Yes to AOC. Great thing about the new young lefties is the total absence of baggage for the right wing sewer press to latch onto. They can invent lies, of course, but they don't stick nearly so well as with the oldies. Britain could do with an AOC or two, even a Bernie come to think of it!Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 1:25pmNo, no, not AOC—Greta Thurnberg, the Swedish teen. AOC is also crazy talented, intelligent, charismatic, and beautiful. She's as likely to be assassinated as become president (a true coin flip).revbob wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 1:09pmAOC ? UMM i think the term you're looking for is hot. As well as the other things you said.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 6:50amShe's creepy weird looking but she's an absolute force. Just an amazing person, one of those transformational individuals who emerge when needed.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 3:52amI was such a wanton, feckless hedonist in my youth that i am loath to pass down judgements. But i have no problem declaring my undying love and admiration for Greta Thurnbeg. I would happily march into battle behind her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑23 Jul 2021, 6:28pm
Here's something that gives me some optimism: In the last couple years, but especially this past year, I've found my students to be openly critical of capitalism. Not necessarily doctrinaire lefty or anything, but questioning effects and fairness and whether something better could and should exist. I've generally couched my language a great deal in lecture, not wishing to seem, let alone be, proselytizing, so it was rather shocking to feel like the students were ahead of what I was saying, so I had to readjust to help expand their critical scope. So I'm hopeful that this youngest cohort of Millennials/early Z's have come of age without the neoliberal demon faith that we've had to ingest all these years. There's something very satisfying and heartening about young people who are asking questions that for decades we've been told are irrelevant or heretical.
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The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
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Low Down Low
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
- Dr. Medulla
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
Back in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:31pmYeah, it's just a silly old adage, coined by churchill i think or some other ancient tory, so it's meant to be flattering to conservatives. But thing is, and why it is being wheeled out in the uk these days, voting patterns over past 20 years or so have been bearing out a grain of truth in it. Simply, the higher you go in age groups, the more they vote right until you get to the most senior where it's silly numbers for the tories, which is all the more grim when you consider how many 10s of 1000s of them have been sent to premature graves over the past 18 months and even beyond due to government incompetence and callousness. But there we go! The polling companies even offer a median age for when a voter is most likely to switch from left to right which i think is currently somewhere in the mid 40s range.
It's not my lived experience or anything but it might suggest age demographics are moving ever closer to equally or even supplanting class as the major divide. Strange to think back now, but Thatcher generally held sway when it came to the youth vote!
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Low Down Low
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
Loving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:51pmBack in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:31pmYeah, it's just a silly old adage, coined by churchill i think or some other ancient tory, so it's meant to be flattering to conservatives. But thing is, and why it is being wheeled out in the uk these days, voting patterns over past 20 years or so have been bearing out a grain of truth in it. Simply, the higher you go in age groups, the more they vote right until you get to the most senior where it's silly numbers for the tories, which is all the more grim when you consider how many 10s of 1000s of them have been sent to premature graves over the past 18 months and even beyond due to government incompetence and callousness. But there we go! The polling companies even offer a median age for when a voter is most likely to switch from left to right which i think is currently somewhere in the mid 40s range.
It's not my lived experience or anything but it might suggest age demographics are moving ever closer to equally or even supplanting class as the major divide. Strange to think back now, but Thatcher generally held sway when it came to the youth vote!
- Dr. Medulla
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
I grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:14pmLoving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:51pmBack in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:31pmYeah, it's just a silly old adage, coined by churchill i think or some other ancient tory, so it's meant to be flattering to conservatives. But thing is, and why it is being wheeled out in the uk these days, voting patterns over past 20 years or so have been bearing out a grain of truth in it. Simply, the higher you go in age groups, the more they vote right until you get to the most senior where it's silly numbers for the tories, which is all the more grim when you consider how many 10s of 1000s of them have been sent to premature graves over the past 18 months and even beyond due to government incompetence and callousness. But there we go! The polling companies even offer a median age for when a voter is most likely to switch from left to right which i think is currently somewhere in the mid 40s range.
It's not my lived experience or anything but it might suggest age demographics are moving ever closer to equally or even supplanting class as the major divide. Strange to think back now, but Thatcher generally held sway when it came to the youth vote!
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Low Down Low
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
Yeah, Reagan more than Thatcher i would argue. Falklands War came along and saved her from a quick political death, old drone got lucky. (Soccer reference alert) she was Alex Ferguson, one game away from the sack and one single goal changes the course of history.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:54pmI grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:14pmLoving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:51pmBack in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:31pmYeah, it's just a silly old adage, coined by churchill i think or some other ancient tory, so it's meant to be flattering to conservatives. But thing is, and why it is being wheeled out in the uk these days, voting patterns over past 20 years or so have been bearing out a grain of truth in it. Simply, the higher you go in age groups, the more they vote right until you get to the most senior where it's silly numbers for the tories, which is all the more grim when you consider how many 10s of 1000s of them have been sent to premature graves over the past 18 months and even beyond due to government incompetence and callousness. But there we go! The polling companies even offer a median age for when a voter is most likely to switch from left to right which i think is currently somewhere in the mid 40s range.
It's not my lived experience or anything but it might suggest age demographics are moving ever closer to equally or even supplanting class as the major divide. Strange to think back now, but Thatcher generally held sway when it came to the youth vote!
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
No way to prove conjecture, of course, but given the direction of the political winds in Western Europe and North America, I have a hard time thinking she wouldn't have still won in '83. Maybe not as convincingly, but actually losing power seems doubtful to me given that the New Right was winning everywhere and welfare state basics were being shivved (tho, of course, I'm only half a step above a bozo when it comes to UK history).Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:36pmYeah, Reagan more than Thatcher i would argue. Falklands War came along and saved her from a quick political death, old drone got lucky. (Soccer reference alert) she was Alex Ferguson, one game away from the sack and one single goal changes the course of history.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:54pmI grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:14pmLoving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:51pmBack in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:31pmYeah, it's just a silly old adage, coined by churchill i think or some other ancient tory, so it's meant to be flattering to conservatives. But thing is, and why it is being wheeled out in the uk these days, voting patterns over past 20 years or so have been bearing out a grain of truth in it. Simply, the higher you go in age groups, the more they vote right until you get to the most senior where it's silly numbers for the tories, which is all the more grim when you consider how many 10s of 1000s of them have been sent to premature graves over the past 18 months and even beyond due to government incompetence and callousness. But there we go! The polling companies even offer a median age for when a voter is most likely to switch from left to right which i think is currently somewhere in the mid 40s range.
It's not my lived experience or anything but it might suggest age demographics are moving ever closer to equally or even supplanting class as the major divide. Strange to think back now, but Thatcher generally held sway when it came to the youth vote!
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Low Down Low
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
Absolutely all conjecture, though for real that by '82 she was in serious deep doo da. Deep recession, near record unemployment levels, massive unrest within her own party and talk of plots and splits. And to top it all, it was mostly her dithering along with defence cuts that had emboldened the junta to move on the malvinas in the first place.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:52pmNo way to prove conjecture, of course, but given the direction of the political winds in Western Europe and North America, I have a hard time thinking she wouldn't have still won in '83. Maybe not as convincingly, but actually losing power seems doubtful to me given that the New Right was winning everywhere and welfare state basics were being shivved (tho, of course, I'm only half a step above a bozo when it comes to UK history).Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:36pmYeah, Reagan more than Thatcher i would argue. Falklands War came along and saved her from a quick political death, old drone got lucky. (Soccer reference alert) she was Alex Ferguson, one game away from the sack and one single goal changes the course of history.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:54pmI grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:14pmLoving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 2:51pm
Back in the 80s, being conservative was a way of seemingly being rebellious and edgy and cool, so campuses were full of fuck-you conservatives (as opposed to the boring old "sensible" conservatives). Being conservative was punk … so they liked to claim. Whatever. A few years ago, in one of my rock seminars, I had a really bright kid who loved loved loved Reagan. Whenever he'd be going on about magic of the marketplace dogma, I'd think that historically he was in the same place I was in the 80s. That is, his views were no longer dominant and his peers were moving in a much different direction. I had that in the 80s, as a social democrat while all my peers were becoming more and more conservative. Going to be lonely and frustrating for him, I thought, and a long while before his ideas might gain traction again.
The one fact we can agree on is that when she finally took the bit between the teeth and went to war, she practically changed overnight and came into her own. So that much wasn't luck. Hard to say she'd definitely have lost the next election as labour was at war with itself - as usual - and weak but the newly formed SDP party in alliance with the libs definitely had the potential to inflict a fatal wound on her. Winning the war and the outpouring of national joy it brought virtually snubbed that threat out overnight and ensured she could seek an early election and win.
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
All that from a phony "war" about a minor set of islands for an ex-empire. Equal parts tragedy and farce.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 7:42pmAbsolutely all conjecture, though for real that by '82 she was in serious deep doo da. Deep recession, near record unemployment levels, massive unrest within her own party and talk of plots and splits. And to top it all, it was mostly her dithering along with defence cuts that had emboldened the junta to move on the malvinas in the first place.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:52pmNo way to prove conjecture, of course, but given the direction of the political winds in Western Europe and North America, I have a hard time thinking she wouldn't have still won in '83. Maybe not as convincingly, but actually losing power seems doubtful to me given that the New Right was winning everywhere and welfare state basics were being shivved (tho, of course, I'm only half a step above a bozo when it comes to UK history).Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:36pmYeah, Reagan more than Thatcher i would argue. Falklands War came along and saved her from a quick political death, old drone got lucky. (Soccer reference alert) she was Alex Ferguson, one game away from the sack and one single goal changes the course of history.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:54pmI grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:14pm
Loving Ronnie Reagan. Jesus! I guess it's kind of radical in its way, to choose such a means of being on the wrong side of history. Some people did love Thatcher too. Even self proclaimed trotskyite Christopher Hitchens somehow managed to fall under her spell. The "minx", he used to call her.
The one fact we can agree on is that when she finally took the bit between the teeth and went to war, she practically changed overnight and came into her own. So that much wasn't luck. Hard to say she'd definitely have lost the next election as labour was at war with itself - as usual - and weak but the newly formed SDP party in alliance with the libs definitely had the potential to inflict a fatal wound on her. Winning the war and the outpouring of national joy it brought virtually snubbed that threat out overnight and ensured she could seek an early election and win.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Low Down Low
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
So true. A lot of those fuckers on the extreme tory right have an unhealthy obsession with churchill. Everything's a war to them - brexit was sticking it to fritz (just don't mention any actual real wars like, you know, Afghanistan). And, for them, Thatcher pulled it off. She was churchill at that very moment. War became her.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 8:05pmAll that from a phony "war" about a minor set of islands for an ex-empire. Equal parts tragedy and farce.Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 7:42pmAbsolutely all conjecture, though for real that by '82 she was in serious deep doo da. Deep recession, near record unemployment levels, massive unrest within her own party and talk of plots and splits. And to top it all, it was mostly her dithering along with defence cuts that had emboldened the junta to move on the malvinas in the first place.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:52pmNo way to prove conjecture, of course, but given the direction of the political winds in Western Europe and North America, I have a hard time thinking she wouldn't have still won in '83. Maybe not as convincingly, but actually losing power seems doubtful to me given that the New Right was winning everywhere and welfare state basics were being shivved (tho, of course, I'm only half a step above a bozo when it comes to UK history).Low Down Low wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 5:36pmYeah, Reagan more than Thatcher i would argue. Falklands War came along and saved her from a quick political death, old drone got lucky. (Soccer reference alert) she was Alex Ferguson, one game away from the sack and one single goal changes the course of history.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑24 Jul 2021, 4:54pm
I grant that they were really good at their jobs. Reagan was a masterful politician. But in service of a cruelty that's come to bloom today.
The one fact we can agree on is that when she finally took the bit between the teeth and went to war, she practically changed overnight and came into her own. So that much wasn't luck. Hard to say she'd definitely have lost the next election as labour was at war with itself - as usual - and weak but the newly formed SDP party in alliance with the libs definitely had the potential to inflict a fatal wound on her. Winning the war and the outpouring of national joy it brought virtually snubbed that threat out overnight and ensured she could seek an early election and win.
Two consequences of the falklands. One of the victors was Murdoch and The Sun, with its endless stream of "Gotcha!" daily garbage. Soon after they'd be in the trenches together again, leading the busting of the unions.
The other was encapsulated in Elvis Costellos great anti war song, Shipbuilding, which balances the complexity and trageyof war against the economic benefits it brought to Liverpool and other manufacturing towns. Liverpool is the epicentre of tory hatred now, where The Sun newspaper is all but banned, but back then it wasn't quite so clear cut.
Should have said earlier the one other plausible option had all this not intervened was the tories winning next election but with a new leader at the helm. I actually think that's the most likely. And that could well apply to the present incumbent too.
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
You can appreciate why war appeals to the elites—it's such an ego rush. You order, even convince, a group of people whom you're contemptuous of to kill and be killed, and it happens. What an amazing demonstration of your power and worth. And if your side wins, you're a hero, a great person.
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Guest1
Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
I like Elvis Costello but imperial bedroom is severely overrated.
Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
I'm with you on that one, never bothered to purchase it, can't say I miss not having it as part of my EC collection.RockNRollWhore wrote: ↑27 Jul 2021, 4:25pmI like Elvis Costello but imperial bedroom is severely overrated.
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
Hello,Sparky wrote: ↑27 Jul 2021, 4:27pmI'm with you on that one, never bothered to purchase it, can't say I miss not having it as part of my EC collection.RockNRollWhore wrote: ↑27 Jul 2021, 4:25pmI like Elvis Costello but imperial bedroom is severely overrated.
I like it but it's among the least played Elvis records I own. It was big at the time (I'm old enough to remember) as it was a transitional album for Elvis and whatever punk ideas he was still labeled with at the time. Elvis could write truly good pop. People took him as a serious artist - no longer a short-lived angry young man-type. I'd guess this is where his Burt Bacharach leaning began to take hold and come to fruition. It's no This Year's Model but it wasn't intended to be.
Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
I got in the car to drive home and turned on the radio hit channel scan and a Quiet Riot song was on, quickly hit scan and picked up another station playing the same damn song. Im thinking this should never happen. One station seemed enough of an anomaly.
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Re: The Mighty Musical Observations Thread
There is no way the song wasn't "Cum On Feel the Noize."
"I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back in Whittier, they're not much bigger than two meters.'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft