Loki Interview from FakeNewsCast

Paul and Gerry from Not Another Fake Newscast speak to musician and Orwell award-winning novelist Loki for some reflection & hard questions for the left in the wake of the Johnson election victory .

“What can we learn & how can we move forward?”

Comments (7)

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  1. Susan Gallagher says:

    Loved this, thanks. Amazing insights and wise reflection.

  2. Arboreal Agenda says:

    Thank you for this – a very interesting and thoughtful analysis of the kind we need more of. Darren’s perspective is generally free of the usual cliched polemics and that makes him so refreshing to listen to and the other contributors help a lot in that respect too. The basic point that centrism as a political philosophy doesn’t really exist, the ‘centre’ being wherever you want it to be, is really well made.

    I saw Loki at the Fringe a couple of years ago and was impressed. He has talent in spades and is one of the most truly articulate people I know of.

  3. James Mills says:

    Interesting discussion – though it is clear from what the speakers say that the present Labour Party ( the Left ? ) hasn’t got a clue what wins elections . The Left is dead – long live the Centre ground !

  4. kate macleod says:

    No its not about better strategic planning (like a town administrator) to bring about a neo -blairite unity of moderate reformist leftist capitalists with a grudging or full committment to either US imperialsim or EU neoliberlaism, that the millionaire press and facebook owners will allow to campaign electorally presented as non demonic forces.

    Nor is it at the same time about more subtle persuasive arguments around different views (like boris johnson! i mean die you piccaninie , watermelon smile, letter box eyed, inferior, should be exterminated, antisemitic or whatever slur falls to hand at the time for tory BMAE racists, jock!!!), and more blatant ‘clear’ lying slogans on the left to match those of the right. Btw unsurprisingly BMAE voters had no problem with corbyn. Tell me is it the fault of the ‘left’ that the un decolonized british ,as strormzy says , are strongly racist and don’t know it? maybe. go out and tell – tenderly if you like, without preaching , of racist british imperial history, which is at the same time the story of raider capitalism, impoverishment of colonial peoples and the creation of a ‘home’ people so corrupted imperialism and more recently by the governments of thatcher and those folllowing that they no longer recognize the bonds of society of care for the lives of others.

    as in other nations the defeats of the leftish really are substantially about the international wheels of class and economic power , of late financial capitalism, operating at parliamentary,media and business levels and maybe the infantile lad charisma of johnson/s and his easy reassuring sound bite lies. its about people who can want manifesto policies and somehow reach the conclusion they wont vote for those policies for an emotional positive response what? to laddish racism? relentless media depictions of a relatively virtuous man as the epicentre of every vice and a national security threat?, promises of coming plenty from a known liar from a ruling party that has only ever brought austerity. sure discover those reasons but it will never be the fault of either corbyn or the left if people choose to punch themselves in the face without a good reason.

    Furthermore the over 50s voted tory and the under 50s didn’t, the younger the less the tory vote. so possibly the young have nothing to learn from the older. The reasons there as well as why BMAE voters stuck with labour would be instructive.The ‘ left’ are not able to create a just, rational or compassionate society, especially in the face of huge countervailing forces, and voting patterns flow from that cultural – political battle.

    It is true that ‘the left’ is many groups with varying focus objectives (and some are not agreed as to what is left), while the right coheres more succinctly around greed and profit at the expense of human beings, shelter,food, of climate action and ultimately survival – often whilst stating the opposite. I don’t really see how the left can achieve a real coalition when it is not united on an end goal, even the end of capitalism. These coalitions fall apart, that has been shown repeatedly in the european left. The centre in western political discourse has been right wing since the 1970s, or always. Support for new coal mines in Australia is now bi partisan, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) overtly supports it following their election loss under the mild mannered , ‘weak’ opposition leader and media demon, ‘shifty Shorten’, whose unlikeability was relentlessly hammered home in the murdoch media. Shorten’s manufactured unlikeability was positioned a good reason not to vote for the ALP platform. And as in the UK , and an unusual amount of lying about opposition policies , sometimes disseminated to targeted groups online, also took place . The ‘centre’ of new coal mines is extremism and so are most current centres.

    If a populace chooses to be in denial (with a lot of encouragement ) it will have its own versions of what Australia has and will literally burn down while doing virtually nothing on climate change action and denying the underlying reasons for a national fire crisis or the existence of abnormal crisis . This atmosphere of denial is everywhere in the world and it is not the fault of the left.The left/s and environmentalists are the people who tried and we should venerate all attempted defence of other humans, not tear people to shreds because they didnt do the nearly impossible.

    Denial is in not admitting the almost whole force of capitalist institutions is against an egalitarian society, returning to production for need and climate action.

    Also as Chris Hedges said we are denied mourning because of denial that people are destroying our own societies and environments. Naturally it can’t be admitted that the UK election result is part of this, or that the left are not to blame, because they are always to blame, even for the left.

  5. CB says:

    Kate- It’s BAME.

  6. Alasdair Macdonald. says:

    Excellent! It is invigorating to hear someone who has educated himself and has the assurance to express himself forcefully, in his own accent, and is unapologetic about using a pretty deeply understood and nuanced paradigm of how societies work and how they adapt and change. He is prepared to take things on and engage with people to seek to change their opinions, but, just as importantly, is prepared to acknowledge strong points within their arguments and, at times, to concede points. To change attitudes, you have to start where people are, not where they should be.

  7. John McLeod says:

    This was really interesting. Thanks for publishing it here.

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