Just to demonstrate that the loonies attacking the Euston Manifesto aren’t exclusively Left-wing:
“Does it say anything that Jews do not have to wiped off the face of the earth?
I figured not.
Even “enlightened” Eurolefties are psychotic Nazi Jew-haters.”
I’ve been on the Net for a long, long time but, until this document went public, I’ve never read so much unhinged craziness in such a short space of time—and so much of it aimed personally at me. Apparently my philosophical outlook is fatally undermined by my music being crap. There’s also something exquisitely absurd about the supposed socialist who dismissed my views on the grounds that I’m unemployed.
Yesterday someone on a Leftie blog accused me of inventing slurs in an effort to discredit the Left. This accusation appeared in a thread where the Euston Manifesto was compared to the manifesto of the Nazi Party—with a link to the original obviously. People, it’s not just that I “couldn’t make it up”; I physically don’t have enough time to make it up. I mean, there are pages and pages of this stuff out there already and the thing’s only five days old. I’m going to wake up one morning in a month or so and find my kitchen occupied by a sit-in.
I realise this isn’t an original observation, but the blogosphere is like a trestle table at the global village fete, creaking under the weight of fruitcakes.
It doesn’t say anything about lizards and aliens not running the planet either – which proves you’re all a bunch of wide-eyed loons.
And where’s the bit about it not being right to pelt the Queen with rotten tomatoes?
Disagraceful.
Damian, I should point out that there is a Euston Manifesto entry in Wikipedia with a “stub” to your name that needs its own entry. Although writing vanity pages is discouraged, there is a legitimate reason here and it might be wise to get your bio in before anyone else does, plus you can get a plug for your blog 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euston_manifesto
Thanks, Ian. I’m vain, but not quite that vain yet. If an entry carrying my name appears and it’s wrong, I’ll do my best to correct it.
There’s also something exquisitely absurd about the supposed socialist who dismissed my views on the grounds that I’m unemployed.
Consider yourself lucky. I often get disqualified from speaking about the oil and gas industry on the grounds that I have an involvement in it.
True, some of the criticism is absurd. But don’t let that delude you into thinking that the EM has credibility because it has been attacked by fruitcakes, and its annoyed the right people. The EM has been attacked by intelligent, sensible people too, and ignored by sensible, intelligent people.
Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame; the EM is destined to fail – with or without attacks from chiding fruitcakes.
A wise person once said “to avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
Anyone who has “attacked” the EM is neither sensible nor intelligent. But good and honest criticism will feed and guide the EM if you allow. I hope it flourishes.
The full quotation was “the unemployed in search of a little attention (like Pootergeek)” … but searching for attention would describe the signatories as a group, with Cohen and Aaronovitch raking in the cash!
Strangely enough, I don’t think yours(?) was the reference to my being unemployed that I was referring to, but I guess there must be quite a few of them out there by now. Why bother attacking the principles when attacking the man is so much easier?
Anyway, I thought I’d barred you, Sisyphus. Apologies to everyone else while I crank up the severity of the moderation system.
Why, oh why barring that Sisyphus character? Just when it starts to be real entertaining…
Sisy – come to my place if these heartless Brits ban you. Be my guest. We’ll coddle the heck out of you, promise.
If Sisyphus is Benjamin, you’re going to bitterly regret that offer of coddling…
[…] In the comments of my previous posts, a compulsive objector, Daniel Davies, accidentally said something illuminating. He claimed to have used the word “pooterish” in his criticism of the document. The comic character who gave rise to this word believes his trivial existence to be of unrecognized but great significance. This running gag from Diary Of A Nobody is neatly inverted by the running gag here at PooterGeek these past few weeks: that the manifesto’s reception and perceived significance have been surreally out of proportion with my original intentions and with my sorry excuse for a life. I now live in a world where I find myself giving my shopping basket to someone behind the perfumes counter in Boots so I can take an international call from a journalist out in the street where the reception’s better, tilting my head sideways to keep the rain off my mobile; or turn down an invitation to an early-morning interview on BBC Radio 5Live because I’ve been up late the night before. […]