Comments on Aaronovitch Watch: Three is a trend

Still no sign of Nick in tomorrow's Observer, at l...

2008-07-05T23:46:00.000Z

Still no sign of Nick in tomorrow's Observer, at least not the online version.

Ha Ha the stuff about ideology is funny. Its that ...

2008-07-02T17:15:00.000Z

Ha Ha the stuff about ideology is funny. Its that sense they are very similar to the Critical Theorists who they despise so much.

Surprised you haven't posted on the Hitchens waterboarding piece in today's G2.

"Groupthink" is the name for that essential Decent...

2008-07-02T11:07:00.000Z

"Groupthink" is the name for that essential Decent handwave. In practice, it appears to explain a number of social facts - from being polite to your workmates, through to not being able to see the lizards in 'V'.

_I_ play a key role in an exciting intellectual movement
_You_ are part of an honourable tradition
_He_ suffers [_I_ suffered] from groupthink

Chris Williams

Taking us off the point onto which I had dragged u...

2008-07-02T08:38:00.000Z

Taking us off the point onto which I had dragged us, the "how awful it was" thing does lead one to ask Cohen (or whoever) the question - if it was really like that, how come you took so long to notice? I mean either it was not, in which case what they're saying isn't true, or it was, in which case their powers of judgement and observation are, by their own account, not of the highest quality,

Ah, but intellectual != intelligent. Otherwise, I ...

2008-07-01T18:36:00.000Z

Ah, but intellectual != intelligent. Otherwise, I pretty much agree with all of that. The interesting thing about d is that most of them view themselves as 'leftists' while maintaining that most of the left is awful or pseudo-. The pseudo-left thing being particularly interesting given that any history of the left by any decent sympathiser always emphasises how awful it was. In my opinion, the

Right, the Decents and the over-importance to them...

2008-07-01T16:08:00.000Z

Right, the Decents and the over-importance to them of ideology.

What I didn't mean is that they overprivilege ideology compared to practice, which may or may not be true but isn't the argument I'm seeking to make. What I want to argue is that it is given such an great importance as to blot out context.

Symptoms of this might include:

(a) refusal to accept

Today's enemy is Islamofascism ... Today's enemy w...

2008-07-01T15:25:00.000Z

Today's enemy is Islamofascism ... Today's enemy within is the left ...

Another distinguishing characteristic of Deceny, i...

2008-07-01T08:39:00.000Z

Another distinguishing characteristic of Deceny, it occurs to me, is that it overprivileges ideology, which subject I may bore on about a little after I've done some work (or read some blogs).

the Greatest Intellectual Struggle of our time cla...

2008-06-30T22:19:00.000Z

the Greatest Intellectual Struggle of our time claims a victim.

When I hung out on soc.history.what-if we used to call this phenomenon the Brain Eater. There's a (post-?)situationist line about ideology - "theory is when you have ideas; ideology is when ideas have you". The Brain Eater is the third, degenerative stage - when ideas have you and it shows.

Couscous - If Cohen did say that then he may have ...

2008-06-30T19:57:00.000Z

Couscous - If Cohen did say that then he may have picked up the attitude from Hitchens who once remarked, apropos the Ricky Ray Rector business, that you should never be afraid to repeat yourself.

The difference, of course, is that Hitchens was drawing attention to a truly nasty bit of Clintonian opportunism whereas NC is drawing attention to the inner psychodramas of the Harry's Place

Good news about the Observer rejecting Nick, altho...

2008-06-30T19:11:00.000Z

Good news about the Observer rejecting Nick, although this has to be balanced by the fact they published not one but two bits of Decency from Andrew Anthony in yesterday's edition - a favourable review of a Kenan Malik book in which AA argued that racists and anti-racists were at roughly the same moral level, and a puff piece for Iain Duncan Smith's 'Centre for Social Justice', a 'non-partisan'

Didn't NC tell some Euston event (or similar) that...

2008-06-30T18:52:00.000Z

Didn't NC tell some Euston event (or similar) that he was repeating himself again and again and again and deliberately becoming extremely tedious because he'd decided that that was the appropriate way to wage TGISOUT? Or did I imagine that?

"Apparently he keeps pitching to do essentially th...

2008-06-30T16:27:00.000Z

"Apparently he keeps pitching to do essentially the same piece - another the-left-doesn't-get-Islam rant - and they keep saying, if you have a better idea, by all means pitch it, but we can't run that one identical piece again."

the Greatest Intellectual Struggle of our time claims a victim. And you can tell that when he writes stuff on other things he's basically just phining it in.

Nick is still officially described as 'away' in th...

2008-06-30T11:17:00.000Z

Nick is still officially described as 'away' in the Observer, with Rafael Behr in his place.

Gardening leave?

[redpesto]

The Observer Debate. Liberty in Peril? Thursday 3r...

2008-06-30T08:13:00.000Z

The Observer Debate.

Liberty in Peril? Thursday 3rd July, 7 pm . Church House Conference Centre, Westminster.

Speakers: David Aaronovitch, Denis MacShane, Henry Porter, David Davis.

Moussaka Man

It's fairly heartening to hear that about the Obs ...

2008-06-30T08:11:00.000Z

It's fairly heartening to hear that about the Obs since about 3 months ago they seemed to be happy for both Nick and almost every other columnist to be running the same 'left doesn't get Islam, Ed Husain is ace' piece ad nauseam. Now if they'd just make the Review worth reading again I'd go back to buying the paper.

Surely part of the problem is the influence of the blogosphere, in which

So "Nick Cohen is Away" means "Nick Cohen is away ...

2008-06-30T08:03:00.000Z

So "Nick Cohen is Away" means "Nick Cohen is away with the fairies". I guess the Ratbiter columns in Private Eye are actually Observer rejects (altho' to be honest, they seem slightly better than his Observer pieces) . Surely the Telegraph beckons

I hear from an inside source at the Obs that Cohen...

2008-06-30T00:45:00.000Z

I hear from an inside source at the Obs that Cohen can't agree subjects with the ed. Apparently he keeps pitching to do essentially the same piece - another the-left-doesn't-get-Islam rant - and they keep saying, if you have a better idea, by all means pitch it, but we can't run that one identical piece again. My source is fairly senior at the Obs and in a position to know.

I figured that he'd be fired soon after the editor...

2008-06-29T22:30:00.000Z

I figured that he'd be fired soon after the editorial change. I figured it was simple inertia that had kept him there.

He didn't have the guts to name MugabeOh dear oh d...

2008-06-29T14:32:00.000Z

He didn't have the guts to name Mugabe

Oh dear oh dear. One would at least have thought the sub editors might look twice at this kind of thing.

Nick is still officially described as 'away' in the Observer, with Rafael Behr in his place.

One thing we haven't talked much about on here is how Nick has been shunted around in the print edition. Initially he was in the

There's an unpleasant bitchiness in that Mandela p...

2008-06-29T13:46:00.000Z

There's an unpleasant bitchiness in that Mandela piece that mirrors that Standpoint 'unmanly' discourse.

On Friday evening, a warm glow of self-satisfaction will spread through Hyde Park

He didn't have the guts to name Mugabe

A fairly harsh assessment given the 'guts' he demonstrated in his life otherwise. But the 'self-satisfaction' comment evidently