Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps

Has anyone posted this yet?

I'll be ever so pleased if I'm the first.

Ha, nice one. I hadn't thought of that specific clip, but I've been thinking for a while that progressive politics really needs a Varys to pit against the Right's Littlefinger characters in the shape of Bannon, Cummings, Banks etc.

(That's probably giving them a lot more credit than they're really due, but you know what I mean, right?)
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Is being machievallean incompatible with being (genuinely) leftwing?

Perhaps not. I suspect that the left wouldn't tolerate someone like that as much as the right, though.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Is being machievallean incompatible with being (genuinely) leftwing?

Perhaps not. I suspect that the left wouldn't tolerate someone like that as much as the right, though.

Depends whether, by 'leftwing', you mean actually progressive or (e.g.) Seumas Milne.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I suppose what I meant was to be machievellean and have genuine left-wing principles.

Campbell, e.g., helped engineer the Iraq war. By lying. Surely that's not left-wing?

Being machievellean must be more of a right-wing thing because it means being extremely ruthless to other people, suggesting not the most empathetic of characters.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Well, there's 'saintly' and there's 'stopping short of lending support to an illegal war that will kill thousands'.

But I guess he might have thought it would ultimately be justified.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
Depends how you would define Machiavellian. Is it to be completely amoral in pursuit of political gain, or is it to grant their political mission higher moral priority than the acts it commands?

There's definitely a big "the ends justifies the means" belief to much of modern radical leftist circles. Punching nazis, online doxxing tactics etc.
 
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