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Thatcher/Blair/Mandelson

anecdote · Thatcher anecdote · retold in 3 talks

Žižek argues that although Thatcher lost empirically to Blair, she 'won formally' because, as Peter Mandelson admitted, 'economically we are all Thatcherites today,' demonstrating that defining the entire space is more important than winning elections.

2018: 1 talk 2024: 2 talks
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026

As told 3

“what even if she lost empirically, by through Blair she won formally because as who was it, Peter Mandelson who said that 'economically we are all Thatcherites today,' blah blah blah.”
“She said: Yeah, this was my greatest success in my career because he turned the Labor Party into a version of the Tory party.”
“if you're going to vote for the tory party, why not vote for the actual one?”

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

Its cast and sources

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Every retelling 3

Žižek argues that although Thatcher lost empirically to Blair, she 'won formally' because, as Peter Mandelson admitted, 'economically we are all Thatcherites today,' demonstrating that defining the entire space is more important than winning elections., illustrating dictatorship of the proletariat
When a BBC interviewer asked Thatcher why she disliked Blair who had copied all her policies, she replied that Blair was her greatest success because he turned the Labour Party into a version of the Tory Party, structurally explaining why the center-left always loses., illustrating radical center,ideology
Thatcher, asked why she disliked Tony Blair though he had copied her ideology, called it her greatest career success, he turned Labour into a version of the Tory party, then added: if you're going to vote Tory, why not vote for the actual one?, illustrating center-left decline,third-party strategy