Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

let's scam her

Paging Mr Topcat!

Well, if Penny Dreadful really, truly is the 'voice of the movement then it's only appropriate that a movement composed of her and her fellow hipsters should have its own anthem:

off topic again - what's happened to Topcat?

i saw him post a few days ago ..

And, for those who may need a refresher course in exactly why Penny Dreadful is exactly that, here's this little gem from last year:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/laurie-pennys-diary-6390227.html

These days, I live in two cities. In one of them, I'm a precariously employed young person. I associate with activists and jobless workers in squats and cramped, overpriced flats rammed with empty cereal packets and internet cables. People eat food out of skips and wear out their trainers running away from the police. In the other, I'm a media luvvie and mingle with people who take taxis to events that have name tags to make it clear something important is under way. TV and radio programmes are made, editorial meetings are held, and networking takes place in large glass buildings. More than any other city, London is a chimera, a human monster stitched together from overlapping lives. Sometimes there is irritation at the seams.

precariously employed as a fucking new statesman columnist?

truly, laurie is one of the precariat

lol.

She should meet some of my friends who have never been to an ex-poly let alone Oxbridge. Precarious my fundament.

Middle class faker trying to have it 'both' ways.

Fear not, my fellow posters. Help is at hand...



*Pops down to the local market, sets up stool and puts an open suitcase on top of it*

'Roll up, roll up, get 'em while I've still got any left! There's a run on these things every time Penny Dreadful publishes anything whatsoever, so grab 'em while you can! Sick bags! Get your sick bags here! If she punts out another book of her work and starts a full-on tour of personal appearances there'll be a global shortage, so don't say I didn't warn you! Sick bags! Get your sick bags here!'

'They're a fiver a bag and if you have to read anything she writes then ordering a gross would still be a bargain!'

'Sick bags! Get your sick bags here!'

I'm for communism
I'm for socialism
And for capitalism
Because I'm an opportunist

(chorus)
There are some who object
Who revendicate and who protest
As for me, I do but one gesture
I turn coat
I turn coat
Always to the right side

I'm not afraid of vultures
Or agitators even
I trust voters
And I take the opportunity to make some dough

(chorus)

I'm with all the parties
I'm with all the homelands
I'm with all the cliques
I'm the king of the converts

(chorus)

I shout, "long live the revolution"
I shout, "long live the institutions"
I shout, "long live the demonstrations"
I shout, "long live the Collaboration"

No, never do I object
Nor revendicate or protest
I can do but one gesture
That is, turn coat
Turning coat
Always to the right side

I turned coat so often
That the coat's splitting on all sides
At the next revolution
I'm turning my trousers

Just like in the cartoons.

Lies.

http://bitchmagazine.org/article/protest-desire-and-cheap-dildos

'Babylon dem mash up me plan.'

If only some boffin would invent a device for capturing images which bleeding edge riot correspondents could use to prove they're not retroactively inserting themselves into dramatic events.

I'm pretty sure you can't drive a horse unless you're on a carriage or herding riderless horses. Fun mental image either way.

i think the guy on the right in the first few seconds with the tash is a local face here...

Did anyone go?

btw, be interested in knowing the background of these 'hipsters' those clothes(most of them) don't come cheap, not the leggings, etc, earlier youth cults were more diverse, mods, punks, even new romantics were largely surburban middle class

Apparently she is very aware of these boards...

Who says?

Thats great, reminds me of Phil Ochs 'love me I'm a liberal'

could have been written for someone like Joscha Fischer

The enigmatic ellipsis - it's the international symbol for "I have been blessed with inside knowledge of a non-specific variety, details of which I should dearly love to share with you save for the confidential circumstances under which I was made aware of this gnostic bounty".

according to a close friend of the writer

Sign up and join in Laurie. Only through criticism and self-criticism are the true warriors of the class tempered!

it's very unlikely that she hasn't come across this thread at some point. she'll likely see it as some kind of validation though...

June 2010.

Now. Surely liberalism doesn't get more boring than this.

"has tweeted regularly"
Remember standing in solemn tribute at the Memorial to the Tweeters of Belchite.

Urbanites' General Consensus:

'We think you're generally lacking in talent, honesty or integrity and are more than willing to point out the fact. We're also thoroughly pissed off with your self-appointed 'voice of the movement' bullshit, your outright lies, your inability to check facts properly, your ability to ignore solid facts unless they suit your agenda, your tireless (and tiresome) self-promoting and self-aggrandising attitude, your hypocrisy in being deliberately confrontational and then complaining because people confront you and your ever-increasing tendency to take even the most valid and constructive critics and instantly accuse them of miscogyny/sexism/bigotry/insert baseless insult here.'

Penny Dreadful's Interpretation Thereof:

'46 whole pages and they're all about me, me, me, me, meeeeeeeeee! It simply must be because I'm obviously the One True Voice Of The Movement and, obviously, speaking for a whole generation as well. Remind me to make a list of anyone voicing even the most reasonable criticism so that they can be subject to baseless accusations of nastiness and posssibly for a full-on hatchet job in whichever paper is daft enough to employ me (especially next time I'm caught either not having checked my facts or am outed for blatantly lying again).'

thread's on page 8 if you simply google her name...

'sup, Penny!

Page 1 if you search 'laurie penny is an idiot'

i don't think that's a search term laurie could ever bring herself to type.

Fair's fair, you're expecting our fearless heroine, latter-day La Passionara that she undoubtedly is, not only to actually experience self-awareness and humility, but also to have the courage of those convictions. For example:

Un-named working class revolutionary: 'The revolution has started! All into action to defend our hopes and dreams of a new society! We need every able-bodied fighter to protect the Revolution!'

Penny Dreadful: Yes! Everybody (else) to the barricades for, as your self-appointed spokesperson and the One True Voice Of A Generation, I am determined to continue my inexorable rise to global stardom by fighting to the last fighter, last bullet and the last drop of (everyone else's) blood!

'Onward, To Glory!'