If you’re a Labour MP, if you take Corbyn’s whip, if you sit behind him in the House of Commons, then you can roll your eyes when he speaks or tell us how distraught you are on Twitter all you like; it counts for nothing. Your arithmetical function is to combine with other Labour MPs in order to give Jeremy Corbyn a majority in Parliament. No amount of election leaflet drivel or chuntering on about “fighting Tory cuts to save my community/the NHS/insert name of local school here” can wash away the permanent stain of your complicity with wickedness. How such people sleep at night or meet their reflection’s eye is their own affair and not my problem, thank God. But as the repellent psychodrama of their monstrous party staggers on to its terrifying conclusion, I’d ask them, in the meantime, to shut up about how good they are, how nasty the Conservatives are, how kindness entails a vote for Labour. Tories don’t succour anti-Semitism, comrade. In my book, that makes them better than you.
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Samizdata quote of the dayMarch 26th, 2018 |
 23 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Give the Labour MPs their due.
They did try to get rid of him by the usual method of a vote of no confidence (172-40), but he simply refused to go.
“How such people sleep at night or meet their reflection’s eye is their own affair and not my problem”
How does Shami Chakrabarti sleep at night? She was given a peerage by Corbyn for whitewashing Labour’s antisemitism in her report. Then there’s the disingenuous “We condemn antisemitism AND ALL OTHER FORMS OF RACISM”, which other forms generally include “Islamophobia”. Thus is the Muslim bloc vote secured.
I was an observer at a Momentum event at the weekend (for the lulz, natch) and watching the “comrades” tie themselves in knots over the various identitarian bollocks, from motions for Momentum to to formally recognize trans-rights (which wound up the older feminists and lesbians) to the argument writ large here about the hair splitting definitions of what constitutes acceptable anti-Zionism from unacceptable anti-Semitism.
The assertion that these brother and sisters in arms were meant to be all on the same side is a bit simplistic to say the least, with vitriolic accusations of racism being spread across the floor along with counter-threats to abandon Momentum if such a motion is every passed.
It gave me some hope that the left will happily eat itself if allowed to do so and it clarified my view that the modern, internet enabled activists of Momentum are no more than a post-Millennial reinterpretation of the “teen trots” of the 70’s and 80’s.
Woah, hardcore! Not sure my gag reflex would allow me to do likewise.
We do these things so that you don’t have to Perry. 😉
The motion on anti-Semitism / anti-Zionism (I’m not sure which) was so convoluted that it vanished Ouroboros like up its own fundament.
The motion didn’t pass because the infighting and accusations of racism irritated even the comrades enough not to vote for it. It was fun to watch, but probably not for the comrades.
The fact that the Chair was doing an almost perfect Wolfie Smith impression (despite the hipster look) was most amusing, although I doubt he was born when Citizen Smith was originally shown on the Beeb.
Funny how Labour keep telling us it’s the Tories who are closet Nazis, isn’t it? Funny how, less than a decade ago, the Left reacted with both horror and scorn when Jonah Goldberg reminded us of fascism’s socialist origins.
Yet here we are. The most hardcore-socialist leader the British Labour Party has ever had consorting with anti-semites.
Funny, that. But no laughing matter.
I agree that Anti-Semitism isn’t funny.
The lefties getting their comeuppance because they have been caught expressing their obvious Anti-Semitism and attempting to pass it off as more acceptable Anti-Zionism…not so much.
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
I reckon this could cost Labour 125,000 votes.
Out of 12,500,000.
Still, that’s a lot of postage to make up.
It is, a little, mostly because it is so pathetic.
Oddly enough I was thinking much the same as the OP just this evening.
I shall bowdlerise myself…
Jeremy Corbyn should be tortured to death horribly (pear of anguish anyone?) in front of the entire parliamentary Labour party and those that don’t cheer it should meet similarly gruesome fates.
Good post.
Jeremy Corbyn is merely taking socialism to its logical conclusion – indeed radicalism to its logical conclusion (see the Radial “Liberal” Hobson – with his theory, a century ago, that the British Empire was a plot by “Jewish Capitalists”).
According to “Social Justice” the Tall Poppies have to go – and the Jews have produced many Tall Poppies. Remember if a person achieves more in life than someone else that means they have “exploited” and “oppressed” other people (egalitarianism insists this is so) via the “power structure”. I say again that Jeremy Corbyn and his “death to the Jews” friends (with their murals and their “counter demonstrations” against Jews protesting), are only taking collectivist, egalitarian, “Social Justice” doctrine to its logical conclusion.
For the state of mind that Mr Corbyn represents see the short work “Anthem” by Ayn Rand. In the name of the The Brothers we must all be equal – so the Jews must go.
Alisa (March 26, 2018 at 9:25 pm), I certainly find it amusing that the left in the UK have been yelling ‘nazi’ at anyone who argues with them since I was young, while slowly and steadily evolving their party till it is the one where anyone sharing Hitler’s greatest prejudice will feel most at home. I’ll be more amused still when our “you can’t say that” culture finds the nerve to make that joke more often.
Helped by my usual optimism, I am relying on the stupidity of Jeremy-2Es-Corbyn to keep things comic – but I’ll keep an eye open so I won’t be as shocked as Leni’s intellectual friends if a wake-up call ever comes.
Meanwhile, I’m amused this topic lets me recycle two of my old posts. (If you recall them from the first time round, no need to click on the links.)
Does either party actually have any members who openly profess to being Semitic or Jewish? I know the Tories did once have a Jewish Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli. Anyone else? (Here in Australia we have not yet had a Jewish PM, though our current PM, Malcolm Turnbull, represents a seat with a large Jewish population.)
In Corbyn’s defense, at least he never posted a video of a Nazi dog on you tube.
Although Disraeli was born into the Jewish faith, his father renounced for himself and his family, allegedly over a dispute with the allocation of the rotating wardenship at the Bevis Marks Synagogue (which he did not want and objected to having to pay a fine, which he considered extortion, to withdraw from the “opportunity”).
Disraeli was baptised as a Christian when he was 12-years old and it is a bone of contention with historians that Disraeli would not have risen to the PM’s office if he had been undisputedly Jewish.
Britain’s ‘first Jewish PM’: does Disraeli have the title?
British Jews have been allowed to sit in Parliament since the passing of the Jews Relief Act in 1858.
The same law — which remains in place — says that no person “professing the Jewish religion, directly or indirectly” may advise the monarch on appointments in the Church of England.
John Galt is correct that the left will suffer by attrition.
Which is why Corbin is desperate for a quick election before too much more attrition can set in.
His biggest ally remains the FFC. She seems to have got away with her Russia caper and the Poundstore Thatcher act is holding for the moment. Luckily the truth of the attempted poisoning is never likely to emerge as never does in such murky waters. So the narrative will hold. Hell it might even be true. But the fact that an almost dud battery can shed a little extra light for a few seconds should fool no one as to how useless and how full of CM BluLabour bullshit the woman is.
It will devolve into a race to the bottom between two morons.
A good Brexit would likely give the Tories victory next time. But the useless remainiac bitch is already set to muddy the waters there . And if Brexit is a sell out either way that is good news for the ever-scummier dross of ZaNu.
Paul hits the nail on the head, and (at least to me) the obvious conclusion from his point is that antisemitism has very little in common with racism.
Alisa (March 27, 2018 at 10:17 am), anti-semitism is the racism of envy (“Those jews are richer than us natives; they must have stolen it from us!”). It therefore sorts well well with socialism (“Those capitalists are richer than us workers; they must have stolen it from us!”) The kind of racism Corbyn dislikes is the racism of contempt (“Your ancestors were wielding stone hand-axes when mine were inventing the modern world; my genes must be superior to your genes.”) It therefore sorts well with snobbery (“Your ancestors were unknown tillers of the soil when mine were famous achievers; my genes must be superior to your genes.”)
Obviously this way of viewing it is similar – perhaps the very same – as Paul’s way (at March 26, 2018 at 10:05 pm). Ordinary pride offers achievement as its excuse. Envy (the worst form of pride) offers its lack of achievement as its excuse. But I would not say it isn’t racism whereas colour prejudice is, any more than I would say socialism isn’t classism whereas snobbery is. In the western world today, the envious hatreds are by far the more dangerous ones. (Whether that is innately true or not can be left to another debate.)
FWIW, when Hitler was chancellor, Australia’s local representative of the monarch – so Australia’s acting head of state (as opposed to head of government) was Governor General Sir Isaac Isaacs who was … well, perhaps the name has already informed you. 🙂 In the same position, though perhaps not quite so obviously so from his name, is Australia’s most famous and respected general, Sir John Monash, commander of the Australian Army in the final part of WWI when it became the spearhead of the BEF. (Sadly, Sir John did not live long enough to command again in WWII. He is one of the very very few generals to command at the highest levels in WWI who received almost solely praise from subordinates and historians in the years after it.)
Niall,
The Great Frog has instructed me to inform you that references to your earlier postings are always welcome.
As an example, I myself had somehow — inexplicably! unforgivably! — missed your posting
https://www.samizdata.net/2017/06/but-she-knows-me/ .
Because of your comment of March 26, 2018 at 10:16 pm, which included a link (“Leni’s intellectual friends”) to it, I have now read it. Excellent! Recommended to anyone who missed it. :>))
Good comment stream also.
That is an excellent point Niall (as usual, I might add).
Niall:anti-semitism is the racism of envy
—
If only it were that simple.
Antisemitism pervaded Christendom for centuries while Jews where ghettoized and impoverised, objects of scorn or superstitious fear but not envy.
The envy theory only explains a small slice of post-Enlightenment antisemitism. There’s a lot under that crust.
ben david (March 27, 2018 at 6:17 pm), in the high mediaeval period, every little court had its court Jew, who handled raising loans, and could only do so because they were the leaders of an economic group. Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice draws on an identification of Jews with moneylenders that was centuries old in its day, and had statistical content. It was entirely possible for Jews to be both ghettoised and envied. (Obviously, the higher the ghetto walls, the more this ensured that the Jews most often seen or talked about by their non-Jewish neighbours were the wealthy, especially the court Jews or otherwise privileged Jews, who were less bound by those walls.)
As one goes backwards into early mediaeval times – justly called the dark ages – things become less clear, merely because we have less historical information on all subjects, but the position of court jews in the high mediaeval period did not come from nowhere.
In the mediaeval age, land was the basis of power, and people who rose to prosperity started to acquire it. As always happens, when normal economic action is forbidden – in this case, when a group is denied access to land (that is, a group with the talents otherwise to have acquired it) – then it finds people who do have that right and lends money or services to them in exchange for getting the benefits at second hand. Jews had the talent to earn money and also had ‘international’ connections that were very valuable in a fragmented feudal society, so they had both money and services to offer. Those “princes of Judah” who handled the interactions between Jewish communities and native courts were of course (most of the time) protected by the indebted native lords – and were most noticeable to those lords’ native subjects.
So while I’d agree that it is not all – one could write a book about the subject – I’d disagree with your “very small slice” statement. Prior to WWI, I’d say it was a major slice, becoming a larger and larger element of what anti-semitism there was as post-enlightenment Europe neared that event, and after WWI it remains very important to understanding e.g. how the nazis united the national and socialist halves of their ideology – and in understanding Corbyn and friends too.