Blank Street Bourgeoisie

my pronouned-up boyfriend who works at watchhouse in new york was amused by the anecdote

Great episode, except it didn’t explain why the ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion isn’t a bad idea. Yes the state of Israel, its politicians and military have committed genocide and numerous war crimes, but what does the motion change in regard to that? It is like saying socialism is racist because the National Socialists committed a genocide. Yes, everything is semantics, so why gift a giant semantic open goal to the fascists? There was a moment in the episode where it was pointed out that the government can make whatever they want illegal and how repressive it is when you’re locking up grannies for saying they support a specific group. By effectively saying that they would make this semantically vague term proscribed, the Greens are saying that they are willing to be as authoritarian and arbitrarily discriminatory as the current government. I’m sorry, but it speaks to a phenomenal lack of self-awareness on the part of those who aspire to power.

always knew trashfuture was anti-semantic (sic)!

i think it's basically pointless to get hung up about people on the left saying zog. they don't mean the meaning associated with the neo-nazi origin of the phrase, they mean what they see, zionists ideologically occupying governments. getting mad about it almost reinforces an idea that there is some 'nazi'/antisemitic core to their (correct) observation, that ideologically commited zionists occupy our governments. you just have to let it go. the term has been 'reclaimed'. you may not like the origin but welp it is what it is.

Glad to hear the "Your Party" callback.

Tag yourself, I’m the American currently merging across eight lanes of traffic

Loved this one, it's a very tricky topic the anti-Semitism one, but listen to a lot of the Jewish left, particularly in the US, helps explain it. It's part of the Zionist project and it's part of the way of thinking which ends with a genocide in Gaza. Old Zak is cooked I think, the timing is now off and Burnham was a good way of taking the steam out of the Polanski project. He served a purpose in that he got rid of that absolute fucker Starmer. The Greens should focus on their green credentials as this is becoming an existential vote winner which no one can deny. An alliance between a more left leaning labour and a properly ecologically aligned Green Party would be the best thing for the world.

After Zack convincingly lost the election I think it's safe to say November's early adoption of Your Party was probably the least embarrassing choice. (Not saying much, but the Your Partyers need a win where they can get it.)

39:25 There was an old Wondermark comic that had that as a punchline. I can't seem to find it but the gist was "You can get away with anything that makes the people accusing you sound insane"

Unfortunately, when Nate mentioned ZOG, I thought about a bar on Fox Island, WA named Zog's. Seriously, there's a bar connected to that island's gas station called Zog's. It's a bizarre name for an establishment that I think is vaguely nautical-themed.

My (uninformed, unwarranted) opinion on the left wing antisemitism issue is that prejudice comes from the top of the power structure and centre of mass of society. There are obviously antisemitic left wing people but that's not because they are left wing or particularly care about Palestinian rights it's because it's a centuries long prejudice embedded in the British state and social beliefs to one degree or another. In the same way that there are plenty of misogynistic people on the left because that is about upholding mens power and privilege. Maybe some of the language or arguments differ between political parties but it's source is the same tired nonsense. Just look at the depictions of Zack Polanski in British newspaper cartoons.

Caffè Nero staff at Heathrow were more brown and beautiful Souf Londoners than evil eurotwinks iirc. I want to retvrn

Can we get a Mr. Beussain supercut episode?

I've been missing my regular fix of Line News from TF

your take on Israel was very carthatic to hear as a German. It's tiring because these discussions hinder any kind of internal political reformations, at the same time Israel plays a huge role in international commerce and can therefore not just be ignored (especially in Germany).

Waiter, waiter! More Hussein antics please!

Hussein has a blank space baby, and he’ll write your name.

kind of a weird decision to put this up on the day the results came out, rather than beforehand. unless everybody else on TF forgot too until Hussein remembered

We have Costa and Caffe Nero here in Ireland too. Can confirm Costa’s ambience. The Caffe Nero twinks, not so much

I'm so old and provincial that I had to look up what Blank Street was. And matcha.

The Zionists ought to come up with an Athanasian creed but about Zionism and Judaism.

there! was literally! a "Jewish Colonisation Association"!!!! that funded!!!! early israeli settlements!!!!!!!!!! (sorry i have a lot to say about this one)

yeah the specific way in which people talk about a "rise in antisemitism" with a sort of implication that this is the fault of pro-palestine activism is bullshit and saying "Zionism is racist" is antisemitic is also obvious bullshit but I genuinely am very concerned about the Iran war, the Epstein shit, and the bad-faith attacks on the left comingling into a genuine growth of the kind of Sorelian "left"-inflected antisemitism among the general population (not among activists necessarily, who are typically too keyed-in to fall for that shit, but among people who are kind of apolitical but generally lean anti-government or anti-war) and that's why I think it's *INCREDIBLY* important to draw lines around the *actual extent* of Israeli power in the world and caution people that the problem is the American empire, not the fucking ZOG or whatever

fuck, the greens just lost apparently. I wasn't hugely confident about Polanski before, he's always had the energy of someone who can say Generic Centre-Left Talking Point #1913 and get a good deal of support from that, while having, frankly, little of substance beyond rhetoric to back that up

Having worked at both King's and LSE and hating coffee, that queue had been a source of entertainment for me for years

black sheep food is terrible but everyone in there is non binary and the matcha is pretty good so its the best coffee shop going