Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 20, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 20, 2019 Fucking love Akala - every time he shows up it's a lesson for the bigots. His politics are pretty close to mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RancidPunx Posted March 20, 2019 Share Posted March 20, 2019 On 3/14/2019 at 2:52 PM, Brewster McCloud said: I know there's an existing book thread but I searched in vain. Fuck it. Some of the financial jargon is flying over my head, but I'm a couple of chapters in and I'm learning a lot about the libertarian Sillicon Valley mindset and how guys like Zuckerberg took over the world. Worth a read you reckon ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Picked this up yesterday, started it last night. Initial impressions are that it'll be a fun read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 3 hours ago, David said: Picked this up yesterday, started it last night. Initial impressions are that it'll be a fun read. Love that book. He also writes a decent blog about his time refereeing http://refereetales.blogspot.com/?m=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 On 3/20/2019 at 2:13 PM, BomberPat said: I have to admit I'd never heard of him beforehand, but have since become a fan. I assume you've seen this clip from 2013? This was the first time a lot of people had heard him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 22, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 22, 2019 BTW wasn't sure where this might go, but as it's related to what he's reading, I thought @BomberPat might find this little tidbit of Akala effectively calling out this ToryBoy on his dog-whistle racism very satisfying: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted March 22, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted March 22, 2019 (edited) Wonderful stuff. He touches on that notion of "white working class" in a part of the book I've just recently read, when discussing how the notion of whiteness as a racial identity is tied to white supremacy in a way that no other racial identity is tied to ideas of supremacy/superiority; it's an identity that, from its inception, was defined by the power it held over others, and that's why attacks on white supremacy can feel, to many, like attacks on whiteness as a whole. I've definitely argued the case about "working class" as a signifier in political discussion before - there's almost invariably the invisible word "white" implied there. Because when people talk about "the working class", they're not talking about the black or mixed families that are statistically more likely to have a weekly household income of less than £400, or the Indian and Bangladeshi families more likely to have a weekly household income of less than £1000. "Working class" invariably means white. Similarly, in Akala's example above, when we talk about "working class communities", we envision Northern towns. We don't talk about Hackney or Tower Hamlets. Edited March 22, 2019 by BomberPat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Yeah he's great. He also has that gift of listening to what someone says. He barely ever interrupts and then he just picks apart what they have said. His interview with Piers Morgan the other day was a masterclass. He didn't once get baited into a shouting match, he just eloquently put his point across, backed it up with facts, and then nobody could say anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsfromlee Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Piers Morgan was surprisingly not a complete cunt for once in that interview. He was still a cunt because he can’t be anything else, but not a complete one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 He CAN be a good interviewer Morgan, but his role is to provoke and get people talking / watching. Its like Adrian Durham on TalkSport. They play the cunt because it gets people talking and angry. So much so that they are a cunt. Its best to ignore people like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 29 minutes ago, Factotum said: Yeah he's great. He also has that gift of listening to what someone says. He barely ever interrupts and then he just picks apart what they have said. His interview with Piers Morgan the other day was a masterclass. He didn't once get baited into a shouting match, he just eloquently put his point across, backed it up with facts, and then nobody could say anything. Another thing he is good at was shown when he was on Question Time, the question was asked and he simply said "I don't really have an opinion on that subject" and didn't involve himself in the topic instead of blustering through with baseless opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Danger Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Just finished the Dark Tower 7 audio book. Ending spoiler You absolute bastard King! I know the story through out the series is really flimsy in places but that was right up there with a certain cowboy video game in making me care and ripping my heart out by the end! Fair dues, he had some balls to do that ending. Does the 8th book bare any relevance to the over arching plot? Any recommendations for something similar but maybe a little less puss eating and baby erections? I read very little so all suggestions welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCW Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Currently reading 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' by Shoshana Zuboff which can be tough going at time, but is incredibly interesting and downright scary at times. Before that I read 'Why Are We Always On Last' By Paul Armstrong about his time working as a producer for BBC Sport and then as editor for Match of the Day. A grand auld read and a nice spy behind the scenes of MOTD and sports broadcasting in general, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted May 14, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 14, 2019 Currently re-reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett. I probably haven't read it in more than 15 years, and it's the same dog-eared knackered copy I bought 20 years ago or so. Figured I'd refresh my memory of it ahead of the TV adaptation starting soon. I was a diehard Pratchett fan when I first read it, whereas now I've not read anything of his stuff in years, and am more into Gaiman, so it's interesting reading it now and being able to distinguish their respective contributions a little more. Parts of it haven't aged well, but it's still great fun. Mostly it's just serving as a bit of a palate cleanser, as most of my "To Read" pile is hefty academic tones about far-right politics, Russian involvement in extremist movements, and holocaust denial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 14, 2019 Paid Members Share Posted May 14, 2019 15 hours ago, Mr_Danger said: Just finished the Dark Tower 7 audio book. Ending spoiler Hide contents You absolute bastard King! I know the story through out the series is really flimsy in places but that was right up there with a certain cowboy video game in making me care and ripping my heart out by the end! Fair dues, he had some balls to do that ending. Does the 8th book bare any relevance to the over arching plot? Any recommendations for something similar but maybe a little less puss eating and baby erections? I read very little so all suggestions welcome. To be fair, King does give the reader hope, as we see that whilst Roland will relive everything, there will be something else different, perhaps better, and eventually he'll achieve his aims. But obviously that is something he wants to leave ambiguous and up to the reader, which is probably for the best. After a series like that, I don't think any other kind of ending would have worked. As to The Wind Through The Keyhole, I haven't read it, but I know people who have, and I get the impression from them that he wrote it in response to the overwhelmingly-positive reaction to Wizard & Glass - it's basically a prequel following on from that, and covering the fall of Gilead. I'm looking forward to reading it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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