You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
If this is indeed her new career choice I wish her all the worst. The world really doesn’t need another failed Neolib’ grifter selling incoherent zombie capitalism with fascist overtones. That market is already saturated with slightly less awkward speakers…
Bit of a generalisation / stereotyping but bear with me...
You know all the anti-vax / flat earth bollocks on YouTube? Have you ever watched any of the debunking videos?, there's a few good ones out there - SciManDan is usually worth a watch just for some of the batshit mental stuff he manages to find.
What is striking about all of them is how sensible and erudite the actual scientist people sound. They know what they're going to say, they say it in a professional manner aimed at their audience.
It's in direct contrast to all the flat earth / chemtrail crap where they seem to film in real time with lots of umm and ahh and err and dithering and skipping from one point to the next and various insults like "sheeple" and "globe believers" thrown in.
Liz Truss fits into the second category perfectly. As with all good conspiracy theories, some of what she says sounds vaguely plausible, especially if you don't really know the subject. But she delivers it in the same random manner with the same sort of insults like "lefties" or "wokeists" or "anti-growth coalition".
She's basically gone full on right wing conspiracy theory nutjob. And it sounds like she's got all her info (as well as large chunks of her degree) from watching a collection of the more insane YouTube crap to begin with.
This is a fantastic summary of her jaunt over the Atlantic in the Independent
Liz Truss's attempt at a comeback went about as well as you'd expect
It’s tragic, obviously. It’s also deeply uncomfortable viewing. But it’s not surprising. For many years, everyone who’s ever worked with or known Truss has become certain of one thing: that there is a towering amount of ambition there, which is unfortunately coupled with an equally towering lack of ability.
😀
How on Earth did a country as supposedly developed, respected and great end up with the likes of Johnson and Truss* as Prime Ministers? It defies belief.
*And their coteries of idiot ministers.
After 13 years, not a single thing I can think of has got any better. Many things are much worse. Any Tory door knockers on my front step will be given short shrift.
Any interview carried out with any Tory, on any media, by anyone just needs to ask that one simple question…
Can you a name a single solitary thing … ANYTHING… that isn’t fundamentally worse after 13 years of Tory government?
All Truss and Johnson do is try and deflect the blame for the absolute shitshow they have presided over.
At least May and Dave (who, hopeless as they both were, look like political titans compared to what came after them) have had the self-awareness to scuttle off and STFU!
Trusses latest outpourings are the delusional ramblings of a complete madwoman
Can you a name a single solitary thing … ANYTHING… that isn’t fundamentally worse after 13 years of Tory government?
Their friends and donors bank balances?
With the possible exception of the Russian ones but thats no fault of the tories.
After 13 years, not a single thing I can think of has got any better.
That is because you are looking at it from the completely wrong perspective.
The UK population was 68.4m people in 2021. According to Credit Suisse, a minimum wealth of $2,685,099 (£2,211,528) is needed to sit within the richest 1% in the UK. Latest figures from Credit Suisse in 2021 show there are approximately 685,500 Britons in the richest 1%, with a total wealth of $3.4 trillion (£2.8 trillion). In comparison, approximately 48 million Britons, 70 per cent of the population, have a total wealth of $2.9 trillion (£2.4 billion). The four richest Britons - from the Forbes real-time billionaire list, as of 30th November 2022 - are Michael Platt - $15.2 billion (£12.5 billion), the Hinduja brothers - $15.1 billion (£12.4 billion), James Ratcliffe - $13.1 billion (£10.8 billion) and Christopher Hohn - $7.9 billion (£6.5 billion). They have a total wealth of $51.3 billion (£42.2 billion) compared with a total wealth of $46 billion (£38 billion) held by 20 million Britons.
The Tory Party has always existed to serve the interests of the elite few. However much you might want to dismiss and ridicule the likes of Johnson and Truss it serves its purpose extremely well.
Either by design or incompetence, they are disaster capitalists.
By 2013 the nations overall wealth had returned to pre 2008 levels. Average incomes hadn't.
All that recovered wealth (and more) went into the coffers of the one percent and has continued to do so in the decade since then.
So if the Tory party only exists to serve the elite and the few, how come the masses keep electing them?
So if the Tory party only exists to serve the elite and the few, how come the masses keep electing them?
Marketing and populism.
Find an enemy - in this case foreigners in general and immigrants in particular, the EU, the "benefits scroungers" and so on. Hype the threat, create a fear of difference, devalue intellectual discourse and critical reasoning (much like how all the sensible Remain arguments were dismissed out of hand as Project Fear and the unhinged ramblings of "the elitist few").
Keep promising to deal with all this if/when you are elected. Even if you have created this in the first place, you simply brush over that and blame foreigners again - we've made the UK so amazing and wonderful that They all want to come here and steal Your way of life.
Vote for us and we'll stop that.
So if the Tory party only exists to serve the elite and the few, how come the masses keep electing them?
Because they are very good at winning elections. They have been doing it for almost 200 years. Giving ordinary working people the vote provided them with their biggest challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
The secret to their success lies in convincing voters into accepting their stated aims, whilst ignoring their very obvious actual aims.
This is particularly easy when the class nature of politics is almost never discussed. A lot of people genuinely believe that class antagonism does not exist in our society and that one political party can serve the interests of all.
Also the tories pals own the bulk of the media pumping out propaganda
But that would make no difference if no one believed them.
The most important aspect is getting people to believe them.
When people talk about Tory governments having failed it is a measure of just how successful they have been in misleading people with regards to their actual aims.
I can't remember the last time the wealthy elite in our society ended up poorer because of a Tory government.
The secret to their success lies in convincing voters into accepting their stated aims, whilst ignoring their very obvious actual aims.
The big con. I think there is a bit more to it than that, though. I think their success largely comes from engendering a fundamentally selfish outlook on life. Even their attempts at some kind of common good are based on the notion that if ten percent do unbelievably well then that drags the other 90% up with them. This has been shown to be demonstrably untrue for the last 40 years. It defies logic, but it seems to work. I don't know who that speaks worse of - the exploiters or the credulous exploited who desire to join the exploiters. It is quite a sick outlook and it doesn't bode well for upcoming challenges where multilateral cooperation will be vital - environment, population growth etc.
Someone much funnier than I described Truss as having all the “gravitas of a stunned mullet”.
It defies logic, but it seems to work.
Not really. Most people aren't interested in the objective common good. They want to feel that they work hard and get the benefits, and noone else gets to take their money. Telling them that you want to take some of their money and give it to someone else, that's the hard sell. All Tories have to do is convince people that those other people aren't like you and they don't deserve help.
A stunned mullet at least has some integrity. Truss is just an opportunist scavenger. Ah well - general election next year. If we end up with another tory government after all that has gone on in recent years then we will have what we deserve. If not, we might be able to salvage something.
We got what we deserve with brexit... It wouldn't supprise me one iota if the tories got back in again.
I can’t remember the last time the wealthy elite in our society ended up poorer because of a Tory government
That’s because it’s never happened and never will
Take covid. A global pandemic was viewed by them as a perfect opportunity for a smash and grab raid to funnel vast quantities of taxpayers money into the pockets of their mates.
Disaster capitalism innit?
Well, if that is the case then you can count me out of any political opinions, voting etc. If, given where the last 13 years have landed us, we opt for more of it, then **** it. What would be the point?
At that point it just comes down to backing myself and my family to be OK and sod the supposed bigger picture, because it isn't worth the time.
I only joined for a bit of tech and route advice in any case - but Saturday night beers have kicked in. Talking politricks on a bike website is odd and won't change a thing.
Sorry I was replying to the being unsurprised if we end up with the Tories again...
How do you get the common masses to vote in favour of a relatively small group of elite people?
The evidence would suggest that, despite what some people would like to believe, the majority of the masses (or enough to win an election anyway) can simply be "bought off" if you do whatever appeals to their vanity/prejudices/greed/hatred.
🙁
Boris and the Trumper brought blond hair into disrepute. She hasn't help dispel the myth of the blonde bimbo/airhead.
The lettuce thing was cute but she's more of a turnip or swede to me. Some kind of root vegetable kids would stick glass eyes into. Then when bored, kick it round the garden until it's smashed to pieces.
The UK Conservative Party is the most successful political party in the world. They have been in government the majority of the time since the introduction of universal suffrage.
If you believe that this is because of their appeal to vanity, prejudices, greed, and hatred, you either haven't understood the problem or you are trying to let the opposition off the hook. Which ironically helps to explain why they are so successful.
30 f**ing billion... or was it 40?
Gone in 60 seconds. Has anybody in history lost as much money in as shorter time as that?
Put that on the side of a bus.
The lettuce thing was cute but she’s more of a turnip or swede to me.
Graham Taylor is offended
Well, looking at it objectively in 2023, the success of the Tories is truly mystifying. Hopefully enough people realise this by the next election. But as mattyfez said above, we are getting what we deserve after brexit and our subsequent departure from reality. If we end up with the Tories again I'm not going to bother voting again. Why go to the swimming pool if people keep crapping in it?
Something to ponder on - seeing as she is the actual thread topic.
How does the most successful political party in history end up with Liz Truss as leader and a 42 day premiership as a result?
That's not the product of a movement that is a roaring success.
If we end up with the Tories again I’m not going to bother voting again.
That'll teach them Danny!
Have to agree with Ernie there. Nothing more powerful for retaining power than people who might stand against you simply turning away from voting. The money spent on campaigns to try and nakedly achieve exactly that aim in USA politics is shocking. Here it’s more subtle and media rather than paid advert led to an extent.
EDIT: Oh, and also agree on the likely candidate for the poster behind this “new” account.
How does the most successful political party in history end up with Liz Truss as leader and a 42 day premiership as a result?
That’s not the product of a movement that is a roaring success.
On the contrary. It shows that you can be a complete moron and despite this, if you are a Tory, you can get to be Prime Minister. That’s how successful they are as a movement.
Any Tory door knockers on my front step will be given short shrift.
They handed me a leaflet yesterday as they walked by my gate. I screwed it up and threw it down by their feet. They picked it up and walked off without saying a thing.
That will show them when the tory MP continues to get 60% of the vote next year.
Nothing more powerful for retaining power than people who might stand against you simply turning away from voting.
This is also the result of centrism, policies fighting for a few hundred mythical swing voters while ignoring millions of disenfranchised voters. Which goes back to ernies point in how labour have aided the tories success, especially in recent decades.
That’s not the product of a movement that is a roaring success.
Depends how you define success. for the tories its about maintaining power and wealth for the powerful and wealthy. they are very successful in this
Do not underestimate the effects of their propaganda organisations ( the right wing media) constantly pumping out this propaganda and the fact the BBC takes its "neutrality" as the midpoint of the print media
They are very good at creating moral panics as well.
This is also the result of centrism, policies fighting for a few hundred mythical swing voters while ignoring millions of disenfranchised voters.
That’s the voting system. Nothing to do with Centrism, left and right parties have to do this under FPTP as well. The Tories keep going in harder and harder on asylum seekers to appeal to an essential minority they need to win battleground seats, despite that damaging them with the wider public, including most of own their voters in safer seats.
How do you get the common masses to vote in favour of a relatively small group of elite people?
The evidence would suggest that, despite what some people would like to believe, the majority of the masses (or enough to win an election anyway) can simply be “bought off” if you do whatever appeals to their vanity/prejudices/greed/hatred.
It's a multifaceted thing, people vote, or indeed don't, based on a variety of factors, the aspiration or belief that they'll be in that top 10%, swallowing the lie of "trickle down economics", an overriding distain for the opposition, tradition, general disenfranchisement, racism, xenophobia. All of the different angles are pushed by various media with reinforcement through social media.
To ascribe simple malice and self interest to all Tory voters is a bit lazy, some are of course outright bastards but a substantial chunk perceive some sort of benefits to society and themselves based on the miscellaneous lies sold about conservative government.
All you can do now is point out how thin those lies are wearing after a decade of Tory rule and hope people notice nobody normal is feeling the supposed benefits of conservative government. That and persuade young people to vote...
They handed me a leaflet yesterday as they walked by my gate. I screwed it up and threw it down by their feet. They picked it up and walked off without saying a thing.
That will show them when the tory MP continues to get 60% of the vote next year.
While I can't say I wouldn't want to do similar, perhaps the smart move is to engage with them, be as affable as you can and ask as many questions as possible, really waste their time. Every minute spent failing to sway you is time they can't use to work on more susceptible voters...
She got her turn. God I ****ing hate her
I’ll blame that spineless **** Sunak for allowing this, on his own thread.