Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Welcome to the age of Buzzfeed politics

It had to happen I guess. I have just finished reading a Buzzfeed post by walking hate figure Grant Shapps explaining in the standard 12 points why the Tories are looking after our energy bills and how horrid Labour are to blame for the mess we are in.

Aside from the nonsense points ('Ed Milliband switched his bill, the hypocrite', 'switching is the way to do it') that can be either dismissed or knocked down in a second - on the latter, switching within a closed market really doesn't help much) the very existence of this post both challenges Buzzfeed's validity as anything other than a glorified Twitter come Instagram AND marks yet another moment where the idea of political debate as a meaningful exercise capable of change takes another step towards the exit.

In 24 hours we have had our Prime Minister in white tie and tails pronounce the endless drive of austerity whilst sitting down to a god knows how many courses meal with the business masters of our country, Iain Duncan Smith fail to show up to face the music of his miserable (and counter productive) bedroom tax to discuss youth unemployment across a Europe his party want to leave and now this piece of pseudo youth culture grabbing nakedly corporate pr nonsense splashed across social media.

Meanwhile, George Monbiot in the last two weeks has explained in calm, reasoned and, crucially, researched pieces how our country and our money is being taken from us by business interests in cahoots with the very politicians that push defence of corporate interests, austerity for the poor and ethnic cleansing of high cost residential areas. Even that Tory hate figure, the EU, is part of the problem.

Its an age of Buzzfeed politics. 12 Reasons why you should vote Douche. Or Turd