This great new meme tumblr illustrates the concept of privilege in a highlarious and clever way. Stuff like this is really good cause there are plenty of people out there who regularly display similar examples of white/male/straight/middle class etc privilege without understanding either where this comes from or why it’s offensive. Not many people take too kindly to being called out on their displays of privilege, and will often react defensively against the suggestion that the stuff they are saying might just not be okay with an argument (sometimes on this very blog) that just makes you want to crack your head off a wall in despair at how some people just REFUSE TO LISTEN. Equally, they’re probably not all that interested in reading academic pieces on privilege.

But they might come across someone posting a Privilege Denying Dude somewhere, and realise what an arsehole he is. Also, a lot of internet memes are hopelessly misogynist, so it’s nice to see a little fightback. Spread it: http://privilegedenyingdude.tumblr.com/

For some theoretical guidance on how not to be a prick, also see: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/

Have you ever wondered what motivates people who are rampant homophobes? What lies behind the desperate attempts of some people to prove their heterosexuality by denying freedom to others based on their sexual orientation?

It’s actually supported by scientific evidence that a major cause of homophobia is the desire to repress unacknowledged or unwanted homosexual feelings. In August 1996 the American Psychological Association did a study in which they used penile plethysmography (basically the technological measurement of hard ons) to “precisely measure and record male tumescence” of men who were avowedly straight’s reactions to to erotic images. Some of the men were professed homophobes, and some were not, who acted as a control group. The homophobic group basically got a lot more aroused by gay imagery than the control group. Questioned afterwards, the homophobes consistently underrated how much they responded to homosexuality.

One group of activists even cleverly wrote to homophobic MPs who voted against equalising the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex, and challenged them to take the same test of their knob’s reaction to gay stimuli.

Basically, the homophobes experienced severe anxiety and a sense of threat from gay images, which the non-homophobic control group did not. While this is in many ways tragic, and would lead us to the conclusion that many homophobes need help and support to come to terms with themselves and their own feelings, it doesn’t give an excuse for some of the truly awful things people do as a result of that anxiety.

There are many cases of prominent and powerful people who were driving a homophobic agenda in religion, politics or society in general who were actually gay themselves. While this self-loathing is tragic, the harm that these people do to the rights and freedoms of others is inexcusable. To celebrate today’s gay pride march, Leftfield brings you a selection of some of the world’s greatest sexual hypocrites (apologies for them all being American, if you’d like us help expand our list to the UK and around the world then give us some extras in the comments!):

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If you’re the kind of person who knows there’s a lot of problems in our society, and you’re looking for solutions for what to do about it, there’s a good chance you’ve found yourself here on our blog.

There’s also a good chance you might have come across something called the Zeitgeist Movement. If you have, and you’re attracted to the ideas they put forward, this article is our attempt to argue that Zeitgeist offers no real solutions to the economic and ecological crises that human civilisation is facing. In fact, quite the opposite: instead of explaining to people how we can change our society for the better, many of the ideas put forward in the Zeitgeist films have their origins in the far right and racist groups, and they’re ideas which are both crazy and useless.

The reason we’re doing this is because we know that Zeitgeist has been really influential on thousands of people who’ve seen it online, and because we think that is potentially really damaging to the attempts (which we’re part of) to build a mass movement capable of bringing fundamental change to the world. It deliberately tries to pitch itself as an appeal to people who have a basically left wing outlook, but the ideas it puts forward about our world as it is just now are not left wing at all.

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These signs were put up in the Italian town of Varallo after another right wing mayor also banned veils

A woman in Italy has become the first to be fined for covering her face. Known only as Amel, she was fined £430 under laws that ban covering your face in public places, after she was spotted by police in the Post Office.

The laws were originally brought in during the 70s to prevent political activists from hiding their faces. However, the mayor of the town of Novara, where Amel lives, now is using the law as a pretext to attack Muslim women.

Mayor Massimo Giordano is a member of the Northern League party, which takes a far right position on immigrants. Leader Umberto Bossi once called for boats containing immigrants from Africa (who he called “bingo bongos”) to be shelled, while another mayor from the party said “we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang”. Party members have also been convicted of incitement to racial hatred for their part in trying to expel an encampment of Roma people.

Giordano has made sure the Italian laws, which have never been fully enforced before, are now being used against Muslim women. He’s said he wants Italian law to be amended so that it specifically outlaws wearing Muslim veils. He said:

Beard stroking tosspot Massimo Giordano contemplates racism

“I signed the new regulations for reasons of security but also so that people who came to live in our city are aware and respect our traditions. The people of Novara do not want to see people walking around in the city wearing a burka. This is the only way to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of integration even harder.”

Meanwhile, Giordano’s ambitions have almost already been fulfilled in Belgium, where the lower house just voted through a plan for a complete ban on veils and headscarves. This is despite the fact that parties representing Belgium’s different regions have been at each other’s throats, leading to the recent collapse of the government. However, MPs put their differences aside to give near unanimous cross-party support to racist measure. Hopefully however, the political crisis will mean it is months before the Senate can meet to give the law approval.

Several Belgian towns already have similar local laws. Another knobhead Mayor, Jan Creemers, of the Belgian town of Maaseik, said: “It became a problem in our town because we had about 50 women who walked around like that, which really annoyed many other residents. They kept coming to me to ask me to do something about it. I spoke to a couple of these ladies to ask them very simply not to wear this kind of clothing. But one in particular refused point-blank so eventually the police opened legal proceedings against her.”

And in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing declining popularity, has decided pushing for a ban on veils is a good way of shoring up his right wing support, and is determined to try and push one through over the summer. The response of the opposition “Socialists” (the French equivalent of New Labour) has been to present their own bill, which would ban veils in public buildings such as hospitals or banks.

Belgian Mayor Jan Creemers stands up for "european values"

However, the most radical proposal has come from a German member of the European Parliament, who has called for Europe wide ban on veils. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, and MEP for the right wing Free Democrats (who are part of Angela Merkel’s coalition government) used an editorial in in Germany’s Bild newspaper (the German equivalent of The Sun) to make the extreme demand.

What all this shows is that after almost 10 years of the demonisation of Muslims, anti-Muslim racism has become mainstream for European governments. Many claim that the bans are aimed to protect women’s rights, but the comments by those who are enforcing these laws shows their real motivation: using the veil as a way to attack Muslim people. The fact is that racist politics across Europe finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that Muslims are Europeans too, and should be allowed to dress however they wish.

The idea that white politicians should be the ones to “save” Muslim women from oppression is itself racist. It also will make it more difficult for Muslim women who want to stand up for women’s rights within their own communities, if all Muslims feel they are subject to racist attack from outside. What women wear is not and should never be a matter for politicians to decide. It should be for women themselves to decide.

Sexing it up is a good way to attract voters

Catastrofuck in the government! Today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a huge cock up when he, after being filmed talking to an OAP about her concerns (her pension, her grandkid’s uni debt, the Eastern Europeans..) was then caught on microphone in his car calling her a “bigoted woman”.

This issue is a bit delicate. Undoubtedly what she was saying, which basically amounted to ‘Eastern Europeans come here to scrounge off benefits’, WAS bigoted. This is the basic level of racism that is on display throughout the whole of society, you come across it all the time. Does that mean it’s her fault, or that she is a nasty person? Not really. These views are supported and perpetuated by the government and the main opposition parties all the time, and it plays into the hands of far right parties like the BNP and UKIP. Just look at the way our own government treats asylum seekers in this country, and the language that has been used to discuss immigration throughout the election debates -- the system isn’t trying to challenge racist ideas, it’s trying to pander to them and perpetuate them. If someone holds a bigoted view, does that make them a bigot? Not really -- if your only reference point for what is going on in your country is the media, particularly the tabloids, then you’re having that view pumped into you day after day. I’m certain that this woman isn’t a hateful person, just misinformed.

So on one level it’s a good sign that our Prime Minister recognises that this sort of view is wrong -- you can bet your last cigarette that David Cameron would never be caught on tape making a blunder like this, because he more than likely agrees with the view of this woman. On one hand that makes him a man of principle. On the other hand, it makes him completely full of shit. He doesn’t agree (at least to an extent, as far as we’re now aware) with this sort of casual racism, he knows what the word bigoted means, yet he’s still willing to push this ‘we must be tough on immigration/benefit scroungers/whatevs’ line that we as socialists know amounts to racist horseshit. Desperate, is what I’d call him, especially after seeing his snivelling apology. How we deal with racism in society is both more nuanced and more simple than hiding in your car and calling people bigots -- we have to recognise that there are deep seated societal issues, mostly led by the fucked up control that the media has over our political experiences, which lead to people coming to hold these views. But also, for the government the solution is simple -- stop telling fucking lies to support and pander to this shite. You’d think not lying would be a pre-requisite for huge fucking governmental responsibility.

What bothers me about this whole ‘blunder’, is how everyone is so concerned about haranguing GB for not being polite to an old lady, but none of the media seem to be bothered that what this really exposes is the extent to which elections and the government in general aren’t about principles -- it’s solely about stage management. It only takes a gaffe like this to show you how fragile the whole thing really is. Let’s recap for you here: Prime Minister is ambushed by TV cameras just waiting for him to fuck up, Prime Minister says a few things that are either excruciatingly vague or he doesn’t really agree with, Prime Minister forgets to take microphone off in car, Prime Minister says what he really thinks (and undoubtedly wasn’t even smiling in the car behind the scenes, the fucker), media goes apeshit and handily happens to still be near the wronged pensioner at the time, Prime Minister grovels.

It confirms what we’ve long known: that The Thick of It actually is just a documentary.

Here we see what happened when Peter Mandelson found out about the catastrofuck:

In fact, this whole thing just reminds me of a certain factory visit undertaken by our good friend Hugh Abbott.

Where would you say the man in the above clip comes from?

It doesn’t take a dialectologist to correctly guess he probably grew up in the Liverpool area. He’s Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of the UNITE union, and the union official currently responsible for leading the BA cabin crew strike.

With the Tories desperate to try and make it look as if Labour is being run by the unions ahead of the election, and Labour desperate to try and out-Tory the Tories on looking anti-union, he’s someone who’s become a target for the right wing media. Both major parties care about the core of right wing voters from southern England who put Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in power, and are keen to shit all over the working class to get their support.

But the Tory smear campaign took a turn for the bizarre this weekend, when Tory Vice Chairman Margot James attacked McCluskey for his “Scots accent”!

“On the airwaves all day yesterday, that familiar Scottish accent that we’ve come to associate with militant trade unionism.”

James is a millionaire former PR guru, and a prospective Tory candidate in the upcoming election. She also clearly has as much experience of talking to working class people from north of the Midlands as a monkey driving a bus.

TALKING.OUT.OF.ARSE.