How to counter the deceptive PR produced by @Spikedonline (et al)
One very common mistake from people trying to counter the deceptive PR generated by Spiked! and other LM mouthpieces is taking their hot-takes for ideologically sincere (albeit debatable) ‘thinking’, that can be countered by presenting reasoned arguments. This is a problem, as the ideological machine gathered around Spiked! counts on people’s outrage to disseminate its work. Spiked! et al have also created around themselves a false aura of intellectual rigour. It is a false aura, because as we have shown before, their contrarianism follows always the same recipe.
This has been so since the days of the RCP and their passing for trots in order to alienate everyone on the left and push their own agenda. From opposing the anti-apartheid moment, to a bit of genocide denial, there is nothing these people won’t do in order to promote their drivel and attack progressive movements. Outrage sells—outrage helps disseminate their ideas—the dissemination of their agenda is what keeps them in employment as professional punters. And no, you can’t debate them—they won’t let you debate them if you come to them asking for the right questions—why do you think they’ve blocked us on Twitter? This block is something anyone who has attended their events—through the Institute of Ideas, Debating Matters, Invoke Democracy Now, etc—will have experienced when trying to ask the wrong questions: they will block you on Twitter—they will hog the microphone among themselves in their events, in order to keep consensus whilst keeping the image of a debate.
In order to counter their ideological work it is important to come up with a different strategy that just debating them. If you will confront them on Twitter, instead of just retweeting their drivel adding your outrage, try to make it clear for others who these people are, where they come from, what they are about. There are many publicly available articles that trace their trajectory. We have a good selection here, others on our main page—our selection continues to grow.
We recommend that when you engage Spiked! on Twitter you add a link to either of these two posts:
1. The @spikedonline recipe for pound shop contrarianism (rightwing deceptive PR)
2. Let’s talk @spikedonline and their friends
In these two posts we have attempted to provide a summary of their tactics and trajectory. The more people are aware of them, the better. There is a lot to say about them and it is easy to get lost. The above posts—we believe—provide a good intro, pointing at other articles that go deeper on this or that aspect of this group.
There is little point in trying to confront them online by just showing their ideas are rubbish, reactionary, or just hot-takes written to a deadline. Expose them instead as the shady operation they are, and let others make up their minds whether they should buy anything they say or not. We know no one should. We have known it since their heyday in the 80s.
