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Ash Sarkar: ‘I never learned much of value from TV’
The leftwing political commentator on gen Z’s disillusionment with democracy, why she’s a ‘Mantel stan’ and the moral panic behind her first bookAsh Sarkar, 32, is a journalist and political commentator. She grew up in north London and is a contributing editor at the leftwing website Novara Media. A regular pundit on TV and radio, she made waves with a viral 2018 appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where she clashed with Piers Morgan, telling him: “I’m literally a communist, you idiot.” Her first book, Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War (Bloomsbury), is a lively analysis of how the ruling classes purposefully misdirect political blame by stoking the fear that minorities are working to oppress the majority.What does “minority rule” mean to you?I realised that every moral panic – whether it was trans rights, BLM [Black Lives Matter], Extinction Rebellion – was 1,000 doors opening on to the same place. The story was: here are these minorities who want to tell you how to live. But at the same time, I believe society is governed by minority rule – oligarchic power, corporate power, the way in which electoral systems devalue the votes of people who live in densely populated areas. So minority rule describes both this moral panic and the true state of affairs. Continue reading...
The leftwing political commentator on gen Z’s disillusionment with democracy, why she’s a ‘Mantel stan’ and the moral panic behind her first book
Ash Sarkar, 32, is a journalist and political commentator. She grew up in north London and is a contributing editor at the leftwing website Novara Media. A regular pundit on TV and radio, she made waves with a viral 2018 appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, where she clashed with Piers Morgan, telling him: “I’m literally a communist, you idiot.” Her first book, Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War (Bloomsbury), is a lively analysis of how the ruling classes purposefully misdirect political blame by stoking the fear that minorities are working to oppress the majority.
What does “minority rule” mean to you?
I realised that every moral panic – whether it was trans rights, BLM [Black Lives Matter], Extinction Rebellion – was 1,000 doors opening on to the same place. The story was: here are these minorities who want to tell you how to live. But at the same time, I believe society is governed by minority rule – oligarchic power, corporate power, the way in which electoral systems devalue the votes of people who live in densely populated areas. So minority rule describes both this moral panic and the true state of affairs. Continue reading...
