Dogwash

Jai the Prolix has posted yet another piece about the EDL at Pickled Politics, consisting largely of nitpicking but irrelevant semantic analysis of Tommy's and the EDL in general's statements and speeches.

I say "irrelevant" because Jai approaches his subject in the manner of a lawyer minutely examining a commercial contract, looking for exploitable ambiguities and inexactitudes, whereas what he is actually dealing with is ordinary loose linguistic usage and, in the case of Tommy's speech at Tower Hamlets, angry rhetoric. The post is in the great tradition of the likes of Lancaster Unity, Everything EDL and Nothing British, which devote huge amounts of time and effort into searching the web for injudiciously expressed views from people who might or might not be BNP or EDL or whatever supporters and hyping these up into security threats. The modus operandi amounts to finding some loudmouthed BNP official or EDL notable on Faceache or Twatter saying something along the lines of "When the revolution comes, Weyman Bennett and Martin Smith will be the first ones up against the wall" and then pretending that this statement represents a realistically intended death threat that the police should prosecute.

I won't bother trying to interpret and fisk Jai's tortuous prose here; life's too short thanks all the same. But what fascinates me about this particular piece is that reader comments have been blocked from the outset. In Jai's two previous diatribes on the EDL (here and here) he took exception to comments below the line, deleting some of them and eventually closing the thread prematurely. This time he has pre-empted the situation.

Look, Jai me old china — am I allowed to say that to a Punjabi? — I don't want to get all ad hominem or anything, but if you expect your pronouncements to be treated as ex cathedra and can't take intelligent criticism, then can I suggest that you go back to penning your usual fare of rambling Indian-supremacist historical pieces. Your Desi posse audience will probably like them while stroppy gora scum like me won't bother reading them and taking the piss "below the line".

Awright?