Cactus

[Link]

Eze Peasy at Anfield....

A commie - like you.

He could certainly write and was more than willing to be the contrarian with no real regard for who he upset but I always wondered if that actually impacted on his ability to truly be an 'excellent' investigative journalist?

For personal reasons was less than enamoured with some of his writings/observations on the Yugoslav wars of the early 90's but always read whatever he wrote on it.

Definitely from what is now a sadly byegone era of journalism in which reporters did set out to actually report rather than just spew out primarily PR.

With this a primary example of what is so relevant today...

[Link]

A man who did not allow popular sentiment to cloud his views.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

Which is the scary part. Why would the notion of 'dare' come into play?

That article is from just 10 years ago and I deliberately chose it because it shows how Pilger only really ever sang from his own hymn sheet rather than fall into the usual Left/Right dichotomy.

Again, have to reiterate how I had my own issues with how he has covered certain stories but I always paid attention to what he did because he made an argument rather than trying to emotionally brow-beating people into accepting a narrative.

We truly have lost something crucial in how we conduct our society, no matter what your politics are.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

I'm wondering, George, what you define as 'a commie'.

Could you please give an absolute definition of what a 'commie' is?

Happy New Year to you.

I can’t give you an ‘absolute definition’ of the word, can anyone give an absolute definition of most words.
I can give you my own interpretation of the word. It is of course a derogatory word short for ‘communist’. These days most people don’t openly preach communist solutions as it’s pretty clear that they have been proven to be disastrous, although Steeleye does seem to cling on to the nonsense. Commies tend to say that communism wasn't that bad really and has never been implemented properly and still think that the state running everything would be great.
With regard to Pilger, he generally took an anti-US, anti-Western stance on practically all issues which is a key characteristic of the modern ‘commies’. However, he did sometimes come out with some unexpected things, like his defence of Trump at times. So perhaps not an out and out 'commie' but certainly a fellow traveller.
And a Happy New Year to you too.

Edited by georgenorman (02 Jan 2024 12.58pm)