She Finds Herself Fascinating
Tim Blair marvels at the diffidence of leftist opinionator, Guardian contributor and soon-to-be Doctor of Creative Practice, Margo Kingston:
This [need for research and subsequent expertise] shouldn’t be too difficult. The topic that Margo will deeply research for her taxpayer-funded PhD is… herself: “The [thesis] will be a professional memoir which seeks to explain my journey from mainstream political journalist to Sydney Morning Herald political blogger and editor with Webdiary, website owner when I went independent in 2005, and my new project after a seven-year break, No Fibs.”
She won’t just be Doctor Margo – she’ll be a doctor of Margo. This might be the most indulgent exercise in academic history. Let’s hope Margo’s expert in-depth Margo analysis covers the time she blew more than $40,000 in three months running a blog, her attempt to establish a Margolian legal system, her discovery that Jews controlled Australia, and her whole decade-plus of paranoid gibberish, right up to the moment she somehow gained taxpayer funding for a demented Twitter site.
There are plenty of links in Tim’s piece and a sample of Ms Kingston’s pronouncements can be found here. Among them, a call for fellow socialists to rise up and “overthrow this illegitimate government,” her enthusiasm for “civil war,” her statement that the United States used nuclear weapons in Vietnam, and her belief that Australia is “at war with Norway.”
The [thesis] will be a professional memoir
Narcissism much?
Narcissism much?
I’m told there was a time when the word education implied encouraging a person to see beyond their own experience and concerns. Their own little self. How times change. It’s not without precedent, though. While at Princeton, Michelle Obama wrote her undergraduate thesis about herself and how terrible it was being a middle-class black woman at Princeton, one of the most cossetting environments in the history of the world.
The Australian Laurie Penny?
I’ve left a comment – not entirely flattering but not abusive – which is under review. I’ll be interested to see if it makes it to her site. Good on her if it does.
“Frightbat”.
I love that.
Perhaps her dissertation is merely a performance art piece, to be entitled “Solipsism.”
“her belief that Australia is “at war with Norway.””
It could go either way.
Australia’s elite kangaroo cavalry doesn’t function too well in the snow, but then the trolls have never faced Paul Hogan before.
My prediction is it’ll be a draw.
If anything, Australia should be at war with Austria, the country whose name they bootlegged so as to entice unwary immigrants.
I like the idea of doing a PhD on myself. It’s much better than getting a stupid star named after you for £15.
I’d title mine “Steve: A Warning from History”, and chronicle the irresistible rise of Steve.
It’s about time we had Steve Studies departments in universities so that young people can learn to Steve.
Steveologists or Steveonomers?
“She won’t just be Doctor Margo – she’ll be a doctor of Margo.”. No one does mockery like Tim Blair.
and her belief that Australia is “at war with Norway.”
You’d think the Aussies would pick somewhere nearer like New Zealand.
Read about one of the questions actor John Malkovich had for Tim when they had the chance to meet. In that voiceI
With a photo: http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/seeing_john_malkovich/
Yes, but apparently not everyone does.
one of the questions actor John Malkovich had for Tim when they had the chance to meet.
Ah, the glamour of blogging.
Now I like it even more.
Back in the day, a PhD was supposed to be an original contribution to enhance the scholarly bounds of a given academic discipline.
Macquarie University must be something of a comedy outfit for not rejecting this non-proposal outright.
Oh, the “free the minds to use the brains” quote will live in infamy.
Or idiocy. Whatever, man.
Doctor of Creative Practice
. . . Isn’t that better known as embezzling?
Sounds rather a lot like the theory that logic & science are tools of the patriarchy, that traditional academic standards are designed to silence women’s voices.
Therefore PhDs should be awarded not for rigorous analysis of a topic but “reflections” on ones own life – ie: the sort of crap that anyone could churn out
Yes? Like that is it? Or like what? What exactly is the point of demeaning all of our academic standards just so some of those less talented than the rest can put a PhD after their name and spend the rest of their lives arguing from authority and insisting that everyone call them Doctor.
Man, this stuff annoys me, heh.
MagRok Lives!
(Readers and commenters of Tim’s old timblair.net site will remember.)
Thank you for bringing Margo Kingston to your wonderful website. I was actually away from the internet for a day of so, but I still heard Margo Kingston is going back to Uni to do a thesis about herself” in passing on the radio. And it didn’t actually surprise me. And when I returned home and was discussing it with my wife, I naively said “Oh, and she’ s funding it herself?” To which my wife said “No, the taxpayer”. And once again, I wasn’t even the least bit surprised. I’m a little shocked, though, how immured I am to this sort of thing these days.
And once again, I wasn’t even the least bit surprised.
I suppose that’s the thing about narcissistic personalities. They tend not to feel shame at their own behaviour, and so it goes on.
[ Added: ]
Ms Kingston tweets: “Murdoch mafia after me now too – no ethics.” Because quoting her own words and noting her self-regard is somehow unethical.
‘Frightbat’ is now my joint favourite word alongside ‘cockwomble’
Oh dear, the Margoyle has taken to Twitter to let everyone know she is “no thappy”?
“Frightbat.” I love that.
Yes, but apparently not everyone does.
Ms Badham seems to regard light-to-moderate mockery – being hailed as a “frightbat” – as “cruelty,” a “dog-whistle” conspiracy intended to prevent her speaking truth to power. Apparently, we’re to imagine the word “frightbat” is a gateway to “stalking” and “bomb threats.”
With her usual mix of conceit and obliviousness, Ms Badham tells us she deserves a respectful collegiality from fellow writers and political opponents, indeed deference, regardless of the idiocy she mouths, and regardless of how she refers to those of whom she demands respect. And rather than entertain the possibility that she’s being mocked because of her various pronouncements and pretensions, she insists that any mockery of her is – can only be – because she’s a woman – and therefore dangerous.
Sounds like someone else we know.
I’m impressed that you’re versed in some of the more… entertaining Australian media commentators. Long may they continue to… um, entertain us. They’re gifts that keep giving.
They’re gifts that keep giving.
What’s interesting (to me) is how often the same conceits crop up. It’s as if they’d all attended the same school of double standards and bad faith.
So David,
How do you manage to spend $40,000 per quarter running your blog?
Hookers and coke. I believe that’s the custom.
My favourite Margo moment was the tweet that declared the Abbott government ‘illegitimate’. That word was quite popular among the local leftwits until they realised that signing online petitions isn’t the same as putting hard evidence before the Court of Disputed Returns.
Their latest cause de jour is Women In Support of the Hijab (WISH). God only knows what they think wrapping a towel around their heads for a week is supposed to achieve – it does nothing to address the issue of the burqa – but I await the Margo selfie with eager anticipation.
Yes? Like that is it? Or like what? What exactly is the point of demeaning all of our academic standards just so some of those less talented than the rest can put a PhD after their name and spend the rest of their lives arguing from authority and insisting that everyone call them Doctor.
It’s worse than that. In Nigeria, these corrupt officials and politicians get awarded honorary doctorates by their mates in university and then insist they are addressed as “doctor” thereafter, even on their foreign junkets. Half of them can’t even write.
but I await the Margo selfie with eager anticipation.
Identitarian politics does seem to attract a very high percentage of obnoxious and narcissistic personalities, and then gives those personalities endless, quite mad excuses for their obnoxious and narcissistic behaviour. If someone is determined to believe that derision must be driven by racism, sexism, “privilege” or whatever, and wants to believe that because of an off-the-shelf worldview and its self-flattering effects, they’ll most likely become impervious to more humdrum possibilities. After all, why wouldn’t they?
Does it seem likely that Margo Kingston or Vanessa Badham or Laurie Penny will ever concede the possibility that they’re often mocked, not because they’re radical women being assailed by a vengeful Patriarchy, but because they say some incredibly stupid things? Why should a narcissist choose the second option? Why would someone like Laurie bother to consider why, say, Heather Mac Donald doesn’t get ridiculed anywhere near as much? What would happen to Laurie’s elaborate persona, or Margo’s, or Vanessa’s, if they started to think about it seriously and pull at those threads?