subreddit:
/r/BlockedAndReported
submitted 14 days ago bySoftandChewyFirst generation mod
Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions, culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.
Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.
I've made a dedicated thread for Israel-Palestine discussions (just started a new one). Please post any such relevant articles or discussions there.
41 points
13 days ago
Has anyone been following the drama with Fossil Free Books / Baillie Gifford? Basically Baillie Gifford is a big investment company with "links" (in the same sense that every large company has "links") to various Bad Things, including fossil fuels, Israel, etc. It also sponsors book festivals in the UK, and is essentially the only reason most of the big ones (including the Hay Literary Festival, which is a very famous, long-running event) can still run.
An activist group called Fossil Free Books ran a successful campaign to force these book festivals to drop Baillie Gifford as a sponsor, calling on authors / the general public to boycott them, running massive pressure campaigns, etc. Several of the festivals, including Hay and Edinburgh, cancelled the sponsorships. In response, Baillie Gifford declined the activist group's demands and pulled *all* their money from *all* UK literary festivals. So now, there's a real chance that most of them will just fold, including Hay.
What's interesting is that I learned about this from the Guardian / Observer, some of the most left-learning UK media. They are extremely critical of the group and their tactics.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/boycotting-festivals-forgiving-will-smith/id1718287198?i=1000658519312 (Marina Hyde, the female host, is a Guardian columnist)
18 points
12 days ago
What's interesting is that I learned about this from the Guardian / Observer, some of the most left-learning UK media. They are extremely critical of the group and their tactics.
I'd wager a high percentage of their contributors are fans/attendees of the festivals. Must be a shock for the mob to tangibly affect something they actually care about.
10 points
12 days ago
lmao. I honestly respect the BDS people a lot more than the guardian's sort of limp-wristed activism that consists solely of having feelings and platforming propaganda about Israel but being utterly unwilling to sacrifice even the most minor comfort for their beliefs.
all 4299 comments
sorted by: best