In case you missed this, Tim Ireland - AKA Manic of Bloggerheads (this link goes to his entire February archive because, as his name suggests, he's rather gone for it here) is in a three-way ruck with Guido and Iain Dale.
I like Slugger's account of this best and I don't object to much there apart from the general meme (as I've argued before) that right-wing bloggers are in the ascendency. I don't think that they are. I'd argue the bloggers have a more positive contribution to make.
(Update: Mick has posted again on this - worth a look)
Iain is attempting to throw oil over troubled waters while his commentators are - at the same time - chucking napalm. As Justin says, 'smooth'.
For me, the most interesting suggestion is that Tim is a nihilist. Tim wants an apology and he says he has half of one for now.
Now, I've met Tim a couple of times and he's quite a creative and interesting bloke. But I would place him fairly firmly in the 'negativist' camp - in that I think that he majors in what he is opposed to without saying what he's in favour of. I've now got a working / subject-to-confirmation definition of this word as well.
You see, I would argue that the aspect of political blogging that many people object to is the conflation of libertarianism and negativism. I don't think that they are the same thing (unless the libertarianism in question is the ultra-Conservatism that is Guido's position).
And this conflation may not actually be nihilism, but it sometimes looks like it (and that, for those of you with your eyes peeled, is a concession on my part).
The question is this: Do I now owe Tim an apology for saying that he is a 'negativist', or is it a compliment? And do I owe the world an apology for appearing to suggest that Iain Dale may have a point on something?
3 comments:
Paulie, why not sign up here. You'll soon find out that Tim isn't as negativist as you might think.
I've always marked him down as having worryingly progressive tendencies.
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