It sometimes seems that a whole load of socialists think they’d be on the barricades fighting the fascists were it not for their job as a lawyer, professor or journalist
Good essay. However, I was watching a podcast with Rob Henderson (luxury beliefs) today which stressed that those who engage on social media are highly atypical of broader political populations. It's a bit like the Advance UK types imagining a mass defection from Reform. To date, the level of defection is relatively small (7% last time I checked), showing that their online engagement is an very misrepresentative sample.
When it comes to likes, I think there is a deep dark aspect of human nature which flirts with transgression, when safely cosseted behind the veil of anonymity. Many people want to feel the thrill of being slightly bad, even though in real life they are mostly harmless and even quite pleasant.
Of course, there are real monsters out there and they can do a lot of damage. The Bolsheviks only needed a few thousand. The other problem is complicity through social enforcement. People can be 'hacked' by group dynamics and approval mechanisms, otherwise cults would fail to recruit. In an exceptional documentary from the nineties: The Nazis: A Warning from History, the filmmakers spent the entirety of episode 2, Chaos and Consent, exploring just how reliant the Nazi regime was on the active participation of ordinary citizens snitching on their neighbours. The series was still to be found on YouTube last time I checked.
Interesting post. I was unfamiliar with Hilary Mantel.
I would say that I haven't encountered anyone in my local leftist circles celebrating violence against right wing commentators.
For that reason, the undernoted sentence feels a little of an over reach. Perhaps constantly online leftists may express celebration of these events, but local leftist activities certainly do not (at least not in my local area).
"While not everyone on the left was dancing in the streets or cracking open some fizz on hearing of Kirk’s assassination"
Wolf Hall. She's a bloody good writer, but she does bring a lot of baggage to the process. For example, she casts Henry as a monster when a more accurate portrayal would have to focused on the incredible degree of superstition at the time. Henry would have really believed that a deformed stillbirth pointed to a terrible sin on the part of his wife (because he was obviously blameless).
Good essay. However, I was watching a podcast with Rob Henderson (luxury beliefs) today which stressed that those who engage on social media are highly atypical of broader political populations. It's a bit like the Advance UK types imagining a mass defection from Reform. To date, the level of defection is relatively small (7% last time I checked), showing that their online engagement is an very misrepresentative sample.
When it comes to likes, I think there is a deep dark aspect of human nature which flirts with transgression, when safely cosseted behind the veil of anonymity. Many people want to feel the thrill of being slightly bad, even though in real life they are mostly harmless and even quite pleasant.
Of course, there are real monsters out there and they can do a lot of damage. The Bolsheviks only needed a few thousand. The other problem is complicity through social enforcement. People can be 'hacked' by group dynamics and approval mechanisms, otherwise cults would fail to recruit. In an exceptional documentary from the nineties: The Nazis: A Warning from History, the filmmakers spent the entirety of episode 2, Chaos and Consent, exploring just how reliant the Nazi regime was on the active participation of ordinary citizens snitching on their neighbours. The series was still to be found on YouTube last time I checked.
Interesting post. I was unfamiliar with Hilary Mantel.
I would say that I haven't encountered anyone in my local leftist circles celebrating violence against right wing commentators.
For that reason, the undernoted sentence feels a little of an over reach. Perhaps constantly online leftists may express celebration of these events, but local leftist activities certainly do not (at least not in my local area).
"While not everyone on the left was dancing in the streets or cracking open some fizz on hearing of Kirk’s assassination"
Wolf Hall. She's a bloody good writer, but she does bring a lot of baggage to the process. For example, she casts Henry as a monster when a more accurate portrayal would have to focused on the incredible degree of superstition at the time. Henry would have really believed that a deformed stillbirth pointed to a terrible sin on the part of his wife (because he was obviously blameless).