Michael Blackburn: ‘The left is not just a system based on a conspiracy theory, it is a religious one and if you wish to leave you have to go full apostate. There are no half measures. Cohen is stuck with half measures and hence cannot accept that leftism ineluctably merges with antisemitism. He may think his being Jewish experiment will only be needed temporarily. He’s wrong: it’s permanent.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘This is not to dismiss or demean the many personal, cultural and economic links between Britain and the US, it’s just that we need our politicians and media to stop pretending it makes us special. If they don’t we’re always going to be in the “Yo, Blair!” category. It’s embarrassing.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘The unfortunate truth, though, is that “olympicly dim” describes so many modern politicians across the world. Many of them are olympian in all the wrong ways. Just look at them: Cameron, Obama, Hollande, Merkel. Olympians in arrogance, deceit, self-delusion , vanity and ignorance of the real world, all of them. We can’t seem to get rid of them and there seems to be no one on the political horizon who is not a similarly stunted bonehead.’
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Michael Blackburn: ‘The best part of the session, however, was reserved for Jezbollah The Lost, leader of Her Majesty’s opposition, who, when recounting how he had been to a meeting of European socialists says he was asked – at this point some Tory wit interject with the shout “Who are you?” The House shook with boisterous jollity. Except for Jezza, of course, and Mr Flim Flam, who was so engrossed in reading something that he hadn’t noticed the commotion and had to have it explained to him by his quivering Home Secretary.’
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
Michael Blackburn: ‘How thoughtful of the EU to assume control of our broadcast networks, and how accommodating of our national government to hand them that power — and then to do their bidding. In this case you may say, well, it’s done something whose results you approve of. To which I’d respond, “So what?” I’d be quite happy to have missed these programmes if it meant not having a bunch of unelected foreigners telling our broadcasters what to do.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘This posturing wouldn’t be so bad if you knew these various celebs had done their research beforehand and exercised some independent thinking instead of following whatever line the Guardian or The Independent or the mainstream media in the US are peddling. But it’s not going to happen. They’re part of the in-crowd and you’ve got to go where the in-crowd goes, even if your fashionable pose quickly goes the way all fashions go: into the charity shop.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘Social media have allowed everyone, including the psychotic and moronic, a platform from which to displays their views. That’s always going to be a bear pit. The fact that the financially-failing Guardian has found itself crushed under the weight of free speech is not in itself a great loss. The real danger is that all the other available outlets will be censored or shut down and nothing springs up replace them. ‘
Michael Blackburn: ‘A friend and I once tried this at university. A student my companion vaguely knew but didn’t like started talking to us in the pub. He asked us what we were both up to. Possessed by a spirit of mischief and without thinking I immediately said we’d both packed in our studies and and begun training as Formula One racing drivers. He believed us. My friend knew something about cars so could come up with a few choice engineering details. I just added stuff about blondes and pitstops. It was so easy.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘So much then for these anti-women feminists. They are apologists for a religion that not only despises women and subjugates them to second class status but also violates and murders them. They are advocates for a belief system that attacks the very principles which provides them with the money, education, freedom and opportunity to preen themselves in public on your impeccable correctness.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘“The point is not to use names given by whites to others,” says Ms Gosselink. That’s despite the fact that it was whites who created the paintings in the first place and then gathered them together in collections. And whites who, presumably, are deciding at this very minute to give those non-white people different names from the ones the whites gave them originally. But white is the new pejorative in our culturally “aware” society, and liberal guilt is as popular as ever.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘During this time the EU has been wracked by financial and economic crisis, a huge rise in unemployment, a surge in Islamic terrorism, and the absolute failure to control mass immigration from outside the continent. All of this is a result its own policies and none of it came with an official pictographic warning label on its packaging.’
Saturday, 21 November 2015
Michael Blackburn: ‘The liberal intelligentsia vigorously promote this weirdly de-Christianised Christianity that’s been pumped through the sludge of secular hip psychology to produce a tearful, self-pitying, intellectually dishonest passivity. Evasion of the truth is paramount. Diversion of guilt is essential. Avoidance of strong Western cultural beliefs is forbidden.’
Michael Blackburn: ‘Those banging the trans drum are certainly making their voices heard these days – nobody seems to be gagging them – and it’s about time they extended to others the great tolerance that is given to them. They may think themselves the apex of civilised progressive thinking, but they’re as likely to fall foul of a new generation of self-righteous offence-takers as Greer is.’
Michael BLACKBURN: ‘So it comes down to the fact that it’s really not the amount of tax that is collected from a company and its employees that matters to the progressives, but that the company should be seen to be handing over a slice of its earnings to the state. Corporation tax in this world view is a punishment for making profit, ie, from being successful.’
Scruton and ‘the nonsense machine’.
Michael Blackburn: ‘It’s a compliment to the quality of Scruton’s writing that he makes this journey through the execrable inanities of modern leftism enjoyable, informative and often amusing. He’s happy to be vitriolic. I like his spearing of Eagleton, for instance, who passes “all art and literature through the grievance mangle, so as to squeeze out the juice of dominance,” which is reminiscent of Harold Bloom’s description of the leftist literary project as “the School of Resentment”.’