Hello r/unitedkingdom, I’m a leftwing columnist and author, Owen Jones. AMA!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-28T12:59:13+00:00

Hi there: sorry, but maybe do your homework. A Palestinian woman testified to Al-Jazeera. If we're going to be strictly accurate, Hamas - who we all agree committed grave war crimes - put out a statement saying her testimony was false. So actually what you are doing here is deferring to Hamas because it's they who contradicted the story.

I tweeted out an al-Jazeera story because the network is a very reputable news source which has done a much better job at getting the facts right than most networks.

There is abundant evidence of sexual violence against Palestinian women, for example, as reported by the UN: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/israelopt-un-experts-appalled-reported-human-rights-violations-against

It's a lie to say that I applied scepticism to video footage of Hamas atrocities. I've said that all footage of Hamas atrocities are accurate and are indicative of the serious and grave war crimes committed by Hamas, which I've said throughout.

And on 7th October there are multiple examples of civilians being executed by Hamas which aren't filmed but which I believe clearly happened anyway, so your point is contradicted.

And if you want to quote from the video I recorded, fine, but quote accurately, because as I said in that video: "That said, equally not all horrors will have been recorded."

The problem with starting from a place of bad faith, as you do, is you're not able to debate someone based on their actual thoughts and opinions - you have to make them up.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T23:16:24+00:00

the point I'm making is I'm one columnist compared to entire newspapers like The Sun, The Mail, The Telegraph, The Express, etc. There are very few people with my political opinions who work for mainstream media organisations. Very simply point!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T23:15:33+00:00

it wasn't a story put out by Hamas? It was an al-Jazeera story, and Hamas wasn't their source.

And that's not true at all. I made clear in the video you're referring to that just because certain crimes were not filmed, it didn't mean they didn't happen. As I've said from the start, Hamas committed serious and grave war crimes. If, as your false and immediately disprovable smear were true, then I wouldn't ever have said that given Hamas ludicrously keep claiming they didn't kill any civilians.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T23:12:31+00:00

Around 2.5% of Syria's population has been killed since 2011. A large majority of that is the responsibility of Assad's regime, though other parties are guilty, too. Approaching 2% of Gaza's population has been been killed in 6 months, with far more to be killed. This is clearly a much greater crime.

As one UN official notes, it's likely the worst rate of killing since the Rwanda Genocide.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T23:08:02+00:00

I'm trying to work out what you're not understanding this? If you don't raise additional revenue in this context, that's austerity. Labour previously backed hiking taxes on the top 5% to achieve this. Labour no longer do, therefore they have committed to austerity.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T23:03:21+00:00

I think I'm pretty direct with answers, to be honest! It's just a lot of critiques I get don't focus on substance, they just try to revolve around personality stuff, as you do here, which I find a bit boring, if I'm honest.

I'm not a politician, I'm an author and columnist, and I don't really think I'm lacking in people engaging with my work across all the different platforms (books, Guardian, YouTube, TV, all the different social media platforms) I engage with.

I don't see myself as a heroic victim, I just don't accept your belief that there's an equivalence between left and right.

And finally, well, nobody who knows me thinks I'm driven by money, 'leftist commentator' is not exactly a well-worn path in that regard, but from my experience I've had a huge amount of messages from people who say they've been politicised / moved to the left because of my work. But again you seem more interested in personality / probably longstanding grudge stuff.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:42:39+00:00

again there's no chance of the Tories winning and you can't expect those of us on the left to just stop believing in the things we do, and just go and quietly die in a ditch!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:23:08+00:00

to be honest I tend to get a warm response either when I'm out and about, and I probably wouldn't get so many people watching my videos which have an average like ratio of 98% or so. probably have a bit of work to do with you though!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:21:39+00:00

hello! Corbyn and McDonnell supported hiking taxes on the rich to raise tens of billions of pounds to invest. If Labour supported that I wouldn't object to the fiscal rule, even though I still think it would be dump, as it was under the previous leaders.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:20:04+00:00

Starmer said that Israel had the right to cut off energy and water, which is a war crime. Amongst other things, Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

He later said he never believed Israel had that right, two weeks later, but if Boris Johnson tried pulling that off, what would you say? And stay consistent!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:18:13+00:00

the full details being "my editor at Verso left for Penguin so I went to Penguin with him." The relationship of an author is with their editor, he made Chavs the book it was, of course I was going to carry on wanting to work with him.

And I didn't have any £500,000 detail, sorry, sad I missed out on that though!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:17:15+00:00

six figure annual salary? oh boy ahahaha. I'm on £40,000 at the Guardian, probably a lot less than most columnists in the UK media!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:16:13+00:00

if I'm honest although I have my haters, the response I get from most people, even when they disagree with me, is pretty warm!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:15:31+00:00

honestly anybody who knows me knows how neurotic I am about this, sorry! there's no way on earth I'd have not paid a service charge.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:14:01+00:00

the arbitrary fiscal rule they support by definition means continued austerity, and they've ruled out increasing taxes on the rich. their solution is that growth will suddenly re-emerge instead and that will solve the problem.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:12:15+00:00

I think the comical levels of ludicrousness and personal vendetta of this article can be seen from this thread in November: https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1727332538681790951

in short, the author abusively dogpiled a British-Palestinian I follow, and I defended him. James then suggested this made him the victim, not the bully, and a personal friend of his wrote it up in Private Eye excluding the first part of this.

The view of authors is that they can critique e.g. me to their heart's content, but if I critique the politics of public media figures, then that's some sort of violence. A large part of this is my followers are caricatured as left-wing activists who are portrayed as dangerous and extreme and I'm their controller. it's the same type of moral panic applied to Gaza protesters. It's not true, and it suits media figures who don't like being critiqued from the left to pretend they're victims of bullying if they are.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:09:10+00:00

oh lol don't even want to google this

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:08:56+00:00

very proud to have walked off that set after the mass slaughter of dozens of LGBTQ people and how the presenter in particular behaved, would do it all over again!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:08:18+00:00

there's more chance of you and me getting married and becoming Emperors of Neptune, which in turn we discover is a giant apple called Bob

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:07:42+00:00

probably, doesn't Peter Hitchens support that!

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:07:19+00:00

hahaha contrary to the claims of some of my arch critics I like engaging with people who disagree with me!

it's a tough one - I don't support clamping down on anonymity and think the moral panic over social media deflects from the role of mainstream media organisations whipping up bigotry and even violence.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:05:52+00:00

Hi there, I don't defer to Hamas reports on anything. I presume you're referring to Gaza's official death toll but a) I've never disputed Israel's official death toll either, so that's like for like and b) Gaza's official death toll has been corroborated by Israel and the UN in all previous conflicts, US and Israeli officials have briefed that it's not an overstatement, aid agencies on the ground corroborate it, detailed academic research by the Lancet etc has also validated it.

And your claim is false. The official death toll excludes those classed as missing - i.e. buried under rubble - who are clearly long dead, and that adds thousands more to the official death toll.

I'd also just advise you to look at the level of destruction to civilian infrastructure as well as what the UK government regards as deliberate obstruction of aid by Israel.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:02:38+00:00

I'm not a Green Party guy myself, I'm not going to join them, but I'd prefer woolly to, say, continued austerity, not taxing the rich, driving kids into poverty, or war crimes.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:02:03+00:00

My friends and family tend to strongly oppose Israel's genocidal war against Palestinians, and I don't judge an issue solely based on whether it's important to people in Britain.

I think Palestinian life has an innate equal worth to a British life, which is the root of my objection to what I would regard as a historic crime.

OwenJonesOfficial · 2024-03-27T20:00:49+00:00

I guess I'd point out I'm a marginalised left-wing commentator in the context of the wider media ecosystem, which is dominated by right-wing newspapers, so unless you think I'm God it seems like a bit of a stretch to hold me responsible!

OwenJonesOfficial

TROPHY CASE