I want to say something here about Kamala Harris: not only as an almost perfect example of an empty signifier in politics, but also as a perfect embodiment of what we could call POSIWIS politics – the politics of a system in which “the purpose of the system is what it says, not what it does”.
Kamala Harris is (all but) what the radical theorist Ernesto Laclau called “an empty signifier”. An empty signifier is a word which is an empty vessel: which is available for use. It is a word which can mean more or less anything. Or, if I suggest that an empty signifier could be a thing or a person, it would be a thing or person which could be made to stand for more or less anything, especially if it has an appropriate appearance: which, in this instance, because woman, because black, is something that can be aimed at the double-glass-ceiling. (Glass ceiling: another empty signifier.) At the moment, Kamala Harris is in the enviable and very unusual situation of having been a black hole which has turned supernova: dragging all the light into its apparent emptiness only to explode suddenly in a great glaring star which lights up the entire Democratic universe. And, across the Atlantic, the people who are always wrong are also transfixed at the fireworks of joy streaming across from America. It is inspiring, it is wonderful – it is absurd.
To read the rest of this article, you need to donate at least £5/month or £50/year to the Daily Sceptic, then create an account on this website. The easiest way to create an account after you’ve made a donation is to click on the ‘Log In’ button on the main menu bar, click ‘Register’ underneath the sign-in box, then create an account, making sure you enter the same email address as the one you used when making a donation. Once you’re logged in, you can then read all our paywalled content, including this article. Being a donor will also entitle you to comment below the line, discuss articles with our contributors and editors in a members-only Discord forum and access the premium content in the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. A one-off donation of at least £5 will also entitle you to the same benefits for one month. You can donate here.
There are more details about how to create an account, and a number of things you can try if you’re already a donor – and have an account – but cannot access the above perks on our Premium page.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
People are now on mass seemingly going to vote for Labour. The photo above of Starmer with that eco fundamentalist nut job Miliband should be enough for people to do the very opposite, but the reason they are going to give Labour this vast majority is that they simply do not know what NET ZERO really is, and they don’t know how terrible it is going to make their lives. If they did know, they would never vote for any of the two main parties as they are both fully onboard with this blatant eco socialism that pretends to be about saving the planet. Labour are the worse of the two parties though and will impoverish us even faster and harder than what the Tories would.
I urge people to not just vote for the Labour Party because you think the Tories made a pig’s ear of everything, which they certainly did. But all you will be doing is jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
One party alone are against this NET ZERO scam —REFORM. —–If you want to retain the prosperity that you and your family have attained since the war, and you want your children to have the very same standard of living, you must realise that with NET ZERO, the two main parties seek to take all of that away.
The premium podcast link still doesn’t work.
A massive factory fire that began after several lithium batteries exploded has killed at least 16 people in South Korea.
The blaze broke out on Monday morning at the Aricell plant in Hwaseong city, about 45km (28 miles) south of the capital Seoul.
Local television footage showed small explosions going off as firefighters sought to put out the fire. A part of the roof had collapsed.
South Korea is a leading producer of lithium batteries, which are used in many items from electric vehicles to laptops.
Hwaseong’s medical authority, Sim Jung-sik, said 16 people have been confirmed dead while seven others were injured.
The Aricell factory housed an estimated 35,000 battery cells on its second floor, where the batteries were inspected and packaged, with more stored elsewhere.