Re: Nick Cohen on "Truth" Archived Message Posted by Ian M on January 23, 2020, 5:47 pm, in reply to "Re: Nick Cohen on "Truth"" Obligatory repost of this classic: https://samkriss.com/2016/05/23/nick-cohen-is-in-your-house/ 'Nick Cohen is in the political left. It’s not that he’s part of it, exactly; he doesn’t fight in the left’s struggles, he doesn’t seem to care about leftist causes, but he’s there, within, watching. This has been, for some years now, his journalistic gimmick. He’s on the left, yes, but he’s also possibly the last journalist in Britain to still defend the 2003 attack on Iraq, he endlessly whinges about student no-platforming of fascists or the censure of Charlie Hebdo‘s state-sponsored racism as a threat to freedom of speech, and he’s never met a socialist government or a popular resistance movement that he didn’t loathe. But because he’s on the left, his global hostility to actual socialism must therefore be an authentic leftist position. A strange, greasy three-stage manoeuvre: first he’s in the left, then he is the left, then you’re not. Nick Cohen’s favoured term for people who don’t think exactly like Nick Cohen is ‘pseudo-left’: people who oppose imperialist wars, for instance, or defend successful socialist revolutions – what the #### is your name? This was the subject of an entire book, but it seems the theme hasn’t yet exhausted itself. In his most recent article, an utterly bizarre outburst, politically useless but the kind of parapraxical emission that’s always been of interest to psychoanalysis, he writes that Westerners who have solidarity with the progressive government in Venezuela are exactly like sex tourists. During the Labour leadership contest, he dismissed support for the socialist Jeremy Corbyn as a kind of ‘identity leftism’ on the part of the narcissistic youth, people who just want to see their opinions reflected in someone else – a strange critique, coming from a man whose only real connection to the left is that he identifies himself as being within it. But there he is. Nick Cohen is in your left. As a matter of fact, he’s there right now.' Enjoyed the thread I Message Thread: Nick Cohen on "Truth" - scrabb January 22, 2020, 6:01 pm What's next: Tony Blair on "Courage"? - Morrissey January 22, 2020, 8:52 pm Peter Mandelson on "Integrity"? - Morrissey January 22, 2020, 8:59 pm The Duke of Edinburgh on "Sensitivity"? - Morrissey January 22, 2020, 9:02 pm Theresa May on being Naughty (nm) - Ed January 22, 2020, 9:11 pm Alastair Campbell on Depression (nm) - Ed January 22, 2020, 9:12 pm Re: Alan Rusbridger on integrity (nm) - Sir Michael Mouse January 23, 2020, 12:47 am Re: Alan Rusbridger on loyalty perhaps...integrity already covered!(nm) - Sir Michael Mouse January 23, 2020, 12:49 am Laura Kuenssberg on professional journalism(nm) - Ed January 23, 2020, 1:00 am Helen Boaden, on politicians mean what they say (nm) - Ed January 23, 2020, 1:50 am Boris Johnson on Coiffure. nm - Jamie January 23, 2020, 8:38 am Corbyn on Cojones (for Keith ;-) ) nm - Jamie January 23, 2020, 8:41 am Tom Watson on Socialism and loyalty NM - redadare January 23, 2020, 8:46 am Andrew Windsor on sexual continence... - AlanG January 23, 2020, 9:10 am George Osborne on drugs...nom nom nom - Si January 23, 2020, 2:45 pm Nick Robinson on Bears (nm) - Ed January 23, 2020, 5:28 pm White Helmets on emergency services (nm) - Willem January 23, 2020, 11:31 pm "Bear from Bo' Selecta! Bear from Bo' Selecta!"....nm - Keith-264 January 24, 2020, 1:27 am Rees-Mogg on compassion nm - dan January 24, 2020, 7:26 am Margaret Hodge on irony. (see above.) nm - Jamie January 24, 2020, 9:15 am David Cameron on "being there".. nm - Gerard January 24, 2020, 4:14 pm Re: Nick Cohen on "Truth" - Raskolnikov January 23, 2020, 1:04 pm Re: Nick Cohen on "Truth" - Ian M January 23, 2020, 5:47 pm Re: Nick Cohen on "Truth" - AlanG January 24, 2020, 10:27 am Re: 12 murders - Dave F January 24, 2020, 10:12 pm McClusky on Labor's defeat - Shyaku January 26, 2020, 6:01 pm   Searching