Ep#125 – Claire Fox – Battle Of Ideas
This week on The #GSPodcast Stephen Knight speaks to Claire Fox (@Fox_Claire). Claire is the author of ‘I Find That Offensive’ and the founder of the Academy Of Ideas. Topics covered include: Debate, the Battle of Ideas conference (battleofideas.org.uk), racism, identity politics, cultural appropriation, Illiberal liberalism, the Boris burka Row, multi-culturalism, Brexit, the ‘Me Too’ movement and much, much more!
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The problem with this discussion is it is just pointing out the problems that all the libertarian bloggers etc have already gone over hundreds of times already. I agree with them mostly but it is getting increasingly boring. i want to hear people talking about ideas to combat the progressive liberal BS instead of just talking about it.
For example virtue signallers often target Tommy Robinson as a racist Nationalist bigot etc etc which he probably is and I make no defence of him but if you look at his history its not hard to see why he is the way he is. Born in Luton he has seen his town become an alien place taken over by an incompatable culture which refuses to integrate. Why not look at that argument? Why not turn the identity politics argument around and say that critics of Robinson have no right to accuse him, they dont know his “lived experience”.
Anyone can just talk about the existing problems but the real challenge which takes a lot more courage and thicker skin is to explore the different solutions to these problems. For example how about the idea that Nietzsche proposed as the way out of his version of identity politics which is the self esteem and strength of the individual who breaks his own chains and rises above himself and above the oppression of progressive liberal society? Would you dare even consider such a discussion because you might be accused of being a far right extremist? This is the sort of the nitty gritty which has nothing to do with Nazism any more than Brexit is about Racism. Lets get into the nitty gritty instead of just skating over the surface over and over again.
Hi kris, do you have any suggestions on podcasters worth exploring that offer up solutions? I’m looking for some more folks who as you say “explore different solutions”. Thanks!
Once again we have a Brexiter who blames everyone and anyone else for this mess. No responsibility is taken for any of it, no acknowledgement that things are (and always were) more complicated than they originally promised. No admittance of the lies told by the Leave campaign. And then she has the gall to say that leave voters voted for disruption.
When a Brexiter indicates that they’d be willing to accept a No Deal Brexit over some other options this should rule them out of sensible conversation on the topic. But does Stephen challenge her? No. I see advocating or accepting No Deal to be similar to the 9/11 ‘Truther’ fanatics – yes, they’re that bonkers.
Talking about Stephen, yes, we know he voted leave and it’s clearly not an area that he usually covers in any detail, but if he is going to cover it then how about applying some of his usual scepticism? Thinking back to his Day for Freedom interview with the pro-EU person he asked whether he didn’t think that Remain had told as many lies as the Leave campaign. Incredible that he could think that there’s any comparison. And then we have the usual suspects from Spiked on his podcast going on about “liberal metropolitan elites” (or variations thereof) regarding Brexit, again without challenge.
I’m now going to speculate about where I think Stephen has been going wrong lately. I think he has been taken with the good and liberal views of certain people about things such as free speech, feminism etc, but then taken their views seriously on other topics. Kate Andrews is one example, often bang on the nose on some topics, until you then hear her on something like the NHS propounding distinctly right-wing views (I’m using right wing here how it would have been used say 5 years ago in terms of political viewpoints before the phrase got taken over by fanatics). This was demonstrated by Stephen being debunked live, in real time, by Josh Zepps on his (Zepps) podcast. Think about that, a Brit dubunked on the NHS in real time by an Australian.
Now, Stephen might well say that I seem obsessed by Brexit. But if (as looks likely) things end up going badly then hundreds of thousands of people are likely to lose their jobs as the economy suffers. This is not a joke, so let’s treat this seriously. But I suppose that’s just the ‘will of the people’, innit.