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I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

samj.substack.com

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Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#271

Post by overfeed »

> The good news is that I don’t think that the illiberalism of identity politics will endure much longer.

That's a weird thing to say in 2025 , considering what the US government is deporting people for having the wrong opinions domestically, and attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK. I suppose one might be blind to it because of their own political persuasion, suggesting that identity politics peaked in 2021 says more about the author's biases than the present reality.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#272

Post by overfeed »

tempaeay4747274 wrote: post #130
svat wrote: post #15

Loved the fact that this post didn't go where I expected it to (or at least, didn't remain there). That a book like this probably wouldn't be published today, or would be less popular today, is a point that has been made many times by many people, about many different books, TV shows, jokes, etc. But the author actually moves on from there; the observation is that even in his own opinion , the same joke isn't funny t…

This is a good question..it just occurred to me that perhaps its because its so much easier for the people who would be the target of the joke to answer back now? Social media gives the possibility of instant reply, whereas if you publish a book in 2003 called 'crap towns' how can the so-called chavs answer back? Publish their own book? Write to the local paper? So its a side effect of how we can all hear each other…

Oh, that's insightful. Author could have encountered a light form of elite convergence 20 years ago when interacting with fellow writers and journalists, who probably didn't live in the blighted areas, and could take the joke on behalf of their cities. Being from a crap town is fine if you're don't live in the crappy part of town.

I'll add that the decade-long austerity measures let people know that it's actual class warfare, and it's no longer a laughing matter as it was in 2003 when it seemed fixable. Now it's clear the people in charge are not interested in fixing anything. A joke about someone's health situation is received better if the condition is treatable, but less so of they are terminal.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#273

Post by fleek »

overfeed wrote: post #271

> The good news is that I don’t think that the illiberalism of identity politics will endure much longer. That's a weird thing to say in 2025 , considering what the US government is deporting people for having the wrong opinions domestically, and attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK. I suppose one might be blind to it because of their own political persu…

[flagged]

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#274

Post by StopDisinfo910 »

djeastm wrote: post #270
clown_strike wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Often when someone, especially a comedian, complains about “political correctness”, what they actually mean is: nobody is laughing at the same joke I told 20 years ago Don't rephrase others' sentiments to suit your own narrative. Soothsayers are bullshitters. When comedians complain about political correctness, there is no alternate meaning. They are upset that they can't tell the same jokes they told 20 years ago,…

>mob rule Unless there's some kind of threat of physical force involved it's not. It's just a critical mass of people having opinions you don't like and voicing those opinions. If the market of ideas decides your ideas are not valuable anymore for whatever reason you're going to suffer what scarcity feels like.

> Unless there's some kind of threat of physical force involved

Last time I checked the mob called for these people lives to be destroyed by asking for them to lose all possibility of ever having a job and threatening anyone who would employ them or support them of dire repercussions while slapping themselves in the back for what a positive impact they made.

So yes, it’s very much about threat of violence.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#275

Post by overfeed »

fleek wrote: post #273
overfeed wrote: post #271

> The good news is that I don’t think that the illiberalism of identity politics will endure much longer. That's a weird thing to say in 2025 , considering what the US government is deporting people for having the wrong opinions domestically, and attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK. I suppose one might be blind to it because of their own political persu…

[flagged]

> No one has been deported for their opinions, yet

You probably thought I was talking about El Salvador. I wasn't.

Is it not deportations when multiple university students have stripped of their visas without notice, by order of "Little Marco" and forced to leave the country?

> How would you react to 10 million tourists moving to your country, buying up all the food from your grocery stores, drinking and driving, stealing, dealing drugs,...

...ask the kingdom of Hawai'i

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#276

Post by taurath »

sokoloff wrote: post #198
taurath wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shocking how similar the fates of the US and the UK are similar. I’m in my 30s and the divergence is starting to become extremely stark between people who had middle class financially supportive parents and those who didn’t. Kids who’s parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. For most of my generation, there is little opportunity,…

> Kids [whose] parents who are well off but wouldn’t pay for college is an entire cohort who are functionally locked out of the housing market. That can’t be a particularly large set. Parents well off is already a small minority case and only a minority of that small minority won’t give support to their kids. For people in that tiny sliver, I’m sure it feels bad but it doesn’t seem like a solution that works for othe…

You’d be surprised - parents of an entire generation basically paid for their entire schooling with a part time job. They pay less on their mortgage for a 3 bedroom house than a studio apartment.

In their mind, they made it on their own, and their entire parenting strategy was to teach the lessons of how they made it to their kids.

This is incredibly common with conservatives.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#277

Post by silexia »

The UK has gone in a dark direction, with the police arresting people for thoughts they post on social media that run counter to popular narratives. Feels like the mob attitude that killed Socrates. It is important every nation enshrines free speech into their constitutions.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#278

Post by parpfish »

arrowsmith wrote: post #59
parpfish wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well put. A few decades of compounding inequality transforms what used to be good natured ribbing amongst chums into bullying.

What compounding inequality? The UK's Gini coefficient has been trending downwards since the global financial crisis. 14 years of Conservative government made this country more equal, not less, because they flattened the income distribution by making everybody poorer. The big pattern among rich people in the UK nowadays is not that they're getting richer, it's that they're leaving.

We’re talking about inequality between regions/towns, not individuals.

Do to self selection and sorting, you could have a situation where individual level inequality is unchanged but the geographical disparities change

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#279

Post by HPsquared »

globalise83 wrote: post #224
svat wrote: post #15

Loved the fact that this post didn't go where I expected it to (or at least, didn't remain there). That a book like this probably wouldn't be published today, or would be less popular today, is a point that has been made many times by many people, about many different books, TV shows, jokes, etc. But the author actually moves on from there; the observation is that even in his own opinion , the same joke isn't funny t…

I think the difference is between, let's say, Ricky Gervais making a joke about a little boy with cancer, and Ricky Gervais making a joke about THAT little boy with cancer right there in Seat 7G. Everyone now knows these crap towns are dying.

If someone looks a bit pale and sickly, it's often considered fair game to make fun of their appearance (eat some vegetables, get some exercise etc)... Whereas if they have severe health problems it's no longer tasteful. This fact has not changed, it's basic human decency. The situation is what's changed.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#280

Post by zahlman »

overfeed wrote: post #271

> The good news is that I don’t think that the illiberalism of identity politics will endure much longer. That's a weird thing to say in 2025 , considering what the US government is deporting people for having the wrong opinions domestically, and attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK. I suppose one might be blind to it because of their own political persu…

> attempting to export the identity politics of the current administration via tarde deals with the UK

Not only can I not understand how you could imagine this to be the motive; I can't imagine how you even understand the term "identity politics" such that they could even in principle be "exported" in such a manner.

Are you suggesting, for example, that tariffs are somehow being differentially applied to different products from the same country, according to the ethnicity, gender, etc. of the manufacturers?

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