2013 at Bob From Brockley
Here were my top posts of 2013. Because blogger.com doesn't let you see stats for the last year, these are the posts published in 2013 that have had most traffic, rather than the BfB posts that have had most traffic in 2013, if you get the difference.
1. A lot of bullshit about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman
This is my fifth most read post ever, for some reason. A slightly contrarian take on liberal received opinion on the case. The "bullshit" of the title refers to that liberal received opinion.
2. The Woolwich killings and the Lewisham Islamic Centre
I have a somewhat heavy heart about this post, which was one of a series I wrote after the appalling slaying of Lee Rigby in Woolwich, Southeast London, in the summer. This one focuses on my local mosque, and asks if it is hosting hate preachers.
3. Socialism in An Age of Waiting II: Iraq
The second in a three-part series looking back at the golden age of left decentist blogging, and specifically at responding to the war in Iraq. Part 1 weighed in at no.7.
4. Weighing into the Tommy Robinson debate
My take on the defection of far right demogogue Stephen Yaxley-Lennon from the EDL, the hate movement he formed.
5. Brixton Maoist Sex Cult Slave Shocker
On Comrade Bala's peculiar sect, and why understanding Leninism helps us understand it. I had second thoughts later, which I set out here.
6. I sang for the birds, for the river, the trees and the flowers but not the mullahs: Goodbye Shaun
This is my farewell to fellow blogger, Shaun Downey, who sadly passed away in March.
7. Socialism in an Age of Waiting
See no.3 above.
8. Blood on the streets
This post, from June, is more typical of my blogging output, especially in the last year or so, than most of the others here: it's a compendium of links to other people's stuff. This post had two main sections before moving into the miscellany: "Everywhere is struggle, everywhere is #Taksim", on the democratic insurgency in Turkey, and "The sultans", on Erdogan as an example of electoral authoritarianism as the dominant mode of contemporary politics.
1. A lot of bullshit about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman
This is my fifth most read post ever, for some reason. A slightly contrarian take on liberal received opinion on the case. The "bullshit" of the title refers to that liberal received opinion.
2. The Woolwich killings and the Lewisham Islamic Centre
I have a somewhat heavy heart about this post, which was one of a series I wrote after the appalling slaying of Lee Rigby in Woolwich, Southeast London, in the summer. This one focuses on my local mosque, and asks if it is hosting hate preachers.
3. Socialism in An Age of Waiting II: Iraq
The second in a three-part series looking back at the golden age of left decentist blogging, and specifically at responding to the war in Iraq. Part 1 weighed in at no.7.
4. Weighing into the Tommy Robinson debate
My take on the defection of far right demogogue Stephen Yaxley-Lennon from the EDL, the hate movement he formed.
5. Brixton Maoist Sex Cult Slave Shocker
On Comrade Bala's peculiar sect, and why understanding Leninism helps us understand it. I had second thoughts later, which I set out here.
6. I sang for the birds, for the river, the trees and the flowers but not the mullahs: Goodbye Shaun
This is my farewell to fellow blogger, Shaun Downey, who sadly passed away in March.
7. Socialism in an Age of Waiting
See no.3 above.
8. Blood on the streets
This post, from June, is more typical of my blogging output, especially in the last year or so, than most of the others here: it's a compendium of links to other people's stuff. This post had two main sections before moving into the miscellany: "Everywhere is struggle, everywhere is #Taksim", on the democratic insurgency in Turkey, and "The sultans", on Erdogan as an example of electoral authoritarianism as the dominant mode of contemporary politics.
From back in January, flagging three items of interest to those concerned with the history of Anti-Fascist Action. The post generated a lot of heat on the Urban75 forum, where I came in for some harsh criticism.
This is one of the posts I've been proud to host by Sarah AB, discussing some of the issues arising from monitoring anti-Muslim racism in the UK.
Most of this post is not by me, but by the late Shuan Downey, on Thatcher's role in allegedly defeating totalitarian Communism in Poland and Cambodia.
This is a more recent post, on Stop The War UK inviting a strange Lebanese nun, "Mother Agnes" to address a supposedly "anti-war" meeting in London. Agnes is a propagandist for the bloodthirsty Assad regime. The audience traffic came from social media, where there was a campaign, of which I was part, to inform the other speakers, including Owen Jones and Jeremy Scahill, of who Agnes is. As a result, Jones and Scahill were among those who said they wouldn't share a platform with her, after which she agreed not to speak. A very tiny victory for common sense and decency: one of the very few of 2013.
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Let me add a mention to another high traffic post: 2012, bleak. I published that right at the end of 2012, but its readership was all in 2013, and it sums up all the grimness of 2012 in Britain and the world, a grimness that has persisted into 2013 and looks likely to persist into 2014. The post occasioned my first Twitter argument of 2013, with Owen Jones about Hugo Chavez.
In fact, Twitter has taken over from other blogs as a source of referrals. However, I'd like to mention some of the blogs still sending people here: Harry's Place, Shiraz Socialist, and Tendance Coates.
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