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A Left for Itself: Left-Wing Hobbyists and Performative Radicalism
In the first full length analysis of the rise of left-wing hobbyists, performative radicals and the 'Identity Left', A Left for Itself interrogates the connection between socio-economic realities and politico-cultural views and boldly asks what is a worthy politics, one for the follower count or one for affecting change. 'This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the contemporary state of the left.' -- Professor Matthew Goodwin, author of National the Revolt Against Liberal Democracy
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
264 pages, Paperback
Published October 25, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 23, 2021
An unsuspecting reader that picked up this book might be concerned. Is it really true that the average British worker is the most sexist, racist and bloodthirsty creature to walk this earth? Fear not: David Swift is here to tell you that yes, Brits are monsters and no, this isn't a bad thing!
For much of the book, Swift lays out a narrative that the British worker is totally irideemable. He hates everyone and himself. He takes pride in imperial slaughter, loves the monarchy, hates gays and minorities. He used to work at the Union Jack factory till a greedy Pole nicked his job. And migrants? Don't worry, they're racist too. They've given their stamp of approval. Swift's solution? The British Labour Party needs to become exactly as racist and backwards as the caricature he's created.
The Afghan War? Get over it. Free Palestine? Did you mean Israel? The IRA were terrorists, Iran must be destroyed, the left is too hard on America, the left is too gay, the left is anti semitic, the left are a bunch of weak pansies. Corbyn didn't love Engerlund enough, Corbyn should have nuked Iran. The book is a 200 page exercise in repackaging Daily Mail and Telegraph headlines, but Big Dave gives the reader a little wink every so often to say: "I've your best interest at heart, don't worry mate. What may seem like bog standard Tory material is part of my masterplan to save Labour."
You'd be hard pressed to find a progressive or socialist position that isnt rejected in this book in the name of "compromise". Our hero is a bold iconoclast. He lays waste to every mighty foe in his path from Palestinian children to gay teenagers to starving migrants. No cow is too sacred for David.
The Left needs to toughen up. The Left needs to get real. You want Tony Blair to go on trial for war crimes? What are you, a middle-class pussy? Big Dave is over it, and you should be too. He speaks for the British downtrodden, from his salt of the earth environs as a PHD student in Ben Gurion University, Israel.
The central conceit is that the left who waste their time on trivial issues like opposing the mass murder of millions by the American-British war machine, or the potential extinction of the human race, are all hobbyists. Swift on the other hand sees the bigger picture, which is being more racist so that the Labour Party can get a 2% increase in the next poll.
Swift dreams of the good old days of Labour. Back in the auld times when men were men and women were women, when you could rant about the uppity negros with the fellas and drop bombs on the Malayan savages without the Corbynistas giving you a hard time. Oh there's a few lines in there about how the genocide and slaughter of half the planet may have had negative side effects, but the message is clear: the British left was better off when it was fully integrated into a worldwide colonial project instead of the festering carcass of Empire. Back when a Labour government could build homes and schools for good white Britons in the morning and gas the hated Mau-Mau in the evening.
Swift's wet dreams about the return of Empire and good old fashioned British values like patriotism and deporting African kids aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The inescapable conclusion is that the author is another grubby Little Englander fascist who has found himself a niche in putting on left wing clothes to berate the enemy. How Zero Books manages to keep churning this stuff out is beyond me, other than the total failure of the Corbyn project providing opportunities for every crypto-fascist ghoul to come crawling out of their crevices as the entire country shifts rightwards.
In some ways though Swift is more honest about Labour's history than most, who are either unaware or choose to be about the party's imperialist past. That's about all the credit I can give him for this reactionary screed.
For much of the book, Swift lays out a narrative that the British worker is totally irideemable. He hates everyone and himself. He takes pride in imperial slaughter, loves the monarchy, hates gays and minorities. He used to work at the Union Jack factory till a greedy Pole nicked his job. And migrants? Don't worry, they're racist too. They've given their stamp of approval. Swift's solution? The British Labour Party needs to become exactly as racist and backwards as the caricature he's created.
The Afghan War? Get over it. Free Palestine? Did you mean Israel? The IRA were terrorists, Iran must be destroyed, the left is too hard on America, the left is too gay, the left is anti semitic, the left are a bunch of weak pansies. Corbyn didn't love Engerlund enough, Corbyn should have nuked Iran. The book is a 200 page exercise in repackaging Daily Mail and Telegraph headlines, but Big Dave gives the reader a little wink every so often to say: "I've your best interest at heart, don't worry mate. What may seem like bog standard Tory material is part of my masterplan to save Labour."
You'd be hard pressed to find a progressive or socialist position that isnt rejected in this book in the name of "compromise". Our hero is a bold iconoclast. He lays waste to every mighty foe in his path from Palestinian children to gay teenagers to starving migrants. No cow is too sacred for David.
The Left needs to toughen up. The Left needs to get real. You want Tony Blair to go on trial for war crimes? What are you, a middle-class pussy? Big Dave is over it, and you should be too. He speaks for the British downtrodden, from his salt of the earth environs as a PHD student in Ben Gurion University, Israel.
The central conceit is that the left who waste their time on trivial issues like opposing the mass murder of millions by the American-British war machine, or the potential extinction of the human race, are all hobbyists. Swift on the other hand sees the bigger picture, which is being more racist so that the Labour Party can get a 2% increase in the next poll.
Swift dreams of the good old days of Labour. Back in the auld times when men were men and women were women, when you could rant about the uppity negros with the fellas and drop bombs on the Malayan savages without the Corbynistas giving you a hard time. Oh there's a few lines in there about how the genocide and slaughter of half the planet may have had negative side effects, but the message is clear: the British left was better off when it was fully integrated into a worldwide colonial project instead of the festering carcass of Empire. Back when a Labour government could build homes and schools for good white Britons in the morning and gas the hated Mau-Mau in the evening.
Swift's wet dreams about the return of Empire and good old fashioned British values like patriotism and deporting African kids aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The inescapable conclusion is that the author is another grubby Little Englander fascist who has found himself a niche in putting on left wing clothes to berate the enemy. How Zero Books manages to keep churning this stuff out is beyond me, other than the total failure of the Corbyn project providing opportunities for every crypto-fascist ghoul to come crawling out of their crevices as the entire country shifts rightwards.
In some ways though Swift is more honest about Labour's history than most, who are either unaware or choose to be about the party's imperialist past. That's about all the credit I can give him for this reactionary screed.
November 25, 2019
An interesting companion piece to Ben Cobley’s The Tribe - more accessible and with some fascinating history of the British Left and its contradictions.
His central conceit is that the left since the 80’s has been taken over by ‘hobbyists’: people whose political commitments are more a matter of their identity and sense of meaning than a serious desire to change the world. It brings to mind Nick Cohen’s observations that some of the richest people he knows have shelves full of books by Chomsky - the explanation being that Chomsky’s simplistic, academic “The US/Capitalism is evil” analysis is no threat to these people, as it lacks any sort of a positive program for change that might harm their interests. As Cohen sees it, having Chomsky’s books on their shelves is a status symbol for a certain type of person - proof that they are wise and interesting enough not to be duped, but unencumbered by the dreary compromises that would be involved in doing anything about it.
Swift sees this type of Leftism as being the dominant strain now in the UK, and he does seem to be on to something. There is a sense that being left-wing is essentially a middle-class phenomenon now and lacks the genuine urgency that a working-class left would have had. A lot of time is spent on so-called identitarian issues, and the fundamentally conservative nature of many working-class people is either condemned or glossed over. He does an admirable job of tracing this strain of Leftism back through the decades, and the tensions that have always existed between the idealistic ‘chattering classes’ and the working people they claim to represent.
Some passages could have used a bit of editing -particularly his digression into the story of David Bowie’s flash-in-the-pan endorsement of ’fascism’ in the 70s. It seems like a stretch to take this tiny incident in a coke-frazzled Bowie’s life and infuse it with socio-political meaning. It reminded me of the type of overheated Mojo Magazine journalist who thinks every musical flashpoint from punk to rave is the beginning of the revolution, when it’s really just kids having fun.
In a way it works by covering the elements that Nick Cohen’s masterful but ageing “What’s Left” left out: In that book Cohen covered one of the elements that make up the so-called ‘Regressive Left’ the knee-jerk anti-Americanism, the fawning over non-Western authoritarians from Putin to Islamists. He didn’t forsee the identitarian panic that would begin with the rise of social media and makes so many left wing people simultaneously radical and so divorced from reality that they function to uphold actual power. This work covers that quite admirably.
His central conceit is that the left since the 80’s has been taken over by ‘hobbyists’: people whose political commitments are more a matter of their identity and sense of meaning than a serious desire to change the world. It brings to mind Nick Cohen’s observations that some of the richest people he knows have shelves full of books by Chomsky - the explanation being that Chomsky’s simplistic, academic “The US/Capitalism is evil” analysis is no threat to these people, as it lacks any sort of a positive program for change that might harm their interests. As Cohen sees it, having Chomsky’s books on their shelves is a status symbol for a certain type of person - proof that they are wise and interesting enough not to be duped, but unencumbered by the dreary compromises that would be involved in doing anything about it.
Swift sees this type of Leftism as being the dominant strain now in the UK, and he does seem to be on to something. There is a sense that being left-wing is essentially a middle-class phenomenon now and lacks the genuine urgency that a working-class left would have had. A lot of time is spent on so-called identitarian issues, and the fundamentally conservative nature of many working-class people is either condemned or glossed over. He does an admirable job of tracing this strain of Leftism back through the decades, and the tensions that have always existed between the idealistic ‘chattering classes’ and the working people they claim to represent.
Some passages could have used a bit of editing -particularly his digression into the story of David Bowie’s flash-in-the-pan endorsement of ’fascism’ in the 70s. It seems like a stretch to take this tiny incident in a coke-frazzled Bowie’s life and infuse it with socio-political meaning. It reminded me of the type of overheated Mojo Magazine journalist who thinks every musical flashpoint from punk to rave is the beginning of the revolution, when it’s really just kids having fun.
In a way it works by covering the elements that Nick Cohen’s masterful but ageing “What’s Left” left out: In that book Cohen covered one of the elements that make up the so-called ‘Regressive Left’ the knee-jerk anti-Americanism, the fawning over non-Western authoritarians from Putin to Islamists. He didn’t forsee the identitarian panic that would begin with the rise of social media and makes so many left wing people simultaneously radical and so divorced from reality that they function to uphold actual power. This work covers that quite admirably.
December 30, 2019
I recently posted that I thought Matt Taibbi's book was the best book on politics that I'd read all year.. That would have been true had I not read this. Anybody seeking to understand why the Labour Party was completely decimated in the recent election really needs to read this book. Failure to get to grips with the issues that Swift raises will consign the Labour Party to the dustbin of history. And if they do fail to get to grips with these issues, it'll be deservedly so.
Not only are the issues important, but it's also well written. Really interesting and engaging, solidly researched, fascinating sources. If you only read one book about politics this year, it should probably be this one.
Not only are the issues important, but it's also well written. Really interesting and engaging, solidly researched, fascinating sources. If you only read one book about politics this year, it should probably be this one.
July 24, 2023
Consistently over the last few decades in most western democracies it would be fair to say that the biggest enemy of the Left is…the Left. Time and time again when it looks like they might be getting somewhere, they ultimately succumb to divide and conquer with predictable calamity. Petty. divisive squabbles over language, feelings and a thousand other largely inconsequential matters of trivial concern, valuing sentiment, posturing and unrealistic expectations over creative and collective action their infighting leads to collapse again and again as the Right gleefully exploit the chaos and opportunities and fully capitalise on them and retain power.
“The economic profit from migration has gone to capital (while) the social cost has gone to labour?”
Ambalavaner Sivanandan
He gets into the virtue signalling, performative left wing politics, using phrases like “the global south”, he says, “The point is to demonstrate the erudition and sophistication of the speaker, and seamlessly and easily position themselves among the community of the good.” The likes of Seumas Milne, Owen Jones and Nick Cohen come in for repeated criticism.
Swift does a good job of addressing many of the ills created by a malign culture of ruthless, self-appointed guardians who seem to throw down a permanent, ever shifting gauntlet of impossible moral perfection, whilst remaining forever offended and over eager to embrace victimhood. The type who desperately hunt down the most inconsequential of perceived infringements and demand all kinds of over the top punishments as recompense.
There are many hugely refreshing points, attacking many of the more irritating aspects of the smug, liberal Left from many effective angles.
“Polls have consistently found that there is a great deal of support for restricting immigration among Commonwealth and other pre-1990 immigrants. Furthermore, according to research conducted by a team led by Anthony Heath, Prof of Sociology at Oxford, ethnic minorities are generally less supportive of government spending than white Britons. South Asians are more hostile to asylum seekers than the white British, and British Indians are more supportive of the war in Afghanistan than white Britons.”
This is no more clearly displayed in the current batch of goons that pretend to be in charge of the UK, it is led by and is tremendously over represented by a powerful group of greedy, hateful racists of both sexes, who are either immigrants or near descendants of immigrants and are appallingly racist towards black Africans and other immigrants fleeing wars. They are particularly selfish and awful as they were lucky enough to take full advantage of being allowed to live in the UK and yet they go to cruel and extensive lengths to deny that same privilege to others.
There were times where I felt that Swift maybe struggled to make his point and he seemed to go down the odd blind alley. Also, too often this leans far too heavily on too many polls, as if they are the bastion of truth and integrity. But overall there is a lot of fine points in here and I would say that this is a vital yet flawed work, which could have been sharpened up with a bit more editorial direction and sharpness.
“The economic profit from migration has gone to capital (while) the social cost has gone to labour?”
Ambalavaner Sivanandan
He gets into the virtue signalling, performative left wing politics, using phrases like “the global south”, he says, “The point is to demonstrate the erudition and sophistication of the speaker, and seamlessly and easily position themselves among the community of the good.” The likes of Seumas Milne, Owen Jones and Nick Cohen come in for repeated criticism.
Swift does a good job of addressing many of the ills created by a malign culture of ruthless, self-appointed guardians who seem to throw down a permanent, ever shifting gauntlet of impossible moral perfection, whilst remaining forever offended and over eager to embrace victimhood. The type who desperately hunt down the most inconsequential of perceived infringements and demand all kinds of over the top punishments as recompense.
There are many hugely refreshing points, attacking many of the more irritating aspects of the smug, liberal Left from many effective angles.
“Polls have consistently found that there is a great deal of support for restricting immigration among Commonwealth and other pre-1990 immigrants. Furthermore, according to research conducted by a team led by Anthony Heath, Prof of Sociology at Oxford, ethnic minorities are generally less supportive of government spending than white Britons. South Asians are more hostile to asylum seekers than the white British, and British Indians are more supportive of the war in Afghanistan than white Britons.”
This is no more clearly displayed in the current batch of goons that pretend to be in charge of the UK, it is led by and is tremendously over represented by a powerful group of greedy, hateful racists of both sexes, who are either immigrants or near descendants of immigrants and are appallingly racist towards black Africans and other immigrants fleeing wars. They are particularly selfish and awful as they were lucky enough to take full advantage of being allowed to live in the UK and yet they go to cruel and extensive lengths to deny that same privilege to others.
There were times where I felt that Swift maybe struggled to make his point and he seemed to go down the odd blind alley. Also, too often this leans far too heavily on too many polls, as if they are the bastion of truth and integrity. But overall there is a lot of fine points in here and I would say that this is a vital yet flawed work, which could have been sharpened up with a bit more editorial direction and sharpness.
January 23, 2020
I found this book frustrating and confusing, despite there being many valid and interesting observations on the woke left. I think this was because the author, a lifelong old Labour man, is attacking the woke left from the viewpoint of the old left, which is terribly confusing. This is compounded by assuming that the reader knows about the history and the struggle of the British Labour movement, which I certainly don't and care about even less!
So this book is a prescription on how to co-opt the woke left so they will enable the British Labour party to be competitive again. It's too late. As the elections of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Scott Morrison amply show, the old Left have moved across. How long before the author, albeit reluctantly and with a heavy heart, follows them?
Despite the book being a muddle, the concluding chapter was excellent, not least because it showed how ineffectual and irrelevant the woke left are outside of social media and academia. In the real world they are largely irrelevant. Long may it last!
So this book is a prescription on how to co-opt the woke left so they will enable the British Labour party to be competitive again. It's too late. As the elections of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Scott Morrison amply show, the old Left have moved across. How long before the author, albeit reluctantly and with a heavy heart, follows them?
Despite the book being a muddle, the concluding chapter was excellent, not least because it showed how ineffectual and irrelevant the woke left are outside of social media and academia. In the real world they are largely irrelevant. Long may it last!
September 3, 2020
Heulsuse
February 24, 2022
I very much enjoyed this book as a polemic against the prolier than thou left wing hobbiests that make so much noise online and in the media. Quite snarky in places which is fun if you agree with the author (I do). Though poor Owen Jones, Laurie Penny and Zoe Williams really are put through the wringer here.
The writing could benefit from tighter adherence to the point the author is trying to make. At some points when an argument was bring presented I wasn't sure if they author was agreeing with it or demolishing (Caitlin Moran, good or bad for the left wing?)
What I found most interesting was it's take down of the ideas that the left has always been at the anti-racist, pro-woman, pro-gay vanguard. Understanding the problems that unions and the left have had with these issues does make you realise that the left doesn't have a monopoly on the now virtuous positions on social matters.
Ultimately I'm rating this 4 stars because it said a lot of what I agree with and I enjoyed the literary ride. I'm not convinced of how much left wing hobbiests are an actual threat to left wing power as opposed to distasteful and theoretically bad. Not much in the way if hard data was offered on this. But as an expose and take down of a disdainful thread of performative left piety I'm all for it.
The writing could benefit from tighter adherence to the point the author is trying to make. At some points when an argument was bring presented I wasn't sure if they author was agreeing with it or demolishing (Caitlin Moran, good or bad for the left wing?)
What I found most interesting was it's take down of the ideas that the left has always been at the anti-racist, pro-woman, pro-gay vanguard. Understanding the problems that unions and the left have had with these issues does make you realise that the left doesn't have a monopoly on the now virtuous positions on social matters.
Ultimately I'm rating this 4 stars because it said a lot of what I agree with and I enjoyed the literary ride. I'm not convinced of how much left wing hobbiests are an actual threat to left wing power as opposed to distasteful and theoretically bad. Not much in the way if hard data was offered on this. But as an expose and take down of a disdainful thread of performative left piety I'm all for it.
June 2, 2020
I think this book and its argument varies wildly in quality, exacerbated by the author's (perhaps too colloquial) tangents at points. His conclusions, which I mostly strongly agree with, are occasionally more personally- than evidentially-informed. Having said that, Swift's insights are incisive and necessary, and when he isn't (so to speak) "shooting fish in a barrel" (for example in the chapter on "Women's Activism" and "Patriotism"), he provides genuinely envelope-pushing and sharp-witted critiques on the modern left - with particular highlights being his analysis of the "Israel/Palestine" debate and the penultimate chapter "Cultural Elitism". Swift is clearly at his best when his arguments are rooted in sources from the history of the left, and identifying problems that have *long* plagued it - and is, in my opinion, a stronger historian than polemicist.
January 6, 2020
I agree with the main thesis of the book. But I think he nitpicks way too much and makes an effort to make the people he disagrees with worse than what they really are.
For instance he attacks Russel Brand for endorsing a book in 2007 when he was a completely different person back then and doesn’t clarify that the endorsement was made back then and not near 2017.
This is just an example of stuff that gets thrown out of context. This is a shame because I agree with the overall theme.
For instance he attacks Russel Brand for endorsing a book in 2007 when he was a completely different person back then and doesn’t clarify that the endorsement was made back then and not near 2017.
This is just an example of stuff that gets thrown out of context. This is a shame because I agree with the overall theme.
March 8, 2020
One for the bookshelf somewhere near 'What's Left' by Nick Cohen. A good short reader on what's wrong with the modern left. Extreme individualism. Performance and lip service over achieving things. Selective anti-imperialism amongst others.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2020
Really good analysis from the left of one of the key issues that is holding Labour back from winning elections in the UK.
Very persuasively argued, and written in an accessible, easily read style (rather than the heavy academic stuff that some books of this ilk choose)
Labour supporters would do well to read this and absorb the lessons within, but I don't expect they will, or at least the hobbyists won't. And while that goes on, they make it massively more likely that the Tories have a free run at each election
This lack of understanding of the vital importance of winning elections vs ideological purity is at the heart of the self indulgent Corbyn disaster.
Very persuasively argued, and written in an accessible, easily read style (rather than the heavy academic stuff that some books of this ilk choose)
Labour supporters would do well to read this and absorb the lessons within, but I don't expect they will, or at least the hobbyists won't. And while that goes on, they make it massively more likely that the Tories have a free run at each election
This lack of understanding of the vital importance of winning elections vs ideological purity is at the heart of the self indulgent Corbyn disaster.
July 22, 2021
Generally fine but he keeps stating that the ‘hobbyist left’ are blowing things out of proportion and not getting to the real heart of class/race/gender/sexuality problems around the world, but then blows out of proportion just how much effect they have on these issues. If in his opinion, the ‘hobbyist left’ are all privileged white students with nothing better to do who will eventually age out of their performative radicalism, then why has he written a polemic denouncing their politics, and why hasn’t he offered an alternative?
Also, just because you’ve read Zizek doesn’t mean you have to conclude every chapter with a quote of his - we get it, you’re ‘not like other guys’.
Also, just because you’ve read Zizek doesn’t mean you have to conclude every chapter with a quote of his - we get it, you’re ‘not like other guys’.
February 18, 2020
Really interesting book - lots of excellent insight, particularly in the early chapters. The last couple of chapters less so - the bit on feminism felt like it fell into some of the traps he criticised others for earlier in the book. Likewise, the section on culture started well but ended up feeling tangential.
I’d recommend it to anyone interested in reflecting on the Left and Corbyns Labour.
I’d recommend it to anyone interested in reflecting on the Left and Corbyns Labour.
April 17, 2020
An enjoyable excoriating look at how the hobbyist left, who see 'being left wing' as less a political project as more an all encompassing lifestyle, are distracting from the left's electoral chances.
Particularly entertaining are the quoted predictions and analysis by the likes of Owen Jones, Laurie Penny, and Ellie Mae O'Hagan, which turn out very quickly to be youth & mass movement romanticism of the highest order.
Particularly entertaining are the quoted predictions and analysis by the likes of Owen Jones, Laurie Penny, and Ellie Mae O'Hagan, which turn out very quickly to be youth & mass movement romanticism of the highest order.
March 5, 2020
Disturbingly accurate portrayal of how the modern middle class left is fixated on niche identity based issues rather than on issues that the mass amount of ordinary people are actually interested in.
April 27, 2020
An engaging read with some excellent observations. Rather polemical and not always fully substantiated, but I'd still recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews