salute tottenham

[baboon2004]

Charlie Brooker has done a kind of David Starkey-lite with a sneery examination of working class aspirationalism with weird racial undertones (criticisms of trainer fetishism and MTV Cribs forming the backbone of his argument, with the inescapable suggestion that hip hop culture is moronic), while advocating sticking those convicted in the stocks.

Oh, and the suggestion that being rich can be as miserable as growing up in deprivation...the man's a fucking idiot.

"If preventing further looting is our aim, then as well as addressing the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, I'd take a long hard look at MTV Cribs and similar TV shows that routinely confuse human achievement with the mindless acquisition of gaudy bling bullshit. The media heaves with propaganda promoting sensation and consumption above all else."

Yes, because those kids last week are responsible for most of the consumption in this country, aren't they? Prick. Gary Younge should pop across the office and give him a slap.

 

[gumdrops]

"If preventing further looting is our aim, then as well as addressing the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, I'd take a long hard look at MTV Cribs and similar TV shows that routinely confuse human achievement with the mindless acquisition of gaudy bling bullshit. The media heaves with propaganda promoting sensation and consumption above all else."

well its hard to argue with that, regardless of what else he says (his attitude towards 50 cents relatively harmless tweets in previous articles are full of more full on bile than youd think would really be warranted which seems to reveal something a bit ugly lurking there but i dunno if hes a starkey lite).

 

[UFO over easy]

reading turn the beat around and came across this section on the blackout riots in new york in 1977. i thought it sounded familiar


“By the time power was restored the next evening, there had been 1,037 fires, the city had suffered $300 million worth of damage and the police had arrested more than 3,000 people.

The looters were variously described by commentators as ‘urban insect life’, ‘vultures’ and ‘a jackal pack’. Historian Herbert Gutman wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times decrying such characterizations and comparing it to the way Jewish women had been described as ‘animals’ and ‘beasts’ during a meat riot in 1902. The reaction to Gutman’s article was just as fierce as the reaction to the looters themselves. As historian Joshua Freeman described the outpouring of hostility in the Letters to the Editor section of The New York Times,

“Over and over, the letter writers proclaimed how different their impoverished forbearers had been from the current poor, how the 1902 rioters were engaged in legitimate protest, while the blackout looters ‘sought only selfish gain.’ A Times editorial characterized the letters as raising ‘the “my grandfather”question: “my grandfather pushed a pushcart all over the Lower east Side to earn enough to feed and raise his family. He worked to make it. Why can’t they?” It left unaddressed the utter lack of empathy among the letter writers for New York’s poor, the meanness and self-satisfaction that pervaded their outrage at Gutman’s linkage of their ancestors with contemporary rioters in his effort to show that the animal metaphor always ‘separates the behaviour of the discontented poor from the conditions that shape their discontent.””

 

[gumdrops]

im actually reading that now also.

 

[baboon2004]

"If preventing further looting is our aim, then as well as addressing the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, I'd take a long hard look at MTV Cribs and similar TV shows that routinely confuse human achievement with the mindless acquisition of gaudy bling bullshit. The media heaves with propaganda promoting sensation and consumption above all else."

well its hard to argue with that, regardless of what else he says (his attitude towards 50 cents relatively harmless tweets in previous articles are full of more full on bile than youd think would really be warranted which seems to reveal something a bit ugly lurking there but i dunno if hes a starkey lite).

yeah, starkey lite was just rhetorical more than serious i guess, but on the money about 50 cent - i'd forgotten about that particular article.

As to the quote, it's the sense that aspirationalism of the poor is the problem, and not the fact that many people grow up with fuck-all in the first place (correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure 99.9 per cent of people featured on MTV Cribs are showing off stuff they could never dream of having had growing up; they are people from deprived backgrounds 'made good' - what I'm saying is that it's not Through the Keyhole; 'bling' is also asociated with 'chavness' in this country, and with blackness in America, given that it's a hip hop term, no?). Of course, it would be way better if poor people just shut up and were happy with what they had.

To blame the presently poor for buying into consumer capitalism seems to me, the height of ignorance. it's quite clear why, if you grew up somewhere shit, you would want nice stuff; why wouldn't you want a certain degree of comfort in the fourth richest country in human history, or whateevr the UK is? What is much less clear is why, if you grew up amongst privilege, you would demand more and more and more, with vastly more interest in endless acqusiition than in making sure everyone has a decent standard of living. That's what's properly vile.

I agree heartily with your suspicions about Brooker - just makes me seethingly mad that when the bourgeois shit being peddled is dressed up by 'well-loved entertainers' like CB it gets accepted by many people.

 

[baboon2004]

@ Mr UFO - perfect, wish everyone would be forced to read that.

I was conjecturing similarly about 1981 last week, that at the time it would've been derided as looting, and came to be seen by a majority/large minority as political protest only well after the fact. It's like you have to carry a fucking manifesto to be considered political. Can't remember the Gary Younge quote but he made that point brilliantly in his article.

 

[IdleRich]

Fuck! My friend has just been sent down for three weeks - he threw some beer over a policeman during the student riots and was charged with assaulting a police officer. His witness didn't turn up so he had to plead guilty and they've obviously thrown the book at him cos of the current climate. Three weeks in jail for splashing a guy with some beer - unbelievable.
Anyone know how to find out what prison someone is in?

 

[john eden]

Fuck! My friend has just been sent down for three weeks - he threw some beer over a policeman during the student riots and was charged with assaulting a police officer. His witness didn't turn up so he had to plead guilty and they've obviously thrown the book at him cos of the current climate. Three weeks in jail for splashing a guy with some beer - unbelievable.
Anyone know how to find out what prison someone is in?

Do you know his solicitor? If not then try this:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DG_195943

Shitty luck, hope he is ok.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Fuck! My friend has just been sent down for three weeks - he threw some beer over a policeman during the student riots and was charged with assaulting a police officer. His witness didn't turn up so he had to plead guilty and they've obviously thrown the book at him cos of the current climate. Three weeks in jail for splashing a guy with some beer - unbelievable.
Anyone know how to find out what prison someone is in?

Jesus Christ! Unbefuckinglievable. So he's going to have a criminal record now, too? Some fucking friends he's got, eh?

Yeah, it'd be good to know if there's any way we can contact him, just to wish him well and whatnot, I guess.

Did you see Sickboy's video of protesters vs. cops in Toronto, with this insecure prick in uniform having some girl arrested for 'assaulting' him with bubbles?

 

[IdleRich]

Thansk John - filled that in but there are two problems 1) I don't know his date of birth (and no-one else seems to either) 2) It can take up to 40 days to get a response.
Hopefully he'll ring me but otherwise it's gonna be tricky. I'll try and find out who his solicitor is.

 

[john eden]

Yeah I figured it might take a while. Try and trace his parents/siblings? I guess they might not know, so tricky...

Frustrating.

 

[baboon2004]

Fuck! My friend has just been sent down for three weeks - he threw some beer over a policeman during the student riots and was charged with assaulting a police officer. His witness didn't turn up so he had to plead guilty and they've obviously thrown the book at him cos of the current climate. Three weeks in jail for splashing a guy with some beer - unbelievable.
Anyone know how to find out what prison someone is in?

that's fucking outrageous. It's not necessarily easy to find out, from previous experience - will ask at work tomorrow though and get back to you.

but fuck. these are dark times.

 

[Sectionfive]

Carnival organisers hold talks after riots

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14522830

 

[IdleRich]

"Yeah I figured it might take a while. Try and trace his parents/siblings? I guess they might not know, so tricky..."

Yeah, hit the nail on the head there, I don't think he wants his parents to know. No siblings.

 

[IdleRich]

"that's fucking outrageous. It's not necessarily easy to find out, from previous experience - will ask at work tomorrow though and get back to you."

Cheers mate, that would be very helpful.

 

[luka]

I regret to say Vimothy has been busy making a fool of himself defending Starkey on other websites.

how did this pass without comment? i was wondering whether i was being mean picking on him and this salves my conscience no end. mr tea there have been public shootouts involving kurds and turks and albanians. so on this matter you are simply wrong.

 

[luka]

50 Cent
I'm gonna feed a billion people in africa over the next 5 yrs.

how many africans charlie brooker gonna feed? thats the question on evereyones lips.

 

[crackerjack]

essential reading

http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/2011/08/43-and-never-been-spanked.html?spref=fb

 

[Mr. Tea]

there have been public shootouts involving kurds and turks and albanians. so on this matter you are simply wrong.

OK, fair enough, but I don't think they were involved in the cases over the last few years where bystanders have been shot in the street or in shops. And I'm not 'sticking up' for nice, upstanding Turkish/Kurdish gangsters, if anyone gets that impression. All gang violence affects people who aren't involved themselves...these guys have mums just like anyone else...

 

[gumdrops]

was just listening to resonance fm and they said a guy in his 60s with no priors has been given a custodial sentence for handling a few tennis rackets. how is it allowed that judges are able to pass these sentences that seem to have no bearing on the actual offence? also heard about one guy whose blackberry was terminated outright cos allegedly he sent/recieved some messages about rioting/looting. who knows if he did. but you dont see BT cutting the phone lines of criminals. or even facebook getting rid of criminals profiles. very weird shit is happening in this country.