All lists are crude cultural fascism
In The Guardian. In a restaurant review.
The idiocy from the cultural studies departments has sunk deep into our society, hasn’t it? Srsly? It’s cultural fascism to make a shopping list these days? A list of things to do? A bucket list?
The dickhead also says the owner, an Eritrean refugee, is a walking, talking argument against UKIP. If she was a refugee fleeing persecution or violence, my understanding of UKIP’s position is that she would have been welcomed in line with the UK’s legal and moral obligations to such people.
If she was an economic refugee, the fact that she has been successful, after 30+ years, does not invalidate the argument that there should not be a general obligation to take people who simply wish to improve their lot.
A shopping list implies neoliberal materialism.
A bucket list brands you as one of the evil western oppressors.
A todo list means that you have willfully donned the shackles of ignorance and are slaving for the capitalist oppressors.
And if you have on your todo list, “go shopping” and “make a bucket list” then, yes. You are a cultural fascist!
“Such listings are nonsense – but it is a fine place to eat”
So, it’s not nonsense, then.
“You can’t reduce restaurant rankings to an algorithm, even when those submitting the reviews supposedly know what they are talking about”
“The good news is that the Blue Nile is a lovely place. It serves some of the best Eritrean food I’ve eaten in London.”
So, the algorithm highlighted the one of the best Eritrean restaurants in London, a place you’d never been to before. Might want to start looking for something new to do with your life, because you’ve been replaced with an algorithm.
(There are problems with TripAdvisor, but one thing it does succeed at is highlighting really bad new places, or formerly good places that have gone downhill).
Has anyone ever suggested you might be a bit literal minded?
What exactly is “cultural fascism”? And how can a review website open to all be culturally fascist? I can attach no meaning to this phrase.
In contrast, the phrase ‘cultural Marxism’ as a description for PC seems understandable.
“All lists are crude cultural fascism”
Hmm…
Did they arise after a violent overthrow of the existing political system? No.
Are they run collectively with violence by the State? No.
Are they part of a Five Year Plan? No.
Are people who oppose them arrested, beaten up, jailed or even killed? Clearly not.
So, by putting the word ‘cultural’ in front, he has turned ‘Fascism’ into “something I personally find a bit irritating”.
God forbid that a Guardian writer should suffer merely average Eritrean food in London. Only the best for them.
Perhaps this is another manifestation of the exclusivity which drives many Guardianistas, the urge to exclude the herd.
Apple was the, er, apple of their eye until the hoi polloi started buying iPhones; now Apple are dust. Similarly with review websites – if the public get to know which are the good places and which are the bad, how else can he keep that simply marvellous little place he found in Canonbury a secret know only to him and a few friends?
Well, that was painful to read. She’s just gone to No1 on my list of restaurant critics to avoid.
I can’t see her nod to the benefits of creative destruction going down well in Guardian land, especially when it involves a new Tesco.
Just tell them rather than earn evil neoliberal (but I repeat myself) money by publishing a review?
Although, the way the Guardian is going, if it didn’t have the online bit and job adds, you’d be struggling to fill a small tea shop with the actual readers.
Restaurant preference is subjective. What better way to gain an understanding of the distribution of such opinion than casting votes regarding preference. Trip advisor is a vote compilation system consisting of the votes of people that can be bothered to interact on trip advisor. What’s not to like?
Theophrastus – “What exactly is “cultural fascism”?”
I don’t know – perhaps someone who reaches for their revolver to shoot themselves?
“And how can a review website open to all be culturally fascist?”
It is a statement of preferences. It is a hierarchy of value. It claims that some restaurants are superior to others. Like, you know. Aryans over Slavs over Jews.
Some papers deserve to close.
The list most often used by socialists would be the death list.
If you have an Amex card in the UK, tripadvisor will pay you £5 to write a review of anything on their site (that’s £5 per card).
That’s menus gone for a Burton then.
Obviously, the writer is a member of Blades, where a member may ignore the forest of fine gold print and ask for any dish he wishes, as long as he can pay for it.
Always find restaurant reviews fascinating. Usually they tell you as much about the reviewer as the restaurant.
I remember noticing there was a Somali restaurant on Blackstock Road & wondered about reviewing it.
Traditional Somali fare served in an authentic ambiance. At some point in your evening a helicopter will drop a bag of UN rice & you get your opportunity to fight over it in the street outside. A good range of dirty, parasite infested waters are available but customers are requested to bring their own AK47 if required. There is a small ammunition charge.
Recommended ***
@Tomsmith
“What’s not to like?”
It’s fucking fascist, is what’s not to like. Didn’t you read the piece?? Come the revolution I will personally see to it that you get the 7.62mm explainer.
Bnis
Well, that made me laugh! And it’s better than the old joke about the Ethiopian restaurant where all you get is an empty plate.
“It is a statement of preferences. It is a hierarchy of value. It claims that some restaurants are superior to others. Like, you know. Aryans over Slavs over Jews.”
The crazy thing about lefties pretending that preference and discrimination are evil and must be eradicated is that they don’t realise that it was the massive omnipowerful state, secret police, gas ovens and firing squads that were the problem, rather than personal preference for one thing over another.
Fans of government keep repeating the same mistakes as they attempt to persue and eradicate whatever it is that they personally find intolerabe, for example expression of preference for things they think should not be preferred. Idiots and hypocrites.
The Fascists were working-class “shirtless ones” who marched on Rome to demand government action because they were unemployed and hence poor. Joe Warwick is an overweight overpaid middle-class left-wing journalist (the last two match the CV of Benito Mussolini) who needs a haircut.
The differences between him and the original fascists – well one of them is that they didn’t think Eritrea was in Europe; another is that he is one of the overpaid parasites battening on the poor; a third is that he would look awful without a shirt.
In today’s Guardian online:
Top Ten Reasons why Lists are Cultural Fascism!!
Plus: One Weird Trick to Destroy Capitalism
Kevin B: 😀 That’s excellent.
Thing gets me:
The one publication you’ll find in any London Guardianista’s home is: ‘Time Out’. Which is. When it comes down to it. Basically. A book of lists. With a great deal of ranking going on.
bloke (not) in spain – “Thing gets me:
The one publication you’ll find in any London Guardianista’s home is: ‘Time Out’. Which is. When it comes down to it. Basically. A book of lists. With a great deal of ranking going on.”
You only have to look down the right hand side of the Guardian’s website. They always have a “Top Ten Books” list. Or a “Most Viewed Articles” list. Or a “Best Holidays” list. Or something.
I don’t think he meant it as a great intellectual statement that divided U from Non-U. He is just another suburb Leftist w@nker. Who is not even brave enough to point out the obvious – no, some greasy little sh!thole run by some African refugee is not London’s best restaurant. It is a product of Leftist w@nkers trying to prove how tolerant and non-racist they are by voting for any old sh!t as long as it offends traditional Britain. People like him and his readers actually.
Not that I read the Guardian. At least not for the articles. I just look at the pictures sometimes.
I only read the comments under articles
If lists and rankings are culturally fascist, it leaves me wondering what terms would suffice for a review of a shop selling cupcakes…?
(For those with shorter memories, I am referring to this, un-spoofable piece)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/beware-of-cupcake-fascism
It’s not like intellectual consistency is their watchword, so what did you expect?!
Sorry that was from me – should have been addressed to BNIS, not from him.