Angela Nagle on Institutional Capture

19/01/22
Angela Nagle: I think what happened was, there was a shift in politics which then meant a kind these very establishment figures were sort of back in the centre of politics, so a certain moment was over, and so the endless shuffling of musical chairs was not what people expected. And so, its in those moments that something tends to change.I kind of think that particular election was a moment where all the kind of energies of a whole generation that had been building up since maybe Occupy Wall Street were supposed to come to fruition and then they didn't. And it was like, okay that generation is almost forty now, so this is it pretty much. And so, you know, I think there was a sense of like this is the end of an era in some ways, you know. And so, when something like that happens there is a quick shuffling of musical chairs. So for example, I suspect that a lot of the people who were made famous I guess in those days, since the Occupy Wall Street days who had public commentary sort of careers, and things like that, writers. They suddenly of came less relevant or something. And so then like a little bit of room opens up for something else. There was a sense before that for a while, a building sense that people keep getting fired from newspapers. Nobody can have any confidence that their superiors or boss, their editor will support them in anyway, and because there is such intense competition everyones' just dying for a chance to push a competitor out. And so, this kind of little escape route was perfect because you get rid of the boss problem. I mean ultimately I suppose you have a boss in terms of someone owns the Substack, but you are literally just posting directly on there yourself. That opportunity just opened up and a lot of people were making that move at the same time, and so it just worked out really well for me.