# The Niall Ferguson is a dick thread.



## camouflage (Mar 6, 2011)

*The "Niall Ferguson is an Absolute Dick" thread.*

Civilization: Is the West History.

Watching now, anyone else who wants to watch this rubbish so as to jeer and hiss at the screen are welcome to share your derision here.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 6, 2011)

he is a fucking disgusting cunt.


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## butchersapron (Mar 6, 2011)

Well what's he saying?


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## nino_savatte (Mar 13, 2011)

He's rewriting history (again) on Channel 4. The West is superior because of these "killer apps". I find his use of the word "app" a little er, daft. He claims that it's designed to hook younger viewers/readers. 

Last year, Gove asked him for help in writing a 'new' history syllabus. 



> Michael Gove, the education secretary, was in the audience, and publicly praised Ferguson's "exciting and engaging" ideas for a "campaign for real history". He asked: "My question is, will Harvard let you spend more time in Britain to help us design a more exciting and engaging history curriculum?"
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/30/niall-ferguson-school-curriculum-role



"Real history"...you know what that means...


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## Gingerman (Mar 13, 2011)

He raises levels of self-satisfied smuggery to new heights.


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## Mr Smin (Mar 13, 2011)

Still, those wooden rulers printed with the names and dates of kings should come back into production so Gove is doing something for the British manufacturing sector. Give the man a chance!


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## binka (Mar 13, 2011)

now comparing israeli jerusalem to vienna under siege from the ottomans


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## Kaka Tim (Mar 14, 2011)

Selective ahistorical smug crap - gave up on it after half of epsiode two. 

Comparing the ottamn empire (corrupt, depsotic,decadent, ineffective, dominated by religion to detriment of scientific learning) with Frederick the great regime- (enlightened, secular, efficient, scientific) to show why the west went on to conquer and the ottamans declined.

But you could make exaclty the same criticisms he makes of the ottamans of pre-revolutionary france - or Tsarist russia. 

Far more crucial was the access of western european nations - particualrly Spain, Britain, the Netherlands and France - had to the riches and opportunities affforded by the recently discovered americas - which moved the source of wealth away form the mediterrean to the atlantic. All the mediterreanean powers went into decline as a result. 

'guns germs and steel' is a far better and more holistic account of why europe prosperred from 1500 onwards. 

His talk of 'killer apps' is typical of his history-lite shite that treats the audience like gullible idiots.


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## Jeff Robinson (Mar 14, 2011)

nino_savatte said:


> He's rewriting history (again) on Channel 4. The West is superior because of these "killer apps". I find his use of the word "app" a little er, daft. He claims that it's designed to hook younger viewers/readers.
> 
> Last year, Gove asked him for help in writing a 'new' history syllabus.
> 
> "Real history"...you know what that means...



Ferguson is to tory vermin what David Irving is to neo-nazis. A self-conscious lying charlatan and fraud. He's a massive pinochet apologist too.


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

if Michael Gove loves history so much why has he gutted funding for people studying it?


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

Ferguson's a dick. All TV historians are. The format - talking about people like counters to be moved around a map - suits big man charlatans who despise actual humans.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

Lo Siento. said:


> Ferguson's a dick. All TV historians are. The format - talking about people like counters to be moved around a map - suits big man charlatans who despise actual humans.


 
I like Bettany Hughes. She has made a few good programs about Ancient Greeks. But I suppose that is a bit different, I suppose.


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 14, 2011)

He's a complete bellend. I've a book of his called Empire. It's fucking _wrong_. He's wrong.


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## phildwyer (Mar 14, 2011)

_The Ascent of Money_ ıs quıte good.  Not orıgınal, but a nıce encapsulatıon of the rıse to power of sıgns.

Also ''Chımerıca'' ıs a fıne neologısm.


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> I like Bettany Hughes. She has made a few good programs about Ancient Greeks. But I suppose that is a bit different, I suppose.


 
Ancient history is different, because there's more focus on discovering how people lived, rather than who beat who. Plus, it's less recent and therefore less obviously ideological.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

Lo Siento. said:


> Ancient history is different, because there's more focus on discovering how people lived, rather than who beat who. Plus, it's less recent and therefore less obviously ideological.


 
I agree though. I have not seen a TV historian (of Modern history) who is any good.


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> I agree though. I have not seen a TV historian (of Modern history) who is any good.


 
I'm not really a fan of Simon Schama personally. But unlike Starkey, Ferguson et al he has written history books about actual stuff, rather than just books that might as well be entitled "my name is Niall and this is what I think happened"


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## ferrelhadley (Mar 14, 2011)

Kaka Tim said:


> Far more crucial was the access of western european nations - particualrly Spain, Britain, the Netherlands and France - had to the riches and opportunities affforded by the recently discovered americas - which moved the source of wealth away form the mediterrean to the atlantic. All the mediterreanean powers went into decline as a result.


Your bedwetting liberal guilt simplifications are as bad as what you accuse Ferguson off. 

The British and Dutch were able to outcomete the Ottomans in the Indian Ocean and steam roller the Moguhls out of India because they had vastly superior ships and technology not because of Caribean sugar.


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

I wonder if the two were at any point ever connected? 

(I do like the naval warfare with the Moguhls idea though.)


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

Lo Siento. said:


> I'm not really a fan of Simon Schama personally. But unlike Starkey, Ferguson et al he has written history books about actual stuff, rather than just books that might as well be entitled "my name is Niall and this is what I think happened"


 
Starkey has done that too. repeatedly. (Schama is also a reactionary tory stooge but that's OT)


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

Simon Schama is a special advisor to the Conservative government.


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

He's odious.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> He's odious.



I just read that article this morning. 



> Gove, Schama and their allies are confusing history with memory. History is a critical academic discipline whose aims include precisely the interrogation of memory and the myths it generates.


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## QueenOfGoths (Mar 14, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> He's odious.


 


Dillinger4 said:


> I just read that article this morning.


 
Really interesting article - I remember my history teacher, many years ago now, saying that we should apporcah the subject in the spirit of "interrogation" and take nothing at face value.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

QueenOfGoths said:


> Really interesting article - I remember my history teacher, many years ago now, saying that we should apporcah the subject in the spirit of "interrogation" and take nothing at face value.


 
Definitely. I think History is one of the best subjects for learning some critical thinking skills.


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## kyser_soze (Mar 14, 2011)

What I don't get is how Fergusson progressed in the academy with such a (seemingly) simplistic reading of history. No dialectics, no analysis, just a poncified version of Kings, Lords & dates.


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## Divisive Cotton (Mar 14, 2011)

I watched most of the episode last night and quite enjoyed. His main argument is essentially correct, that a successful economy requires the embracing of science and the marginalising of religion


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

Is that really his main argument? 

What is 'science' in his view?


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## Divisive Cotton (Mar 14, 2011)

In last nights episode, yes - it was one of his "apps". I have yet to see him explain the other six


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 14, 2011)

Divisive Cotton said:


> In last nights episode, yes - it was one of his "apps". I have yet to see him explain the other six


 
apps. how modern.


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## Kaka Tim (Mar 14, 2011)

ferrelhadley said:


> Your bedwetting liberal guilt simplifications are as bad as what you accuse Ferguson off.
> 
> The British and Dutch were able to outcomete the Ottomans in the Indian Ocean and steam roller the Moguhls out of India because they had vastly superior ships and technology not because of Caribean sugar.


 
Er ... wealth = power? 

And how the fuck is pointing out the interplay between geography, trade and wealth 'liberal betwetting'? - and as for 'simplifications' its an internet bulletin board ffs.

The reasons for the ascendancy of western powers post 1500 is complex - its an interplay of factors of which access to, and the ability to exploit, the wealth of the americas is a major one. Just saying 'its cos we had better weapons cos we is clerverer' is bollocks. 

Certain circumstnaces - geography, access to resouces and climate interplay with social, political and religious systems and technology to allow different powers to dominate others at different times - hardly a radical or 'apologist' thesis but one that you and Ferguson are apparently ignorant of.


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Starkey has done that too. repeatedly. (Schama is also a reactionary tory stooge but that's OT)



Starkey's written a dozen books on the royals. And, referred to social history as being a result of feminization.


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

Lo Siento. said:


> Starkey's written a dozen books on the royals. And, referred to social history as being a result of feminization.


 
Have you read them? What does he do in them that you object to?


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Have you read them? What does he do in them that you object to?



I read one a long time ago. It was just bog standard, regular, history about important famous people.


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

Lo Siento. said:


> I read one a long time ago. It was just bog standard, regular, history about important famous people.


 

OK, how then does this



> I'm not really a fan of Simon Schama personally. But unlike Starkey, Ferguson et al he has written history books about actual stuff, rather than just books that might as well be entitled "my name is Niall and this is what I think happened"



?? I mean wtf?

(Starkey has actually given a very thorough going over of the typical view of the tudors and Liz - that's why he's rated)


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## Lo Siento. (Mar 14, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> OK, how then does this
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
what? Just saying that Starkey's written various books about the royal family, and Schama's output is on more interesting subjects? They're BOTH tories anyway.


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

You said that they were dissimilar though - and as you also say, they're not. Schama was also the goon who bigged up Hitler's Willing Executioners...

Starkey is of ours though, he's long term


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## butchersapron (Mar 14, 2011)

Divisive Cotton said:


> I watched most of the episode last night and quite enjoyed. His main argument is essentially correct, that a successful economy requires the embracing of science and the marginalising of religion


 
Like America then.


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## littlebabyjesus (Mar 14, 2011)

Schama's the kind of idiot i would have despaired of as a lecturer. Blinkered and probably giving high marks to people regurgitating his own views. I think I'd have enjoyed arguing with starkey and that the last thing he would want is to hear back his own views. I couldn't care less about most of what starkey talks about though


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## Divisive Cotton (Mar 15, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Like America then.



No not like the US at all. For all the huff and bluster of the evangelical Christians rarely have they been allowed to dictate the framework of science in American, apart from those rare occasions like stem cell research


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## butchersapron (Mar 15, 2011)

Divisive Cotton said:


> No not like the US at all. For all the huff and bluster of the evangelical Christians rarely have they been allowed to dictate the framework of science in American, apart from those rare occasions like stem cell research


 
In that case then the argument down to science not being religion. What an astonishing insight.

OK, then try post-renaissance europe - trampling all over the globe with its mix of science and magic. Look how weak it was.


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## TruXta (Mar 15, 2011)

Divisive Cotton said:


> No not like the US at all. For all the huff and bluster of the evangelical Christians rarely have they been allowed to dictate the framework of science in American, apart from those rare occasions like stem cell research


 
That's just an incredibly narrow and whiggish way of looking at it. American engineering and technology started going properly global from about 1870, when most scientists, technologists and capitalists were Christian and proud of it. This went hand in hand with Manifest Destiny and later Progressivism, which was thoroughly mixed in with religious and moral sentiments and motivations.


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## JimW (Mar 15, 2011)

Remember that old series on the history of Wales with two historians presenting, one a Marxist and the other high Tory? Downloaded an episode not so long back but can't recall the title. Bit dated but I liked that format, as right from the off you get that it's up for debate.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 15, 2011)

that sounds quality^^^^ remember the name pls.


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## butchersapron (Mar 15, 2011)

JimW said:


> Remember that old series on the history of Wales with two historians presenting, one a Marxist and the other high Tory? Downloaded an episode not so long back but can't recall the title. Bit dated but I liked that format, as right from the off you get that it's up for debate.


 
Was Kenneth Griffith involved you think?


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## JimW (Mar 15, 2011)

Found it - knew it was 'Dragon' something: The Dragon Has Two Tongues  http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/7083

ETA: Looks like some YouTube of it at this blog, but the video's blocked here: http://nickglais-springthunder.blogspot.com/2009/06/remembering-gwyn-williams-dragon-has.html

And another edit, obit of Gwyn Williams: http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr192/john.htm


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## DotCommunist (Mar 15, 2011)

nice one


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## butchersapron (Mar 15, 2011)

Ah, Gwyn Williams, wrote a great book called "Proletarian order" about the Italian near rev of 1920 - also did great work on the French rev as well.


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## JimW (Mar 15, 2011)

From that obit: 'I'm unreconstructed, and I don't bloody care'


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## JimW (Mar 15, 2011)

I'd not heard of him before seeing that butchers. Can well believe he could draw a crowd at his college lectures, he had a great manner. Must look out for his books.


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## Random (Mar 15, 2011)

kyser_soze said:


> What I don't get is how Fergusson progressed in the academy with such a (seemingly) simplistic reading of history. No dialectics, no analysis, just a poncified version of Kings, Lords & dates.


 
He probably didn't serve up the same dish to his tutors as he does to the TV public.


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## nino_savatte (Mar 15, 2011)

kyser_soze said:


> What I don't get is how Fergusson progressed in the academy with such a (seemingly) simplistic reading of history. No dialectics, no analysis, just a poncified version of Kings, Lords & dates.



Tories don't need dialectics, dontchaknow?


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## nino_savatte (Mar 15, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> apps. how modern.


 
You should have heard him explain it to Bill and Sian on the BBC Breakfast sofa. They seemed impressed but then, those two are impressed by anything - unless the thing in question happens to be left wing.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 16, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Ah, Gwyn Williams, wrote a great book called "Proletarian order" about the Italian near rev of 1920 - also did great work on the French rev as well.


 
History isn't a story it is an inquiry.

_yes_


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## Belushi (Mar 16, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Ah, Gwyn Williams, wrote a great book called "Proletarian order" about the Italian near rev of 1920 - also did great work on the French rev as well.


 
I met him a couple of times as a kid  He was a lovely man.


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## Captain Hurrah (Mar 16, 2011)

nino_savatte said:


> You should have heard him explain it to Bill and Sian on the BBC Breakfast sofa. They seemed impressed but then, those two are impressed by anything - unless the thing in question happens to be left wing.



Bill Turnbull is a sarky Eton twat.


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## Rock Bottom (Mar 16, 2011)

The tone of the documentary is troubling. He too often implictly refers to the West as "we" and the East as "them", pitting the heroic and enlightened European empires against the debauched and close-minded Ottomans. Expressions like "The West was saved!" and "The Austrians rose to a power of splended predominance" betray his bias.

This being said, like all Niall Ferguson series, it makes for fascinating viewing. He has a great talent for making his subjects both accessible and engaging. Much of his appeal comes from his contrarian stance. Despite not agreeing with his opinions on Israel or General Pinocet (in "The Ascent of Money"), I find them extremely refreshing. After all, it's not healthy to listen only to viewpoints which simply reenforce your own entrenched beliefs


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## Kaka Tim (Mar 16, 2011)

Rock Bottom said:


> After all, it's not healthy to listen only to viewpoints which simply reenforce your own entrenched beliefs



But actively reinforcing entrenched beliefs is exactly what he is doing.


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## nino_savatte (Mar 16, 2011)

Captain Hurrah said:


> Bill Turnbull is a sarky Eton twat.


 
Yep and along with Lollipop Head (Williams)and Ferguson, he should be in the "punch a twat" gallery.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Just watched Niall's episode about the reasons for the differing fates of Latin and North America being rooted in differing attitudes to property.

His thesis is a more equal distribution of property in North America led to a more economically dynamic society.

Then towards the end he starts talking about the USA's 'original sin' of no equal property rights for black slaves and a strong taboo on mixed race relationships. He contrasts this with the more extensive mixed race marriages in Latin America.

So what is he trying to say? Its a confused picture, but thought provoking.   Don't like the title of this thread. Sure Niall is on an ego trip but sometimes he says some interesting things even he begs more questions than he answers.


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## nino_savatte (Mar 20, 2011)

He's still a dick (as well as an apologist for Empire).


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 20, 2011)

He should fucking apologise for Empire, it's the second shittiest book I've ever read.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 20, 2011)

Proper Tidy said:


> He should fucking apologise for Empire, it's the second shittiest book I've ever read.


 
What is the shittiest?


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Can't remember the details of the argument, but I though Empire was quite interesting at the time.


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 20, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> What is the shittiest?


 
Paxman, The English


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 20, 2011)

Understandable.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 20, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Can't remember the details of the argument, but I though Empire was quite interesting at the time.


 
I didn't.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

I would be interested in finding out about a good readable biography of Simon de Bolivar.


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 20, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Can't remember the details of the argument


 
'Despite all the evidence to the contrary, like Africa, it was a force for good and anyway if it hadn't of been my forebears doing the raping and pillaging it would have been some other foreign ones who would obviously be much worse, being _foreign_ and all. Look at the Congo!'


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> I didn't.



Which particular aspect of it did you find uninteresting?


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 20, 2011)

The words


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Proper Tidy said:


> 'Despite all the evidence to the contrary, like Africa, it was a force for good and anyway if it hadn't of been my forebears doing the raping and pillaging it would have been some other foreign ones who would obviously be much worse, being _foreign_ and all. Look at the Congo!'


 
I am sure that it was much more interesting and nuanced than than that. But maybe I should go and read it again to remind myself.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 20, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Which particular aspect of it did you find uninteresting?


 
Almost all of it.

Just another apologist for imperialism.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> Almost all of it.
> 
> Just another apologist for imperialism.



Wasn't there a large section of the book in which he said the complete opposite of this that he wasn't just another apologist for imperialism and that he was shedding new light on the issue.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 20, 2011)

toblerone3 said:


> Wasn't there a large section of the book in which he said the complete opposite of this that he wasn't just another apologist for imperialism and that he was shedding new light on the issue.


 
No.


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## toblerone3 (Mar 20, 2011)

Dillinger4 said:


> No.



Oh


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## Proper Tidy (Mar 20, 2011)

No, there was a bit when he slammed the 'revisionism' of historians who pointed out the empire was pretty fucking grim, before telling us how great it was, ungrateful bloody Indians, iirc.


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## London_Calling (Mar 21, 2011)

I watched last night until he claimed the American colonies enjoyed "almost universal sufferage" from the point when men were entitled to vote if they owned land.

It might be me but is he trying to lose his Scottish accent?


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## likesfish (Mar 21, 2011)

tbf  he did later point out that universal sufferage only counted if you were white and how "slavery" was the  orginal sin which blighted race relations for the next 200 years


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## butchersapron (Mar 21, 2011)

I think you've missed the point - "were entitled to vote if they owned land.".


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## Rock Bottom (Mar 29, 2011)

I am slightly surprised at the lack of reaction to something Niall Ferguson said in a throwaway comment during last night's show:

(paraphrasing slightly)

"100 years ago, racism (eugenics) wasn't some backwards looking reactionary ideology, it was the state of the art, and people then believed in it so readily as people today buy the theory of man-made climate change".

As stated before, he is clearly using the documentary to - at least in part - present his political beliefs. This is unusual for the format, and in some ways, refreshing (not that I necessarily agree with him).


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## camouflage (Mar 29, 2011)

butchersapron said:


> Well what's he saying?


 
I honestly don't know

I saw his face, and in a fit of rage lurched to start this thread. Judging by what's been said in it so far, all is as expected.


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## London_Calling (Mar 30, 2011)

Not keen on the Germans is he.

Amongst very much else, you could think they dreamt up concentration camps.


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## camouflage (Apr 3, 2011)

What the Shuddering Fuck! He's_ Saying Things_ Again!!!


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## _angel_ (Apr 4, 2011)

Is he going to change his trousers at all in this series, or does he march all over the world in the same pair of Gap keks???


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## purves grundy (Apr 4, 2011)

He's a mighty cockhammer. Thor's cockhammer.


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## Jeff Robinson (Apr 4, 2011)

Another loon:



> The Left has spent the last 50 years purposely and highly successfully erasing British history from the public consciousness, for entirely ideological reasons, and to their benefit.



http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/e...en-up-all-pretence-of-political-impartiality/


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## butchersapron (Apr 4, 2011)

Same bloke

How will Anglo-American relations fare when America is no longer majority white?







Who sells this man coke?


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## nino_savatte (Apr 4, 2011)

Jeff Robinson said:


> Another loon:
> 
> 
> 
> http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/e...en-up-all-pretence-of-political-impartiality/



Indeed he is and there's much trolling to be had on his blog too.


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## London_Calling (Apr 4, 2011)

It doesn't help that he's adopted a Jeremy Clarkson style . . . . DE_livery_.


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## _angel_ (Apr 11, 2011)

Last night's was beyond ridiculous.


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## Gingerman (Apr 12, 2011)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/11/niall-ferguson-political-debate-england-america
Comes across as a complete tool in this interview


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## youngian (Apr 13, 2011)

Nothing against history programmes being polemical if it's a well researched narrative (as was his Ascent of Money) but this shit just got worse and worse. The old joke about disestablishing the CoE as they are the Tory Party at prayer and should be privatised was treated as a serious argument by Ferguson to explain Europe's religous decline compared to America. His views about slavery being a nasty sideshow in otherwise glorious imperial history were toe curling to watch.
Truly horrible stuff and I see his weasily little protege Dan Snow has got his own series as well.


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## _angel_ (Apr 13, 2011)

You're right it's just gone from bad to worse, and for some reason he seems to think Britain doesn't have the 'work ethic' just because we don't go to church as much as the US do! People are more obsessed with work than ever in this country!!

Then he managed to make communist China sound almost lazy under Mao. I just couldn't believe it tbh.


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## rekil (Apr 13, 2011)

Jeff Robinson said:


> Another loon:









 Stick a ruff on him and he'd pass for a murderous Elizabethan adventurer type, like Francis Cosby of Mullaghmast infamy or some such similar cunt.


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## andy2002 (Apr 13, 2011)

copliker said:


> Stick a ruff on him and he'd pass for a murderous Elizabethan adventurer type, like Francis Cosby of Mullaghmast infamy or some such similar cunt.


 
He used to write for Nuts - he was a horrible Tory cunt back then, too.


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## Jeff Robinson (Oct 11, 2011)

He's interviewing Henry Kissinger tonight @ 10pm on More4. It's hard to think of a worse candidate for the job.


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## Cid (Mar 12, 2012)

He's got a new one tonight! China: Triumph and Turmoil, I for one am literally trembling with anticipation.


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## _angel_ (Mar 12, 2012)

Cid said:


> He's got a new one tonight! China: Triumph and Turmoil, I for one am literally trembling with anticipation.


The pressure mounts, can he out-dick himself on last time?


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## butchersapron (Mar 12, 2012)

Jeff Robinson said:


> He's interviewing Henry Kissinger tonight @ 10pm on More4. It's hard to think of a worse candidate for the job.


Ian Huntley.


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## JimW (Mar 12, 2012)

Cid said:


> He's got a new one tonight! China: Triumph and Turmoil, I for one am literally trembling with anticipation.


Remember seeing his daft and painfully trying-too-hard-to-be-with-it 'six killer apps' spiel where he said some extremely stupid shit about the Imperial civil service exam system, so I expect it will at best be his pathetic rehash of whatever he's been mugging up on in the mean time, having spotted that China is a big and important place.


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## butchersapron (Mar 12, 2012)

JimW said:


> Remember seeing his daft and painfully trying-too-hard-to-be-with-it 'six killer apps' spiel where he said some extremely stupid shit about the Imperial civil service exam system, so I expect it will at best be his pathetic rehash of whatever he's been mugging up on in the mean time, having spotted that China is a big and important place.


You prob read it jim but there was a great 'Ferguson is dick chasing subjects' piece in the LRB recently that made him threaten to sue. (Might even be mentioned on this thread - i'll check)


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## JimW (Mar 12, 2012)

butchersapron said:


> You prob read it jim but there was a great 'Ferguson is dick chasing subjects' piece in the LRB recently that made him threaten to sue. (Might even be mentioned on this thread - i'll check)


I did. His petulant follow-up letters were worth the price of admission alone


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## Cid (Mar 12, 2012)

This? Not read it yet... looks entertaining.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n21/pankaj-mishra/watch-this-man


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## JimW (Mar 12, 2012)

That's the one. Mishra does make a few slightly unsubstantiated criticisms that Ferguson nit-picks is his whining missives, but he's essentially nailed the man.


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## yield (Mar 12, 2012)

Cid said:


> This? Not read it yet... looks entertaining.
> 
> http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n21/pankaj-mishra/watch-this-man


Thanks for that Cid


> Pankaj Mishra writes:... Ferguson is no racist, in part because he lacks the steady convictions of racialist ideologues like Stoddard. Rather, his writings, heralding an American imperium in 2003, Chimerica in 2006, and the ‘Chinese Century’ in 2011, manifest a wider pathology among intellectuals once identified by Orwell: ‘the instinct to bow down before the conqueror of the moment, to accept the existing trend as irreversible’.


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## Gingerman (Mar 13, 2012)

If you look up the definition of a smug self-satisfied cunt in a dictonary  Ferguson's picture would be under it


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## Gingerman (Mar 13, 2012)

Jeff Robinson said:


> He's interviewing Henry Kissinger tonight @ 10pm on More4. It's hard to think of a worse candidate for the job.


 Have they managed to separate his tongue from Kissinger's ass yet?


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## Cid (Jun 19, 2012)

I know he's being discussed on the BBC is going down the pan thread over in UK politics, but thought I'd resurrect this record of his dickishness. Reith lecturer ffs.


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## JimW (Jun 19, 2012)

Cid said:


> I know he's being discussed on the BBC is going down the pan thread over in UK politics, but thought I'd resurrect this record of his dickishness. Reith lecturer ffs.


Suppose in a sense he's very much in the Reith tradition - speak for the establishment and good order etc.


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## nino_savatte (Jul 3, 2012)

He was on Radio 4 earlier and talked about "the Heritage Foundation Freedom Index". Oh, how I laughed.


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## Gramsci (Jul 7, 2012)

Cid said:


> I know he's being discussed on the BBC is going down the pan thread over in UK politics, but thought I'd resurrect this record of his dickishness. Reith lecturer ffs.


 
Yes I was throwing things at the radio. His argument is that all is needed is to tweak the present system and capitalism is hunky dory. Simplistic shallow analysis made to seem serious by his erudite knowledge. An apologist for the present order. I noticed how dismissive he of anyone who thinks any different. Clearly loathes the left. If he is on the right I still expect a better argument.


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## chazegee (Jul 9, 2012)

Paradoxical that in order to become civilized, you have to throw off the yoke of superstition and embrace science.
Yet most great Civilizations were extremely devout.


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## nino_savatte (Jul 9, 2012)

andy2002 said:


> He used to write for Nuts - he was a horrible Tory cunt back then, too.


Nuts, eh? [adds that to West's file].


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## andy2002 (Jul 9, 2012)

He was on the features staff there - mostly inane, stunt-driven stuff (as you'd imagine from Nuts). If you had access to back issues you'd turn up a load of photo features with him featured prominently wearing a Nuts-branded sweatshirt.


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## Mrs Magpie (Jul 10, 2012)

Just caught the tail end of one of his lectures and he asserts that volunteering for the benefit of the community is a middle-class thing and that different ethnic groups stay within their communities and don't mix. Maybe this is true of Bradford, Cardiff and Glasgow for example, I don't live there so I can't comment, but it's not my experience of Brixton at all.


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## youngian (Jul 10, 2012)

After listening to his third Reith Lecture lets hope a 'Niall Ferguson is a dick Club' will spring up as an example of vibrant civic activity.


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## ViolentPanda (Jul 10, 2012)

youngian said:


> After listening to his third Reith Lecture lets hope a 'Niall Ferguson is a dick Club' will spring up as an example of vibrant civic activity.


 
We could have button badges with a picture of him with a red diagonal line through it on them!


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## _angel_ (Jul 10, 2012)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Just caught the tail end of one of his lectures and he asserts that volunteering for the benefit of the community is a middle-class thing and that different ethnic groups stay within their communities and don't mix. Maybe this is true of Bradford, Cardiff and Glasgow for example, I don't live there so I can't comment, but it's not my experience of Brixton at all.


London is truly inspirational. Racism only happens outside of it FACT!


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## Mrs Magpie (Jul 10, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> London is truly inspirational. Racism only happens outside of it FACT!


Well apart from a brief sojourn in rural Wales, and living with my granny and great-granny in Brighton when I was a baby, I've only ever lived in London. He just painted this picture of voluntary work being exclusively white and middle class (partly because immigrants don't mix and I'm not sure what he was trying to say about the working class at all) and my personal experience just doesn't bear that out at all. I wasn't making a point about London and racism at all. More that I think Ferguson has limited experience of the real world.


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## _angel_ (Jul 10, 2012)

He is a dick - hence this thread. Painting the Chinese under Mao as somehow 'lazy' and needing Christianity to up their productivity.


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## ViolentPanda (Jul 10, 2012)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Well apart from a brief sojourn in rural Wales, and living with my granny and great-granny in Brighton when I was a baby, I've only ever lived in London. He just painted this picture of voluntary work being exclusively white and middle class (partly because immigrants don't mix and I'm not sure what he was trying to say about the working class at all) and my personal experience just doesn't bear that out at all. I wasn't making a point about London and racism at all. More that I think Ferguson has limited experience of the real world.


 
Because he's a dick.


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## ViolentPanda (Jul 10, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> He is a dick - hence this thread. Painting the Chinese under Mao as somehow 'lazy' and needing Christianity to up their productivity.


 
TBF Christianity has occasionally upped productivity in China, if you count killing Christians as "productivity", anyway.


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## Mrs Magpie (Jul 10, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> He is a dick - hence this thread.


I'd never heard of him. I just caught the tail end of a lecture and the Q&A afterwards...I'd been labouring under a vague and false notion that this year's Reith Lectures were being given by Neil McGregor of the British Museum


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## mrs quoad (Jul 10, 2012)

On the bright side, I've been starting work earlier the last 3 Tuesdays.


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## CNT36 (Jul 11, 2012)

I enjoyed what I can only assume was his argument against private education. That he was privately educated and wouldn't be where he is today without it. Its sad to think that somewhere there is an intelligent, insightful and interesting historian who didn't get the oppurtunities and social capital this knob end did.


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## ViolentPanda (Aug 23, 2012)

In further proof that Niall Ferguson is a dickhead, and that what he writes is shite, I today got a catalogue from a company that sells remaindered books. As an enticement, they are currently offering anyone who spends more than £25 with them a *hardback* copy of Ferguson's "Empire", free _gratis_ and for nothing.
Nothing says "worthless" more than being *given away* by a company that makes their living from remaindered books.


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## CNT36 (Aug 23, 2012)

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...usons-very-bad-argument-against-obama/261306/


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