The Fauxcialist Revolution

Michael C. Moynihan | August 3, 2007

Over at Jewcy, Michael Weiss compiles a list "of the worst poseur Marxists—faux-cialists, if you like—plus three world leaders who are actually literate in radical politics and willing to put their knowledge to good use." A funny piece—and one that allows me to post my favorite photo of George Galloway and Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns.

How many British MPs can you name who’ve spent Christmas disco dancing with Tariq Aziz and joked about male pattern baldness with Uday Hussein? With his promiscuous attraction to all types of murderous dictator, the Scottish politician George Galloway manages to be both a textbook reactionary and sui generis at the same time
...
It took a stint on the reality series Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 to alienate even some of his diehard loyalists. Before being ejected from the house by his co-residents, Galloway dressed in a leotard and imitated a cat drinking milk out of a saucer provided by a transvestite.

Horrifying video of Galloway's cat imitation here.

And Weiss on the ridiculous Tariq Ali:

Ali’s work is never done until he’s stuffed as many leftist platitudes and clichés as possible into a single sentence. In his New Left Review essay “Mid-Point in the Middle East?” he extolled Muqtada al-Sadr, Hassan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as glorious upstarts in the “unfolding drama” of the modern Middle East and writes: “A radical wind is blowing from the alleys and shacks of the latter-day wretched of the earth, surrounded by the fabulous wealth of petroleum.” It’s like an Onion parody of the Socialist Workers’ Party meeting minutes, which might not be far cry from Ali’s rather matey intent: he loves to work in schlocky pop cultural references in his pamphleteering, titling, for instance, his pro-chavismo book Pirates of the Caribbean.

Whole article here.

reason Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie and former reasonoid Tim Cavanaugh recently guested at Jewcy's "Movable Snipe" feature.

Comments

shecky|8.3.07 @ 3:27PM|#

I could swear this had been posted before.

Anyhow, good stuff.

|8.3.07 @ 3:37PM|#

George Galloway is so ridiculous and overboard that one wonders how Norm Coleman managed to lose a confrontation with him. After, of course, he and every conservative media organ in American made sure there would be a ton of press coverage.

Look at me! Look at me, everybody! I'm going to take down George Galloway! Hear that? Man, I'll be a shoe-in for the VP spot after this...

THUD!

How does that happen?

|8.3.07 @ 3:43PM|#

How does that happen?


It happened because Norm Coleman isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the drawer. Hes a third-rate neocon nitwit.

|8.3.07 @ 3:48PM|#

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, except you miss the fish, blow a big whole through the barrel and your calf, and the fish ride the torrent into a stream and swim away.

Episiarch|8.3.07 @ 4:00PM|#

Galloway may be a crazy, dictator-loving shithole, but he knows how to play to the crowd and get in scrapes with other politicians. Coleman didn't realize who he was fucking with. That's not to say Coleman would have done alright otherwise, but he really underestimated Gorgeous George.

Just 'cuz he's crazy doesn't mean he's stupid.

|8.3.07 @ 4:02PM|#

On first reading I honestly thought "faux-cialists" was somebody who is pretending to be on Cialis.

|8.3.07 @ 4:22PM|#

Yeah, he's off his rocker, but I like the way he handled the Senators a few years ago.

http://www.georgegalloway.com/page.php?page=content/art_off_senatestatement.html


""""Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice"""

Spot on?

|8.3.07 @ 4:27PM|#

Caption Contest!

"Hey, is red my color or what!"

"Hey, I've got furniture disease...my chest is in my drawers."

|8.3.07 @ 4:40PM|#

I had a chance to see the year-end recap of CBB when I was in England over the holidays. Oh boy, that was some fine television! The sociopathically ornery Pete Burns, Dennis Rodman, faux celebrity Chantelle (faux celeb, real name - but her faux girl group was called "Kandy Floss")...and don't forget it was the cupped hands of former L'eggs pantyhose spokeswoman Rula Lenska that Galloway was lapping milk from there...if only television could be that good in the U.S.

|8.3.07 @ 4:55PM|#

""Caption Contest"""

I can dance the robot better than you.

|8.3.07 @ 5:02PM|#

Damn you! I didn't need to see that picture so soon after lunch!

Randolph Carter|8.3.07 @ 5:49PM|#

If Burns is going to do all that work to his face, why doesn't he go the whole 9 yards and get implants?

|8.3.07 @ 5:59PM|#

Implants isn't actually the whole 9 yards, if you think about it.

I am fascinated by his feminine face and masculine everything else, including his insanely aggressive personality. I don't know why he stopped where he did, but I'm glad.

|8.3.07 @ 7:08PM|#

what a stupid article to link to -- its like listening to a snarky semi-literate version of Murray Rothbard decide who should be purged from the movement, except the author is a socialist -- 'socialism is great but these three aren't really socialist but these three are great socialists - blah blah blah. And the three he singles out are easy -- any decent writer could do that with their left arm tied behind their back.

|8.3.07 @ 7:14PM|#

C'mon guys, the caption writes itself

"All I really need to do is find myself a brand new lover"

|8.3.07 @ 7:54PM|#

Or how about "Got Surprises?"

Chavez is a thug|8.3.07 @ 8:59PM|#

Joe, I am surprised you have not yet defended Chavez from the attacks made in the article. When are you gonna get around to pontificating about the rightness of him shutting down that TV station?

Edward|8.3.07 @ 9:00PM|#

"It happened because Norm Coleman isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the drawer. Hes a third-rate neocon nitwit."

Damn, the definition of neocon in your dictionary must be extremely broad if you are referring to Coleman in that matter.

S.A. Miller|8.4.07 @ 12:30AM|#

Edward, Coleman is Jewish... "neocon" is just code Jewish.

|8.4.07 @ 4:31PM|#

Edward, Coleman is Jewish... "neocon" is just code Jewish.

Oh, does that mean Cheney isn't a neocon anymore? Damn, just when I thought I figured things out, they go and change definitions on me....

Rand Simberg|8.4.07 @ 5:36PM|#

Anyone who thinks that Dick Cheney is, or ever was, a "neocon" simply reveals their ignorance of the meaning of the word.

|8.4.07 @ 8:02PM|#

You mean Dick Cheney wasn't a New Frontier/Great Society kind of liberal who just sidled right?

Cordially...

|8.5.07 @ 10:38AM|#

Galloway 'won' in the eyes of those who think snark, bon mot, insult, clever riposte and grandstanding sophistry are substitutes for fact and substance. And, of course, it was all lapped up by the perma-sneer crowd, for whom the put-down is the highest expression of 'distain chic' sophistication.

This is an unfortunate by-product of the omnipresent fantasy world presented to us in television and movies, where getting the last clever word in actually settles things.

There was enough in his testimony to seal his fate as a liar and a fraud -- this atop his reputation as a political opportunist of the rankest kind. Yet, it was the verbal pyrotechnics and the 'Erin Brockovich'-style narrative of the passionate, fearless everyman 'speaking truth' to pompous blowhards in the Senate chamber which created the more popular tabloid version of events.

I carry no brief for Ron Coleman but, last I checked, he was the one who still had his job.

|8.5.07 @ 10:51AM|#

Yeah, Galloway shot himself up the tush, and the idots think he won! Gosh, what do they teach in schools?

|8.5.07 @ 11:43AM|#

Joe, I am surprised you have not yet defended Chavez from the attacks made in the article.

God, you're an idiiot. I'm not even going to explain why this comment demonstrates what an idiot you are. Everyone who's ever read anything I've written about Chavez closing down the station knows exactly how idiotic you're commen is.

Sorry about your brain. Better luck next life.

|8.5.07 @ 11:49AM|#

You know, thug, I've already pwned you on this before. Why do you keep leaping up and volunteering to be humiliated like this?

joe | May 18, 2007, 5:57pm | #

Hopefully, this will come back to haunt Chavez in the next election. This wasn't some dreary news channel, but a popular station that carried shows with very high ratings. This is the type of thing that could motivate ordinary, non-political junkies, as it effects people's daily lives.

joe | May 18, 2007, 6:04pm | #

Grotius,

It looks like the voters are getting the chance to see the other side of such a system now. Hopefully, the outcome of this will be an electoral defeat, a term in power for the rightist opposition, followed by a challenge to them by a chastened, moderated leftist party.

joe | May 28, 2007, 12:32pm | #

Here's hoping the opposition decides to turn this into a theme for the next election.

joe | June 5, 2007, 4:08pm | #

"The US government probably would have shut down RCTV within five minutes after a failed coup attempt - and thrown its owners in jail."

The U.S. government isn't headed by a man who participated in a coup attempt!

Tell you what, Hugo, let's ban TV broadcasts by ANYONE who supported a coup. How's that grab you?

Are you some kind of Chavez supporter using a sock puppet to make Chavez opponents look like morons? It's like you're going out of your way to draw attention to how incapable you are of following along with the argument.

dude|8.7.07 @ 3:36PM|#

It's amazing how easy it is to spot a Michael Moynihan post, just look for an Islamic sounding name and bingo you've found the hack.