely interested.

A good question to which I have no good answer, only generalised predictions. It depends if you take a progressive view or cyclical view. I’d go with the cyclical view. Buy some popcorn and watch the show.

[ToxicBilberry]

Steady diet of Guardian and MSM ain't going to reveal what's going on.  Try some independent media Novara Media, Owen Jones, Double Down News..

Owen Jones has a column in the Grauniad…

…..and he’s a turd

[seankenny]

Buy some popcorn and watch the show.

Ever since I watched a few clips from “Masters of the Air” the algorithm is feeding me nothing but WW2 clips. I’m just a sheeple trapped by techno-feudalism!

[ToxicBilberry]

I believe the theory of techno-feudalism comes from a left leaning Greek professor of economics and ex minister of finance.

[seankenny]

He’s also a direct descendant of Aristotle. Just another reason he must be right!

[ToxicBilberry]

I thought appeals to authority were all the rage? People love an 'expert'

[seankenny]

After giving us your views on politics you’ve moved swiftly on to epistemology. You’re spoiling us, Ambassador!

[Oldmanmatt]

I thought appeals to authority were all the rage? People love an 'expert'

Have you re-read any of your own posts?
🤣
I believe they’re a very mainstream, real, theory (not to be confused with MSM, which is the wrong kind of mainstream) and you cited so many experts and treatise in support…

Brutus, given your history, some of the things you have endured and watched others endure (I only know that little bit that I’ve heard in passing, since we knocked around different ends of the same community, though I don’t think we ever actually met) I’m not surprised at your anger at “the system”. But, do you not think that you’ve set up a bit of an echo chamber? Personally, I think ALL media (especially opinion based) requires a pinch of salt that would render the Dead Sea quite drinkable.

Who was it above that had the hard on for Centrists (tm)? Can’t be arsed to reread. Encouraging Centrists (tm) to your side of the divide is how you win elections. No win,no power, no change. You should love them, embrace them and then you can gently guide them to utopia. Sort of.

Abbot might very well be a very nice person, with admirable ideals and notions. She is also a gaff prone, lose cannon and widely known. There might be plenty of others, with similar views, but lower profiles, who avoid the purge (shouldn’t that make you happy?) but her deselection seems prudent. The “bad optics” are in the eyes of the deeper shades of red in the party, the optics to the population in general, much better.

[ToxicBilberry]

After giving us your views on politics you’ve moved swiftly on to epistemology. You’re spoiling us, Ambassador!

I was being sincere about appeals to authority. Re: Epistemology it's not something I know lots about. One quote that springs to mind is by Guenon on the nature of truth.

'Truth is not a product of the human mind'

To the best of my knowledge I'd agree with that, which IMO, is opposing post-modernity or the current 'hyper-modernity' that we're witnessing. I'm currently almost half way through the 1st volume of 'The Matter with Things' by Iain McGilchrist - I haven't got to the chapter on truth yet, but will feedback when I do. What I can say is that his 'hemispheric thesis' seems very close to Roger Scruton's theory of Cognitive Dualism which he describes in 'The Soul of the World'. In which one part of our minds is representational and stuck in the 'Realm of Abstract Quantities' while the other holds a broader more complete often ineffable understanding of things, often neglected in the modern world leading to a loss of the sense of the sacred and the meaning crisis. This is given even more clarity in Nietzsche's 'Beyond Good and Evil' although I came to the conclusion he was a very bitter and sexually frustrated man with a constant headache, projection maybe, there's a few of us out there.

Otherwise, Plato's dialogues on Truth and Knowledge were good, but I find Socrates quite annoying. Put to death for being a Troll before Trolls were invented. In the end in life and climbing I like to go by Alfred North Whiteheads conclusion in 'The function of Reason'.

Live, Live Well, Live Better

[stone]

Durham folk your LP candidate was just imposed by the NEC and is none other then Luke Akehurst who is currently very busy attempting to delete the many vile posts he has made on social media.
Compare and contrast to the social media activity Faiza has been purged for.

This morning, to try and give a flavour of Luke Akehurst, when mentioning him on here, I tried to link to his "take the test" Blog post from back in 2006. In that he had a test people could use to assess whether candidates had the right stuff. It had various question with score points. One question was whether the candidate approved of various historical military interventions. Support for the Iraq invasion gained points but even more points were gained if the candidate with the benefit of hindsight approved of America's invasion of Vietnam. I asked Luke about it on Twitter a couple of years ago and he vigorously defended his view that it was good that the USA invaded Vietnam.

Anyway if you now Google "luke akehurst 2006 take the test" you'll get a link to it but clicking on that just takes you to a "page not found" 

[ToxicBilberry]

You are passionate, but seem defeated. Don’t give up, give us the solution (I think we all grasp the judgement). What’s your answer? What would get us out of the hole you feel we’re in?

Of course that’s slightly mocking (gentle though, right? And, you’re fond of a “mocking” yourself) but I am genuinely interested.

On further reflection the simple answer to this question is - ride the tiger of modernity

[Dolly]

The McGhilgrist book is genuinely deeply interesting
I’ve been back and read it multiple times. Some of it resonates with me like reading Umberto Ecos Travels in Hyper reality ( like an easier to read Baudrillard America IMO even though it predates it) where you just say “yes of course that’s right”
Not all of it.
Having said that. In my 60th year this year I’ve become a Green Party member. I’ve paid money and everything
Everything else is just fiddling while Rome (and the rest of the world ) burns

[ToxicBilberry]

It is very interesting Dolly. I wonder if this could be the Green Party of the Future?

[Dolly]

Afraid you’ve lost me there

[ToxicBilberry]

It’s the Arthurian legend - the people and the land are one, this has been forgotten. By restoring this connection through the will of a powerful leader the land can be healed. In this sense through a sort of environmental populism, not that I’d agree with anything so crazy, but you never know.

[Dolly]

Ah ok. Understood