I don’t recall precisely when Private Eye became a tedious parody of itself, but knowing my own exquisite taste it was undoubtedly just before I stopped buying it, some years ago. So prior to today, the last time I read an article was when someone forwarded me something nasty it said – I can’t remember what – when the Free Speech Union was founded. But then, a satirical anti-establishment magazine would be against free speech, wouldn’t it?
This apparent campaign against free speech advocacy continued this week with an attack on Triggernometry, which (as most readers will know) is a pro-free speech podcast and YouTube channel hosting a variety of speakers of all political stripes discussing controversial topics. It’s not clear why the Eye decided to launch its attack now, but is it a pure coincidence that the most recent episode – at the time the piece was likely written – featured a couple of prominent Jewish guests being critical of Hamas? I wonder about this, because the Eye’s editor Ian Hislop has always taken an anti-Israel line, and for instance a current featured article makes false quasi-legal claims about Israel breaching humanitarian law by, for instance, advising civilians to get out of the IDF’s area of operations. And notably, in the last few days a Jewish cartoonist quit the magazine after receiving a death threat for criticising the Eye’s anti-Israel line.
But anyway, the piece begins with a contradiction. It notes that Triggernometry skyrocketed in popularity after one of the hosts, Konstantin Kisin, gave a speech at the Oxford Union that was widely shared online. But then it attempts to portray Triggernometry as unknown or irrelevant (“What the f**k is Triggernometry, you might ask.”), which is ironic given the considerably greater audience enjoyed by Triggernometry compared to the Eye, which has a circulation of around 230,000. Triggernometry’s Hamas episode has garnered 680,000 views as of the time of writing, almost three times the Eye’s circulation (while podcast downloads are likely many times this number). “What the f**k is Private Eye?”, many of the half million people who’ve seen Kisin’s tweet about their article might be asking.
The author then complains that the format of Triggernometry is the “longform interview podcast”, which is bad because it’s “the preferred format of anti-woke warriors”. Perhaps you can hear more about the dangers of the longform interview podcast in Ian Hislop’s recent longform interview podcast.
But seriously, there’s a problem with longform interviews now? Should we criticise Thomas Paine because he published in pamphlet form? Or catalogue books according to size and colour? Pace Wilde and his “three-volume novel”, it’s pretty desperate stuff. What matters – or ought to matter – are the ideas being presented. But the author of this quasi-review never once refers to any substantive content from an episode of Triggernometry, except once when we’re told that the hosts, Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, said they wouldn’t “expect their wives to obey them”. That’s right, they take the astonishing view that women shouldn’t be subservient to men. We are then treated to a gag about Kisin being someone who would “meekly compl[y]” when interrupted, mid-monologue, by his wife and told to put out the bins: a gag that would probably work better in a country like Saudi Arabia.
What piffle.
And there’s plenty more of it, including how the hosts are hoping to do even better in the American market, because that’s “where the real nutters […] can be found”, and some of the usual weak stuff about how free speech is really a cover for racism (predictably, they resurrect Bernard Manning). The author also suggests that when Kisin had to cancel a show because he was required to agree to a ridiculous contract preventing him saying anything that might be “anti-religion or anti-atheism” (amongst other things), he cynically exploited this merely to advance his career. (And we are invited to think of the children, without a trace of irony.) But Kisin would have gotten away with it, were it not for the pesky Eye, who did some digging to reveal that this supposed contract was, in fact, merely a “non-binding agreement”. That’s not true – and it’s not the only lazy inaccuracy – but never mind. And never mind about all the people who’ve lost their careers for holding perfectly lawful views – they’re all just failed attention-seekers, no doubt.
It probably goes without saying that this kind of petty, snobbish in-group spite is not intended to inform – although it was presumably intended as biting satire. But here’s the rub. I have no issue whatsoever with wickedly scabrous reviews that barely touch upon the subject matter in a serious way, as long as they’re funny. And I understand the instinct to mock what we despise.
But the thing about satire is that, at its heart, it’s puerility making an appeal to the intellect. Good satire makes the author seem more worldly-wise and judicious than they really are – which is why it’s beloved of young (particularly male) scribblers who don’t yet know very much about the world, but who want to show off how clever they are nevertheless. Bad satire, on the other hand, makes the author seem ill-informed and childish (and worse: petty and spiteful). That’s fully on display here.
But perhaps the deepest irony of the piece is the fact that the author, in the custom of the Eye, uses a pseudonym: “Aphra”. Pseudonyms, of course, have an honourable and storied tradition, including in satire, the main purpose being to give the writer freedom to speak without repercussions. But writers like “Aphra” are enforcers of fashionable cosmopolitan orthodoxy, if not outright anti-free speech warriors, and have nothing whatsoever to fear – unlike Jewish staff who criticise the Eye, apparently.
Of course, the other purpose of using a pseudonym is to give oneself an air of inscrutable mystique; which, when the satire is done this badly, is mere pompous affectation.
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I wonder who the funder was
I hope you find another one
Perhaps Ron Unz would be interested in getting involved or publishing your material
Why is it that there are no right wing billionaire funders? When did they and the money laundering foundations all become fascist? I don’t blame sites going for subscriptions but if like me you look at a lot of them the bill soon mounts up.
To varying degrees Musk, Murdoch, the Walton family. I expect there are others but agree they seem to be in a minority. It would be interesting to understand why. Probably billionaires have an interest in preserving the status quo. Luke Johnson is not a billionaire but I think he might find DS.
I agree it mounts up. I subscribe to a few sites and don’t even have time to look at all of them.
I don’t know if you could describe him as right wing but Ron Unz is pretty rich and funds his site – he is a free speech absolutist.
I guess we have to keep doing these commonsense, factual “replies to hit jobs”, if only for the sake of those unfamiliar with culture war tactics who don’t realise what’s really going on.
Nevertheless, we should be clear that none of these far left, neo-Marxist organisations is remotely interested in sensible debate and discussion. Their only interest is in stirring up trouble.
I also strongly doubt that they truly care about their pet “victim groups”
IIRC the SLPC were also a factor in the speedy linking of Jo Cox’s murderer to the “far-right”, on the basis of a leaked bookshop receipt. Perhaps some ticket clerk will now leak the names of selected attendees at today’s rally in Madison Square Garden?
This is the ‘Hate Not Hope’ mentality in action. The irony being that Mahyar Tousi was actually a refugee from Iran, but he doesn’t look very welcome here from this deranged, hate-filled mob. But because he opposes what they stand for he’s labelled as ”fascist scum”. Make it make sense! I just think anyone who holds a ”refugees welcome” sign ( or a socialist workers one, obviously ) hates their country and if you hate your own country then you are the enemy within, as far as I’m concerned;
”This is @MahyarTousi
whose family fled the Islamic regime in Iran. He met up with counter demonstrators who bully, molest & harass him.
They call him a Nazi and suggest he kills himself.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1850478074237726742
This is where ”refugees welcome” gets you. And yes, I realise that there will be some legitimate refugees such as Christians and gay people fleeing persecution in majority Muslim lands, but I somehow don’t imagine it’d be these guys rocking up with no I.D, having deliberately left their documentation at home or chucked it overboard on the journey over so’s they can’t be vetted. Anybody arriving without documents, or fake documents, should be turned around and made to leave;
”After a Syrian migrant stabbed a 4-year-old girl in Bavaria’s Allgäu region in Germany, nearly murdering her, he will not serve a day in prison. Instead, he has been sentenced to life in a psychiatric hospital. The judge also expressed anger that the case is being used as an argument in favor of immigration restriction by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Mohamed S. was given his sentence of life in a psychiatric hospital in the Ravensburg Regional Court. The public prosecutor had sought attempted murder, and the jury also convicted him of this charge.
The attack, which saw the migrant stab the little girl in a supermarket in Angen im Allgäu in April of this year, nearly killed her. At random, he plunged a 20-centimeter-long knife into the girl with “four powerful stabs.” The migrant deeply punctured the little girl’s intestines and stomach, tearing them to bits. He then ran away from the scene.”
https://rmx.news/article/syrian-migrant-who-brutally-stabbed-a-4-year-old-girl-will-serve-no-prison-time/
“I just think anyone who holds a ”refugees welcome” sign ( or a socialist workers one, obviously ) hates their country and if you hate your own country then you are the enemy within, as far as I’m concerned.”
Nailed it Mogs. 100% agree.
HNH part of the Gestaop fascist censorship complex.
This is why a majority of the pop with an IQ over 75 (not Kamala Harris), have turned off the fake news mainstream/fake science media.
I hope you can make a living and survive the neo-Himmlers and globalists.
Don’t bother replying to Marxist filth such as hate not hope.