Social media Manipulation
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If you fail, try and try again.“Last Men in Aleppo”Another movie on the White Helmets at the Oscars and a critical reviewhttps://countercurrents.org/2018/02/27/syrian-white-helmets-oscars/
Barltrop recounts that at one time Party members paid little attention to current events. As long as you knew your theory of value and had a handle on the MCH you were in a position to analyze anything. And they were right. This stuff in the media is ephemeral, purely ephemeral. These ghastly situations and the horrible actors who play a role in them come and go. I last purchased a newspaper in 1984. It was an Observer.
Rusty Pigfumbler wrote:Barltrop recounts that at one time Party members paid little attention to current events. As long as you knew your theory of value and had a handle on the MCH you were in a position to analyze anything. And they were right. This stuff in the media is ephemeral, purely ephemeral. These ghastly situations and the horrible actors who play a role in them come and go. I last purchased a newspaper in 1984. It was an Observer.This would be the time when membership (and new applicants) fell year-on-year, because membership was growing when the likes of Hardy were debating 'Federal Union' and other such stuff that would be arguably somewhat irrelevant now. Crump even in his resignation way back in 1973 saw a problem with the 'passing show' attitude (whether borne out of utopianism or determinism). This was rejected by many members at the time of Crumps comments, but was the name of a regular column in the Standard.
Quote:As long as you knew your theory of value and had a handle on the MCH you were in a position to analyze anything. And they were right.It is rather frustrating that even if we did concentrate on the theoretical aspects of Marxism (and related it to real-world circumstances) – there is nobody out there listening to us. When was the party's analysis last cited by an academic or intellectual (i use the word loosely)? It seems that from recent events it is foreign visiting journalists who seem to appreciate the Party's status rather than any of the British media. The BBC as has been pointed out doesn't even mention us in their history of British socialism documentary, not even in the passing. We have to do something about being treated as an irrelevancy, where we are no longer even a foot-note. Either we have to by-pass the media and build our own presence…or we need to approach them head-on. Our media committee despite their best efforts has not produced satisfactory results by playing the press release game.Our Twitter account seems to have had the occasional impact with its inflammatory comments. It appears when we reflect the Class War vitriol we get noticed. Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?
alanjjohnstone wrote:Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?No.
ALB wrote:alanjjohnstone wrote:Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?No.
Agreed. No.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?Why not? Perhaps we've had an "air of respectability" for far too long.
alanjjohnstone wrote:When was the party's analysis last cited by an academic or intellectual (i use the word loosely)?One of the Proper Gander articles from the Standard was quoted in an A Level Sociology textbook, if that counts!
"Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?"ALB – NoJondwhite – Agreed, NoOh, well, Gnome…perhaps we are to continue to be condemned as the "Small Party of Good Boys", unable to shake off that perception of ourselves that even though we stand for the end of wage-slavery, we shy away from rattling the chains.Mike, can you offer more details of our citation …something i can copy and paste for the blog
alanjjohnstone wrote:"Should we drop the air of respectability and shamelessly go out of our way to shock to make our points?"ALB – NoJondwhite – Agreed, NoOh, well, Gnome…perhaps we are to continue to be condemned as the "Small Party of Good Boys", unable to shake off that perception of ourselves that even though we stand for the end of wage-slavery, we shy away from rattling the chains.Mike, can you offer more details of our citation …something i can copy and paste for the blogHmm, this is a challenge that I welcome. I take this opportunity to unreservably declare that I do not consider myself a member of the "Small Party of Good Boys".
I don't think it follows that we 'should accept' others definition of us. It is a deliberately flawed caricature made by disparaging enemies of the working class on the Left and as simplistic and deliberate as those caricaturic assumptions made by neo-cons on the Right that we are a part of the hard left.Accepting this definition is a prescription for passivity. We certainly need to find creative ways, in an instant soundbite culture, to get our ideas across and render them intelligible to an audience, unused to analytical discourse.To do otherwise will be to merely catch the attention of frustrated individuals who will then be fertile ground for tried and failed leftist actionists and alienate other more deliberative workers.
Regarding post #19 and the Media Committee, any Comrades who had seen its plan of action (Conference/ADM 2016-17, but unfortunately, due to over-commitments, yet to be realised) would have seen that the commitee itself recognises that sending news releases to the general news media is usually a waste of time, as they are just ignored.Letters to the local press, or specialist publications, especially on topics of direct interest to their readers on the otherhand are proven to be far more successful.
robert.cox wrote:the commitee itself recognises that sending news releases to the general news media is usually a waste of time, as they are just ignored.As a matter of interest how many news releases to the general news media were sent last year?
Quote:Letters to the local press, or specialist publications, especially on topics of direct interest to their readers on the otherhand are proven to be far more successful.There used to be a Party web-site for the circulation of letters to the media but it fell into disuse from lack of interest.The SOYMB blog, however, would be interested in receiving details so any published letter can be placed on the internet.
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