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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

Polite reminder that "Spiked!" is the journal formerly known as Living Marxism, after a phoenix rebrand when they were sued out of existence for libelling ITN over the Bosnian genocide.

Polite request that if you believe in free speech at any cost, don't downvote this comment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Marxism

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I did not know this - thanks for pointing it out.

I do listen to their podcast, and can say I don't agree with everything they talk about (especially around lockdowns, mask wearing, etc). Spiked is very critical of CRT, wokeism and big government - which does go against the current left ideology. It seems strange that a former Marxist publication is now right leaning...or have I misunderstood the situation?

Polite request that you stop misusing the concept of freedom of speech

Upvoted, interesting.

So formerly Trotskyist turned humanist libertarian, i can already tell you that their permanent revolution ideals failed when they stopped caring about emancipation.

I fail to see the point of this comment. Are you suggesting the opinion of Calvin Robinson should be disregarded because it's published on a website you don't like?

It is stated in an inflammatory manner, and 'don't downvote this comment' is certainly not appropriate, but I think the charitable interpretation is that the purpose of that comment was to provide context for the linked article.

It behooves us, in such a situation, to create valuable discussion of said context, rather than focusing on the negative aspects of the parent comment, thereby creating yet more negativity.

I agree and I wasn't trying to dismiss it, I just really don't see the point. "I think people who insulted me shouldn't lose their jobs" - "Polite reminder that this was posted on a website I don't like" doesn't give context, it just seems to try to deflect and derail with some shady guilt-by-association-tactics to keep people from engaging with the opinion posted.

hacker news only cares about free speech when it can be used to dunk on "the left"

This is a left libertarian (leaning of the editor of Spiked) dunking on the left, so it still applies.

Not surprising, to be honest. The mainstream left is increasingly less libertarian (especially because of cancel culture).

Can't say HN feels particularly pro free speech though.

Spiked! is not a left-wing outlet, libertarian or otherwise. They're a group of former doctrinaire Marxists who swung to the equally-doctrinaire libertarian right after the fall of the Soviet Union. There's a whole nexus of organisations around them, and they have made a good living out of being professional contrarians. Their influence in British politics has been nearly wholly malign, both when they were on the left and now they're on the right. They are excellent self-publicists. Their funding is probably the same US right-libertarian dark money pools as the Tufton Street groups, though it's hard to be sure as their finances are characteristically opaque.

Speaking as someone is is on the libertarian end of the British left, these guys are not our allies.

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