Roadside Mum #9 Is this normal behaviour for RSM?

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FrumpyCat said:
Didn't Monbiot fly around to the world to hector people about climate change, or am I confusing him with another over-privileged twit?
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He is definitely from a privileged background, Cousin to Nigella and Dominic Lawson. Private schools, Oxbridge, the works.

I think his earlier career involved a lot of travelling -- the kind of adventuring derring-do that certain confident classes love to do, lots of exotic developing world trips. Then his environmentalism took hold and he stopped travelling so much and also started preaching that nobody else should travel either. Which is bleeping patronising and annoying, IMO.

Generally, I think he's interesting to read and he does involve himself in some interesting causes and projects that being a well-padded freelancer can offer. Prior to the recent election, he was part of a process in Devon to work out better ways of tactical voting to get the Tories out of Totnes.

But overall, he comes across as arrogant and a bit of a prat and I think he would irritate the life out of me at a dinner party.

ETA:

Just read Monbiot's Wikipedia entry and this para jumped out at me. This is how posh people operate -- becomes media luvvy cos of good accent and confidence but pisses off other activists, then gets beaten up for activism and some well-connected friend helicopters him into an Oxford fellowship while he recovers from his injuries. Tosser.

"He joined the British roads protest movement and was often called to give press interviews; as a result he was denounced as a "media tart"[23] by groups such as Green Anarchist and Class War. He claims he was brutally beaten and attacked by security guards, who allegedly drove a metal spike through his foot, smashing the middle metatarsal bone. His injuries left him in hospital.[24] Sir Crispin Tickell, a former United Nations diplomat, who was then Warden at Green College, Oxford, made the young protester a Visiting Fellow."
 
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MurielSnark said:
He is definitely from a privileged background, Cousin to Nigella and Dominic Lawson. Private schools, Oxbridge, the works.

I think his earlier career involved a lot of travelling -- the kind of adventuring derring-do that certain confident classes love to do, lots of exotic developing world trips. Then his environmentalism took hold and he stopped travelling so much and also started preaching that nobody else should travel either. Which is bleeping patronising and annoying, IMO.

Generally, I think he's interesting to read and he does involve himself in some interesting causes and projects that being a well-padded freelancer can offer. Prior to the recent election, he was part of a process in Devon to work out better ways of tactical voting to get the Tories out of Totnes.

But overall, he comes across as arrogant and a bit of a prat and I think he would irritate the life out of me at a dinner party.

ETA:

Just read Monbiot's Wikipedia entry and this para jumped out at me. This is how posh people operate -- becomes media luvvy cos of good accent and confidence but pisses off other activists, then gets beaten up for activism and some well-connected friend helicopters him into an Oxford fellowship while he recovers from his injuries. Tosser.

"He joined the British roads protest movement and was often called to give press interviews; as a result he was denounced as a "media tart"[23] by groups such as Green Anarchist and Class War. He claims he was brutally beaten and attacked by security guards, who allegedly drove a metal spike through his foot, smashing the middle metatarsal bone. His injuries left him in hospital.[24] Sir Crispin Tickell, a former United Nations diplomat, who was then Warden at Green College, Oxford, made the young protester a Visiting Fellow."
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This is where Jack and RSM benefit IMO - this is a perfect example of what I’ve said in the Jack threads numerous times. Look at his background. Look at Jack’s. He may well know every single grain of truth about Jack’s background but he’ll still consider her working class because to him she’s poor. Similarly RSM - anyone living in a van and getting free school meals is a deprived traveller to the likes of him, regardless of truth or background.
 
I don’t mind him and he’s personable in person, nice enough to chat to. He does acknowledge his privilege as well. He might be a posh tosser but so is Louis Theroux and he does some decent work, too. I’d take Monbiot over other braying hoorays like Alex De Pfeffel Johnston or workking-class hero’s like Shattenstone, he’s sometimes good, but sometimes he just dials it in.
 
HotesTilaire said:
I don’t mind him and he’s personable in person, nice enough to chat to. He does acknowledge his privilege as well. He might be a posh tosser but so is Louis Theroux and he does some decent work, too. I’d take Monbiot over other braying hoorays like Alex De Pfeffel Johnston or workking-class hero’s like Shattenstone, he’s sometimes good, but sometimes he just dials it in.
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Fair enuff Hotesy. I agree for the most part.
 
Falkor said:
He wrote a book called Captive State, published in 2000, which I loved at the time, but I must re-read it and see how well (or not) it's aged. I deeply disagree with a lot of what he says about sheep.
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I know diddly squat about agriculture but I recall Monbiot had a public spat with James Rebanks about livestock farming. I think I'd take Rebanks over Monbiot on that.
 
Jelly Bean said:
All I know about Monbiot is he has quite idealised and completely impractical patronising views about farming.
I'll have to look up the details but I remember being extremely irritated at the time.
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He wants the lowlands intensively farmed and all the uplands left to go wild, if I remember correctly. Also wants more lab-produced food.

https://www.12ft.io/https://www.the...een-technology-precision-fermentation-farming
 
Remember when we were going to get an excoriating polemic on the devastation wreaked by the Tory bastards and the damage done by their conniving cuts to the poor babies and disabled?

I wonder what Unbound are doing with their tens of thousands raised for this non-starter. Which has never been more irrelevant.

We haven’t forgotten your wretched enabling, Unbound. You owe people refunds.
 
I was thinking the other day it might be worth setting up an Unbound/Kickstarter thread? To talk about their aggressive pushing of projects by people with no intention of delivering on their promises (RSM and Bex to name two). Could also be good to collate the responses people have got/get going forward if they've backed a project and don't get what was promised
 
Status of zine said to be "in prepress". Mystifying

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Another year! Ha ha. They have got nothing, but have just bought another year before they perform the inevitable and offer refunds or ‘credit’ for other projects. Plus, even if this insane zine does come out, you would be struggling to find something more out of date and irrelevant.

Unbound are scam artists and enablers of scam artists.
 
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