Dangerous & Lazy

Extraordinary video about language, the construction of a world, thinking and personhood. Lots to think about (and more on the filmmaker’s blog), for instance: Read more↴

One shouldn’t go around believing in them, of course, but I think there’s something to be said for the construction of conspiracy theories as a mode of political analysis; trying to come up with an entertaining conspiralogical explanation for events is a nice way of exploring the various interests and affects caught up in them. My current research focuses on who is really responsible for the Celebrity Big Brother racism row. My money is on the BNP and Ken Livingstone, hand-in-glove; doubtless one of the housemates was their cat’s-paw (Jo O’Meara, perhaps? Or Ian “H” Watkins, his lovable camp persona just a front). Read more↴

So it turns out Hillary Clinton isn’t just an isolated Communist conspirator, either:

We know that in 1991, the Soviet Union “spontaneously” collapsed and that its leaders, who remain in power to this day, suddenly, independently, at precisely the same moment, inexplicably transformed into…Democrats!

He continues: Read more↴

Now that Hillary Clinton has announced her candidacy:

The Democrats will, with the 2008 election of Hillary Clinton as President, finally succeed in their long-term goal of bringing real, live communism permanently, irrevocably, to our shores.

“If only,” you’re saying. Read more↴

The Guardian last week saw some particularly high-quality entries in the competition to write the stupidest thing possible about religion. Tobias Jones is terrified of “totalitarian” Richard Dawkins, who is apparently poised to carry out a genocide of religious believers. A. C. Grayling fights back, accusing homophobic protestors of “an obscenity against human rights” (whatever that means), and a desire to institute widespread torture. Grayling loses in the “who’s the stupidest” stakes because the particular religious people he is incoherently attacking are indeed bastards; but Jones does say one thing that is slightly suprising and might be worth a bit more comment: Read more↴

1. Jade Goody’s apparent support for Fatah on Celebrity Big Brother.
2. The This Life special nostalgically reviving lazy mid-90s reflexive “irony” (Egg has written a book! Little does he know he is just a character himself!).
3. The current state of British dance music, as filtered through ads for compilations. A surprisingly high concentration of Happy Hardcore (is this just a north of England thing?), and a remix of “Another Brick in the Wall.” Genius.

I’m not so keen on the fact that ITV and the producers of Dead Clever seem to think it’s OK to structure your plot around classic 1950s cliche, “Lesbian, driven mad by her disordered, unnatural lusts, turns to murder.”