Read on Twitter
So journalists like Owen Jones, & to some extent Michael Walker, have, undeniably helpfully, carved themselves a place in the mainstream media & are working hard to try to make left politics respectable after the concerted right wing & liberal project to delegitemise socialism(1)
Their politics are largely actually not radically different from the vast majority of the so-called "crank left" (anti imperialist, anti war, pro public ownership, etc.) but it helps them to be able to fabricate & perpetuate the existence of so-called "disreputable" leftists (2)
against whom they can define themselves, & in doing so reassure the mainstream that they are the respectable, optics Left that won& #39;t frighten the horses and know which fork to use at dinner parties (3)
But to make this convincing every now & then they must whip up some good old optics left outrage against the "disreputables" &, because as I said there are few genuine, real political differences between the optics & the crank left... (4)
...this will often have to involve some pretty bad faith stretching - as we& #39;ve seen today. To me there& #39;s not a substantial difference between what Jones pulled against Kerry-Anne today and the "orange-gate" nonsense pulled against Ash Sarkar. (5)
& all I want to say is that it& #39;s all extremely depressing. I won& #39;t be "cancelling" Jones or Walker or Kerry-Anne or The Canary or Sqwawkbox or Laura Pidcock...But Jones needs to understand he is not gate-keeper of the left & he doesn& #39;t get to decide who& #39;s in or out of the club(6)
& because I expressed solidarity with Kerry-Anne (a gay person of colour who takes a lot of shit on & off line & someone I& #39;ve met & is from the same town as me) my mentions are now full of far right flag shaggers calling me antisemitic. & Owen Jones did that. Not cool. Not ok.(7)
TLDR? Owen Jones needs to disabuse himself of the idea he is the head prefect of the left. (8)
