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Nathan Robinson most vindicated man alive
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this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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chapotraphouse
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nathan j robinson fired a bunch of staff at current affairs mag for trying to organize a workers co op so you'll forgive me if i disagree with 'most vindicated man alive' on principle
I wish I could find his response to this 'cause it was stronger than I thought. Most of those writers are as bad if not worse than him politically and want control over something that was mostly his work and already run fairly horizontally.
Edit: found it here: https://yasminnair.com/march-what-really-happened-at-current-affairs/
This was my impression as the story unfolded, and I've seen similar things in lots of other small groups that take on big projects. At some point you have to grow out of the ad hoc stage, and that can cause issues between folks who have contributed to different degrees.
So basically, the staff's story was that they were all fired for trying to organize, when in reality they were not fired and they were not trying to organize.
honestly stunning.
A lot of folks here and elsewhere on the left ate it up uncritically, too. Calls for some self-crit on how we respond to these sorts of accusations in the future.
Yeah wow. I just read most of it. Just... absolutely embarrassing. That one guy who literally didn't even work at the magazine and followed Nathan into a store screaming at him is really blowing my mind. And honestly, I really am just like "why" and "how".
I remember reading that and my main takeaway was that it's a buddy of Nathan's that lacks a lot of actual knowledge and substance and relies heavily on tone and innuendo.
Nope, not what happened, he's already been vindicated for it. Most vindicated man alive.
PROOF: https://yasminnair.com/march-what-really-happened-at-current-affairs/
is there a cliff's notes for this incredibly meandering, lengthy article?
tldr as far as I remember:
Nathan Robinson: Guys can we please come up with some kind of structure to this magazine that is my actual full time job so that it ships out on time and our Patreon supporters get their rewards? Also, the person we hired to answer the phones and do basic secretarial work isn't doing the thing we're paying her to do.
Current Affairs writers: ummm idk like we just like doing this cool thing with our friends, um it's like socialist which means anyone does what they want whenever cause it's just like whatever man
Nathan Robinson: Dawg I got my mom doing administrative work for free here because there's no organization, I'm open to anything, maybe a company structure or a co-op or whatever, but shit needs to get done.
CA writers: Umm maybe a co-op because we're epic socialists. Also the secretary we hired can be an artist or some shit, also this other person you refused to hire needs to get another job and we don't like the person you did hire.
Magazine implodes
CA writers: Nathan Robinson fired us for doing co-op socialism :angery:
Damn is this really what happened hahahah
Having read through way too much of that lengthy article (that has plenty of receipts), basically yes. Robinson can be criticized for not being a great manager (though he was in a difficult situation, too), but the stuff about union busting and even simply the accusations of firing people hold zero water.
There's also a fair amount about how the departing staff were informed they would be getting severance pay, and Robinson even suggested more severance pay than they initially asked for, but they were still seeking donations on Venmo and CashApp. If there's a grifter here it's not Robinson.
Yeah this is absolutely embarrassing and sad. I feel petty bad for Nathan here. Tbh I used to listen to the podcast and it was good. I found it actually kinda surprising that Nathan did union busting but I didn't know him so I was just like "damn that sucks". But now this really sucks, because I thought he was a funny little guy and read him as legitimately caring about the left (even if I disagree with him on quite a few things).
No
tyvm
radlibs will shit on Stalin and then follow his exact leadership style for their dogshit rag lol
You already nailed it, it's very repetitive and mostly relies on telling you what conclusion to have rather than laying out a compelliy case. It's also a buddy of Nathan's that, I believe, joined after a lot of this has gone down or was otherwise not personally knowledgeable of it, being someone that wrote very rarely.
Also failed to address the key accusations.
As an example of how it relies on innuendo, it spends a lot of time talking about an alleged harassment campaign and saying someone who wasn't an employee was engaged in it and how this is all terrible. It's even convinced several hexbears in this thread. Of course, badmouthing a conniving employer on Twitter and telling him he sucks in a grocery store when you happen to randomly see him is not exactly a harassment campaign, it's just basic naming and shaming we tend to celebrate here. And that person that wasn't an employee? Well they're the long-time partner of an employee that was in the thick of it and went through this ordeal with them. Nothing strange about that.
Yeah, I read a bit of the italicized intro that started out saying they're definitely not writing this to defend their friend, then sort of smoothly transitions into just defending their friend in a fairly weird, immature way (paragraphs of describing mean things said about their friend) and gave up when I got to the "ackshully he didn't even have the authority to fire the people he told were fired" which is far from a defense of Robinson and more like yet another shitty thing Robinson has done
my conclusion is that probably most of the people involved are a little bit too impressed with themselves and robinson still sucks
Yeah I'm annoyed I have to think about this again lol. Not annoyed at anyone here, lol, just don't think this is worth spending time thinking about but can't help myself
damn I owe dandy lad an apology
I will never apologize for saying he looks stupid. Dressing like Dr Who is bad.
It's me. I hate boomers and boomer culture. Fuck john lemon beetles songs sucked.
libeling a fellow traveler because i get a little psychic rush, and i get to show off my orthodox bona fides, without doing any research on the accusations, is cool and good actually.
He's not a fellow traveler he's a Rosa Killer in a pimp suit
It’s amazing how generation after generation of western “leftists” fall for this same shit
He’s a social fascist who attacks Marxist revolutions from his cozy spot in the imperial core. Fuck him he’s no ally
Same. Current Affairs was one of my go-to publications back in the day and now I don’t even visit it. Grifter ass britisher wannabe.
Wrong, he's super vindicated, most vindicated man alive
I hate Robinson's weak tea ass ideas of "socialism" but I find the case here incredibly convincing, he did nothing wrong
There are some good lessons here in how not to respond to accusations:
No investigation, no right to speak, and certainly no right for an organization to take action against a member.
Edit: Forgot the wildest part of that anecdote
$360K to not even do basic stuff like "hey maybe we should hear from this guy like our procedures mandate," and not even do it full time.
Still making my way through it since you posted it. Got other stuff to do today too. But damn.
I’m sorry Bri’ish boy.
Same. I now file him under “compatible left” along with Chomsky and most of the New Left/Frankfurt School.
Yeah, the specific false accusations are irrelevant when his actual beliefs on socialist states are public and dogshit
As I recall, his views on AES states are anarchist critiques, which I don't personally agree with but (at least on Hexbear) are well within the realm of "I can work with this person."
Would really like to see what the guy thinks of Michael Parenti.
Nope Americans don’t get to attack Marxist states. He’s an imperialist