How They Broke Britain

Product Information

Toate subiectele discutate de autor sunt extrem de interesante și relevante pentru societatea în care trăim, însă cel mai interesant este felul în care James O'Brien explică mecanismul prin care oamenii își formează anumite convingeri, convingeri greu de schimbat, majoritatea acestor convingeri având la bază probleme emoționale sau chiar traume a căror rădăcină se găsește în copilărie.

O'Brien began occasionally guest presenting on the BBC Two programme Newsnight in August 2014. [31] [32] [28] Following the widespread interest in O'Brien's interview with Farage, it was speculated he would be a permanent replacement for longtime host Jeremy Paxman, who intended to step down. [33] The job was ultimately taken by Evan Davis. [34] O'Brien left Newsnight in January 2018 after being criticised for his anti-Brexit and anti-Trump views, which were felt to be out of step with the corporation's policy on neutrality. He departed on good terms, saying the BBC still had the finest selection of journalists in the world. [35] I wasn't quite so convinced about his point concerning Israel: that any criticism of the state must take into account the fact that the world's Jews look to it as "a place to go to when it (the Holocaust) happens again." Maybe it's because I haven't thought enough about it; maybe it's because most of the criticism of Israel I come across is written or spoken by practicing Jews who seem to have no trouble differentiating between anti-Semitism (which is real) and horror at Israel turning Palestine into an occupied police state. When O'Brien cautions us that, if we're spending more time criticizing Israel than we are any other country, I come off okay--for me, my primary responsibility is to hold myself and my own country responsible for my/their own atrocities--and I'm perfectly willing to discuss the issue further, calmly, quietly, without any urge to make, or tolerance to endure any yelling of thinly-veiled or not-so-thinly veiled anti-Semitic bellowing about the Soros-controlled media. Gold star, please? Spanner, Huw (18 January 2019). "Interview with James O'Brien: 'When I'm wrong, I admit it. And that makes me right' ". Church Times . Retrieved 9 September 2019. How James O'Brien became the conscience of liberal Britain". www.newstatesman.com. 3 February 2017 . Retrieved 2 August 2018.His recounting of his corperal punishment as a young boy at boarding school are honestly heartbreaking and it's a very interesting look at how that experience lead him to support the concept of beating children for many years, against what would be thought of as clearly rational and obvious reasons. The complexity of how we protect ourselves emotionally from trauma plays key roles which then inform our lives onwards. a b Moshakis, Alex (24 October 2020). "James O'Brien: 'I saw everything as a fight' ". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712 . Retrieved 3 November 2020. In the bestselling How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with unchallenged opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards. O'Brien has claimed to be politically homeless, being against the British Left such as the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn, but enjoys support from the liberal media of British politics e.g. the New Statesman and The Guardian. [26] [27] He enjoys the freedom that LBC gives him to express his views. [28] O'Brien frequently discusses Brexit with callers who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, [29] often claiming Leave voters had been deceived by the pro-Brexit campaigns to vote against their own interests. [30] Television [ edit ]

On any subject, people need to be able to make mistakes, ask and probably say the wrong thing, before people can be come to the realisation that we can be wrong. Often about things we feel very stongly and passionately about. We need to be open to having these conversations, with ourselves, with our friends, our families, our communities and society. O'Brien review, ITV: 'disappointing' ". Daily Telegraph. 30 March 2015 . Retrieved 8 February 2018. O’Brien, of course, doesn’t want to work at the BBC. He values his “voice” too much for that, which is why he opted not to continue presenting Newsnight – though to my mind, his job at LBC, where he spends his time dismantling the opinions of the people who call in, wastes what talent he has. Surely he would be able to do more good, journalistically speaking, at the BBC than at LBC – a station where one of the presenters, Rachel Johnson, the sister of our former prime minister, once interviewed her father, Stanley, about the state of Britain’s rivers. But perhaps doing good isn’t the point for him. One of the other problems with How They Broke Britain is that however forensically it catalogues the misdemeanours of various politicians, journalists and strategists, it is just that: a catalogue. What needs to be done? Will things be different under a Labour government? Are we all doomed? O’Brien only (inadvertently) answers the last question.There's no point in having a mind if you're not going to change it," LBC broadcaster James O'Brien says at the very end of this excellent rumination on how to examine what we think and shift it when necessary. Hear hear. But as you move through the chapters, and you reflect on this cache of incompetents and fantasists it makes you feel angry. I get the fact that not everyone is made to be a fantastic leader but we should never accept liars and ‘faux patriotism’. These are the people at whom the book is primarily aimed – not Westminster anoraks but the politically curious who realise something has gone badly wrong in this country but haven’t fully joined the dots. “Something’s broken in Britain, and what it is is the fundamental relationship with objective truth,” says O’Brien. “So I hope this book becomes some sort of Rosetta Stone, or at least a compass to navigate the oceans of bullshit.”

Bland, Archie (24 March 2015). "LBC's James O'Brien: 'You have to be a bit more sledgehammer than scalpel on TV' ". theguardian.com . Retrieved 26 March 2015. O’Brien’s interview with Nigel Farage (above) was a masterclass in how to dismantle a phony personality. Photograph: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty ImagesFurther still, If you read the book, you can see he is dressing himself up as a changed man, compassionate and appreciative of the poor and being a good father figure to his daughter, as well as never forgetting or disrespecting his parents in his perfect family entity. It is all so contrived and I don't believe a bit of it. It is almost bizarre when he describes himself as a war like alpha male and suggests he had to change to be the compassionate person he is – again he is trying to dress himself up – parading to the crowd*AGAIN* – it is PATHETIC. The former Sex Pistol John Lydon once said that anger was an energy. James O’Brien has enough to light up the national grid. He tends to write like some kind of prophet of doom and is blinkered to the history he doesn’t want to discuss if it means he is to admit his mistakes in judgement. Notably the ‘Carl Beech’ fiasco among many. All the topics discussed by the author are extremely interesting and relevant to the society in which we live, but the most interesting part is the way James O'Brien explains the mechanism by which people form certain beliefs, beliefs which are hard to change, most of these beliefs being based on emotional problems or even traumas rooted in childhood. a b Dorian Lynskey (3 February 2017). "How James O'Brien became the conscience of liberal Britain". New Statesman . Retrieved 22 September 2019.