With the greatest respect you’re attacking a strawman.
I never meant to imply he’d be the only thing they’d think of anymore than you meant to imply he’d singlehandedly turn the tide against Blair, I actually said as much in my previous message. In the big picture this stunt was pretty meaningless.
But to the extent that this stunt does influence people it’s going to be negative.
People like to say the same thing about Snowden and Occupy. Both put a lot of extremely important concepts into the public discourse, to varying degrees of course. And so did this guy. That’s not to say his stand is likely to change a majority of the world’s opinions about Blair, but, like the proverbial drop in the bucket, its progress. And that makes it infinitely better than its opposite.
And to do anything less than applaud him for that is just silly, cynical, and nihilistic.
And besides, it was frickin funny and downright brave, so maybe consider lightening up a little.
Snowden wasn’t a stunt, agree with him or not he added a lot of new information to the debate.
Occupy was more of a protest than a stunt, it added mass mobilization and a catchy slogan.
But what positive contribution does this guy make? A mass movement of ‘citizens arrests’ of politicians is a bad idea on many levels so it’s not mobilization. He didn’t add any information like Snowden did so there’s not that.
Is he an effective spokesperson? Doubtful. Almost everybody has heard of the claim that Bush and Blair are guilty of war crimes, what they need is for respectable people to endorse that view and explain the implications. The idea of random citizens ‘arresting’ politicians is not an implication people will like so they’re more likely to resist the war crime arguments on those grounds. And respectable people won’t want to be associated with him so they’re less likely to raise the war crimes issue.
Now if he went up and tried to question Blair (which it sounded like Blair would have engaged with) and asked him some intelligent questions that might have been interesting, but this, maybe you find it entertaining and that’s fine, I just don’t think it’s helpful.
We can’t hold Blair liable before we hold Bush-Cheney-Wolfowitz-Etc liable.
Blair was like the abused wife of a child abuser. He’s certainly guilty for letting it go on, but he wasn’t the primary bad actor.
It is depressing, however, that Bush and Cheney got away with it. They ginned up an entire war based on Bush’s “gut” and Cheney’s deceit. And no one noticed.
The sad sad truth is none of those responsible for the Iraq crime will ever face justice. You know it and I know it. Therefore, if all someone of conscious can do is remind one of these venal shits of what venal shits they are, well, then that’s our one pathetic ‘victory’. Implying that this guy’s ‘stunt’ is somehow going to derail some serious course of action is laughable at best. At this apathetic stage of humanity the only opposite of this event is for Tony Blair to sit and eat his meals in peace. If there was justice he’d be before a court and then most likely in prison. Since there is no justice for elites I say piss in their cornflakes whenever possible.
And to hell with comparing this guy (who is reacting to an event where literally 10s if not 100s of thousands have been killed due to western intervention) to “right-wing nutjobs attempting to arrest Obama for make-believe violations against the 2nd Amendment etc” when we all know Obama should be arrested for targeted assassinations instead.
Unfortunately, wrong. In reality, democracy these days means breaking the system through money and influence and making it impossible for anyone who is not wealthy and well connected to work shit. The institutions are in place to keep everyone exactly where they are, i.e. a select few with the right pedigree and money in power and anyone else struggling like tadpoles in a jar full of piss for the elite´s amusement and enrichment.
“Twiggy places Tony Blair under citizen’s arrest” would make for a more interesting headline…
“I think he actually believed the lies that were coming out of his mouth.”
That’s what you get when you try and talk to the criminally insane.
Shouldn’t the headline read that he attempted to place Blair under arrest?
Cory’s headlines tend to be of the more linkbaity variety, these days. We haven’t hit “9 amazing facts you didn’t know about steampunk” territory yet, but we’re not far off.
To be clear, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.
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