A guide for the left, liberals and progressives during political debate

The left are generally at a disadvantage when it comes to political narratives and debate and this goes beyond the meaningless 'snowflake' accusation. The corporate media dominate national conversation and offer the largest platforms to right-wing cronies who push their worldview of profit-before-people. Also the left are more likely to be suffering under right-wing policies so desperation and anger can cloud their message. The game needs to be played better with discipline and focus. Don't fall into right-wing traps like their dead cat strategy. And don't be precious about borrowing from them and using their tactics against them.

1st rule of Fight Back Club - Absolutely no infighting or weakness in public
This is what the right do well. During what could've been a messy protracted tory leadership bloodbath was resolved when Andrea Leadsom stepped-down to pave the way for unelected May. A deal was probably done, something they're good at - partly because their participants can be incentivised and placated by money and status. The left need to know when to do deals behind closed doors.

So when Owen Jones or The Guardian or a Labour MP says something you disagree with or is engaged in arguments with their own side calmly tell them to stop public squabbling. Share this article instead.

Use simple catchy slogans and repeat them relentlessly - see Bernie Sanders' populist rhetoric

"It was the banks!" - use colloquial phrases like tax dodgers, fat cats, big business. The tin-pot tories at UKIP have tried to co-opt this and the left have let it happen.

"Fighting for justice are not liberal values, they are human values"


Stop getting distracted by frivolous news - see 'dead cat'

This plays into the psychological phenomenon called Parkinson's law of triviality or "bike-shedding"

On the flip-side, look for political capital in the most frivolous distracting news, especially as this content is more likely goes viral and reach casually-political audiences.

A bit of research and discipline turns the huge Oscar wrong best picture story into an attack on reckless incompetent corporate culture:

@JeSuisFedUp @TheMarkRomano to be clear it was PWC, a financial service co. that screwed up. The type of folks Trump is stacking govt with.

— SFBCA Fishing Club (@SFBCAfishing) 27 February 2017

Stop advancing the careers of professional trolls

Do create or post memes that tell a simple story effectively. People aren't swayed by facts - they are swayed by stories and pictures help. If anyone tells you memes are silly then it's because they have no counter-argument to the actual content - so point this out, call them weak and trying to play the distraction game. They hate that.

Calmly and consistently undermine any opponent by using their own work against them. Remind everyone of these repeatedly whatever the context. Always be ready to screenshots their tweets to save to your armoury.

Donald Trump's normalisation by the media transcends the election

Trump is going to win. It is nauseating to state this and there will be no comfort in being correct. Win or lose, hard-headedness now helps prepare for what is to come after the media's fetishisation of this box-office charlatan.

The are signs that this won't be a walk in the park for Hilary Clinton. Firstly, the polls and betting all predicted a loss for Brexit and look what happened. The parallels with June's EU referendum are evident with the so-called establishment status quo against the perceived outsider. Of course most people know a born-into-privilege son of millionaires is hardly an outsider. 

Michael Moore also puts forward a strong case for a Trump victory. Saying things that desperate people want to hear is a tactic especially as in their euphoria they probably never even consider it could be deception.

Moore mentions the role of the media who pandered to his chest-beating audience for ratings, clicks & profile. Trump, the extreme narcissist was an advertisers dream. An election in which not much over half the electorate vote has become a TV execs dream. Pandora's Box was torn open by gleeful corporate media and to hell with the long term as long as everyone got their payday. A mentality replicated in the 2008 banking crash that helped sow the seeds for

The fact is from the very beginning it was obvious he represented millions of racists, from the dangerously bigoted to far right psychopaths. His poll numbers jumped every time he vilified another group — never his own clique of course. The default male  dominated media failed to frame his extremism in a responsible manner. Yet we get coverage as cartoonish as its subject.

There was little scratching below the surface towards the causes that propels him. We shouldn’t be relying on a random brave Muslim woman  to part-expose this sad American reality. Serious news organisations with their massive reach and resources should be aching to provide further context into a massively popular global story. And so it has rarely been more apparent that the gaze of scrutiny belongs overwhelmingly to those unable to grasp the threat he represents, some of whom will probably be spluttering into their privilege right now.

Corbyn's Labour supporters can win the debate - here's how

The anti-Corbyns would do well to remember the Remainers who descend into hysterics after Brexit. Campaign lies or not, they were only ever going to entrench the Leavers more. Stomping of feet is undignified and divisive after what was a far more honest campaign.

Ok, trying to draw a line under this pointless and distracting waste of time. Labour can finally focus on the issues and make their case - here's how:

Issues

The consensus over Corbyn's speech was generally positive - even from critics. It contained the radical idea of actually investing in infrastructure, a real living wage, rent controls and ending arms sales to medieval human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia:

Many anti-Corbyns can usually be neutralised by asking 'what policy idea of his do you actually disagree with?' It is transparent how Corbyn's opponents prefer  the navel-gazing of Labour's internal soap opera fuelled by media narratives - don't get dragged in. After all even tories acknowledge these - in public at least: 

• More houses need to be built.
• The NHS should not have top-down privatisation.
• Grammar schools are a dunce's idea to improve social mobility
• Tax avoidance needs to be curbed - if you want a reduced deficit and ignore this issue you're avoiding maths. The numbers prove this would go further than looking at benefit fraud
• Austerity has failed - tories finally coming around to what credible economists have been saying repeatedly what seems like forever. Remainers should take comfort that Brexit might finally end the dumb punitive era of elite prescribed economic dogma.

Other right-wing commentators complimentary to Corbyn include

Peter Oborne:

Twitter

A lot of the ammunition used by anti-Corbyns comes from twitter. It appears they spend time waiting for anyone with a Corbyn profile ribbon to swear and they are suddenly branding all of his followers as thugs. This is the same logic as branding 1.6 Billion muslims as terrorists for the actions of a minority. This analogy extends because many terrorists are not true followers of Islam, they are using the religion as a means to an ends. The fake Momentum twitter accounts show how murky the waters of abuse are.

If we're talking about anti-semitism and prejudice it seems few of the standards that Corbyn is held to is levelled at other parties. I've written about tory government sanctioned racism - which needs to be highlighted at every turn. Furthermore a lot of the abuse judged to be Corbyn's fault has actually come from the hard right or been fabricated

Pro-austerity elitists, some who've never worried about Jewish people, are suddenly find they might be useful to push their failed agenda. Jews are calling this out

Blairites again using Jewish people as a political football to smear those who oppose Austerity like Corbyn, NO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/ef93QJfmjH

— Jewish Voice (@J_VoiceUK) June 30, 2016

these are anti-Labour activists. @jessphillips knows. she's using anti-semitism for point scoring. I'm Jewish. stop. https://t.co/HsJnQGo4GC

— Michael Segalov (@MikeSegalov) September 17, 2016

Polls

Wonder if the right are going to mention them anymore?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-poll-puts-labour-ahead-of-tories-for-first-time-since-jeremy-corbyn-became-leader-a6937926.html

LBC is another case of corporate UK media culture and its sinister agenda

Successful radio giant LBC has a tried and tested media business model. Pick sensational topics while pandering to bigoted simpletons to manufacture outrage then reap the benefits as the hysteria goes viral. In this way LBC mimic hard-right US shock-jocks like redneck Rush Limbaugh and the bombastic conservative agendas of Fox News. It may not seem quite as vitriolic with its 'British' accent but underneath the methodology is the same. Also bear in mind that many politicians make this outlet their home.




Owners

They are owned by Global Radio who are every bit as corporate as they sound. They own multiple UK stations including Galaxy, Smooth, Capital, Heart and Xfm

Firstly in May 2015 they were found to have engaged in an Orwellian act of self-censorship by protecting scandal-hit HSBC - a bank which seems to go from scandal to scandal  Very worrying then a director of the bank sits on the board of the BBC

Members of the public were so concerned that a complaint was made to regulatory body Ofcom. This was not only rejected but requests for transparency in the decision-making process were denied by the government body.

Later the same year they were finally held accountable by Ofcom for running ads resembling news stories


LBC tax avoidance

In 2013 a story broke that LBC's top parent company Global Worldwide is registered via complex arrangements in the British Virgin Islands, a tax-haven featured heavily in the Panama Papers.

Ed Miliband even appointed GW chairman Sir Charles Allen to review Labour's governance and finances. A former chief executive of ITV and chairman of EMI, Allen has since become chairman of Labour's Executive Board.

This also explains their reluctance to publish negative stories about HSBC being enablers of tax avoidance.


LBC 'personalities'

Katie Hopkins

Can you imagine what your employer would do if you used her rhetoric in a place of work. If any extremist muslim or someone without her privilege had her platform their treatment would be quite different and expose the double standards of a corrupt media.

Nick Ferrari

• "Racist shock-jock"
• friend of disgraced hard-right  Sun hack Kelvin McKenzie
• Almost tory candidate for mayor of London 

Iain Dale

• Ex-tory candidate
• like Hopkins and Ferrari supported Brexit
• Attacked a protester because they were upsetting his right-wing PR stunt

Other regular right-wingers include:

• Daily Mail's Andrew Pierce
• ex-Sun now Times Stig Abell

LBC follow the Fox News formula with a token 'lefty' regular, James O'Brien. Their roster is heavily biased towards middle-aged pale males with only 3 regular female presenters and have only just recently added 1 single non-white presenter who has made a good career pandering to the right-wing

Labour leadership election: debunking Corbyn media narratives

It seems strange that Labour are in the same position they were a year ago - with a leadership election involving Corbyn. If that's what it takes to prove he is representing those desperate for a real alternative to a broken and failed system then so be it. What the sneering media and other elites fail to comprehend is that their groupthink has made them blind to how decades of neoliberalism have marginalised millions - a clue should have been Brexit winning or UKIP coming 3rd in the popular vote in 2015. Corbyn resonates with many of these people.




Time to scrutinise the myths surrounding a social phenomenon that won't go away even if Corbyn does:

Abuse & violence is somehow his fault

A brick was thrown through the window of Angela Eagle's offices after announcing her leadership. Clearly this is a horrible thing to experience and it is right that serious concerns were raised over her safety with speculation of political motivations. Except the speculation didn't remain speculation. Soon the media was sometimes subtly, sometimes not, framing this as the thuggery of Corbyn supporters. Almost implying that he himself had sanctioned this. Even his supporters have been swept along by this.

Another important point of forensics is that this act affected the building her offices were in, not her actual offices. A stairwell was the target - hardly the heart of Eagle's operation. This video highlights this but obviously cannot say categorically that it was simply mindless vandalism just as Eagle herself cannot say it was linked to Corbyn despite her interview clearly giving that impression



Also an alleged act of intimidation would do its job wherever aimed. The issue is not how the facts are interpreted but how they are reported. Of course it is very easy to imply that this was the work of Corbyn supporters or the man himself just by simply omitting these facts or placing his name in the same headline:

Of course all abuse and violence is wrong but the media have a responsibility to differentiate the right wing abuse Labour MPs get all the time from internal incidents be it Corbyn supporters or not. Except it's clear few have any interest in this - see articles here:

• Why should we believe these claims about Corbyn supporters being “brutal” at meetings?
• Why are the Labour coup plotters fabricating evidence of abuse?

Corbin couldn't convince Labour supporters to vote Remain and didn't try hard enough

He is unelectable

Under Corbyn's leadership in the recent 2016 elections, Labour performed better than expected and bettered the tories who are apparently a united family of competence despite Brexit splits, a disastrous economy, election fraud and a new Prime Minster who failed as home secretary

Corbyn supporters are all metropolitan liberal elites

Last time I checked voters in Northern seats could hardly be considered as part of this group.
In the picture above you can see Labour holding councils in Bradford, Bolton, Barnsley, Blackburn even Birmingham is hardly elite country. Furthermore working class constituencies are nominating Corbyn for leader.