Comments on: Not Stupid, Just Wrong

By: Hamid

Hamid — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:46:33 +0000

Jeremy – these postcolonial leftists are so stuck with their “working class” and “dialectical materialism” notions, unable to think or see outside their very tight box, that they remind me of religious fanatics who will believe any nonsense that their sect or cult demands.

Marxism is a good example of “secular religion”. When will these believers come to realize that?

By: Jeremy Stangroom

Jeremy Stangroom — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:29:47 +0000

Thing is, though, John, I don’t think the “stupid” epithet will sting. I don’t think it has enough that is true about it to have any real impact.

When Tony Blair first became leader of the Labour Party, The Sun newspaper tried to demean him by calling him “Bambi”. It didn’t work because the insult had no resonance: it was arbitrary. “Bliar” works much better because… well arguably there is some truth to it. It’s the same with Seymour: “stupid” is too far wide of the mark to be effective.

Yeah, his style. It’s an odd thing. It does occur to me that it might be ironic. Not in the sense that he doesn’t believe what he writes, but rather that he knows it irritates his political enemies – so he teases them with it. So kind of like an ironic peacock display.

But who knows. Psychologising to motive is tricky, obviously.

By: John Meredith

John Meredith — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:58:18 +0000

It’s true, he is not stupid, I think people point that epithet at him because they know it will sting (he is obviously intellectually vain). His style is preposterous, though. I reckon I could shorten any article he writes by at least a third without losing any meaning at all. Sometimes it reads as if Barbara Cartland had just been to a meeting of the second international. ‘Overwrought’, doesn’t do it justice.

By: Jeremy Stangroom

Jeremy Stangroom — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:50:25 +0000

Yes, he is pretentious. But actually his style will be familiar to anybody who has sat through too many graduate seminars. Oddly enough, it’s normally born of lack of confidence, though in his case, one wonders!

By my reckoning he’s the smartest SWP’er around.

He’s also absolutely wrong about most stuff.

By: Jim Denham

Jim Denham — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:21:38 +0000

Spoilsport! OK, meet you half-way: he’s ‘pretentious’ rather than ‘stupid.’