Talk:Taki Theodoracopulos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
This article is supported by the Arts and Entertainment work group.
Greece Portal
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Greece, an attempt to expand, improve and standardize the content and structure of articles related to Greece.
If you would like to participate, you can improve Taki Theodoracopulos, or sign up and contribute in a wider array of articles like those on our to do list. If you have any questions, please consult the FAQ.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
??? This article has not yet been prioritized.

Taki's hilarious. 216.125.160.20 (talk) 02:25, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] General

I have changed the term "politically incorrect" to "far-right" pronouncments on "women and ethnic minorities". Any objections? Taki's pronouncments easily put him in the company of the far-right.

I regard "politcally incorrect" as a weasely euphemism. Would Hitler be described as having "politcally incorrect" views on Jews? I suspect not. Well this character shouldnt have his extreme-right views written off as "colourful character" either. He is a leading funder of far right movements. Think of that what you will, but don't write it off as "eccentricity." -BG 23.9.05 00.006

I don't see what makes him "extreme far right". Opposition to immigration? I don't know the situation in the U.K., but in the U.S. that's a wildly popular position (albeit not in the political/business establishment). Taki funds an anti-war magazine. Hitler wasn't anti-war last time I checked. Mirror Vax 05:32, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Pull the other one. His statements which appear in this entry are not just "opposition to immigration" but straightforward hate-filled abuse of ethnic minorities, as anyone can see. Other statements from him include "you could describe me as a soi-distant anti-semite", "boy, was Enoch ever right!" and describing the black adopted child of one of his rivals as "sambo." He was a supporter of the fascist Greek colonels regime, and has expressed his admiration for both General Franco and General Pinochet. He has stated he doesn't think women should be able to vote. By any standard, reasonable defintion these positions are "far-right". But then I think you know that. He opposes the Iraq War yes; so do the BNP, and the openly neo-Nazi National Alliance in the US. Guess they arn't far-right either? -BG 23.9.05 10.29

Right-wing dictators were actively supported by every U.S. government, liberal and conservative, during the Cold War. Do you think every U.S. President during that time was a neo-Nazi? Bill Cosby has said some awfully harsh things about blacks - is he a neo-Nazi? You don't get to be a neo-Nazi just by saying something a little mean. You have to advocate neo-Nazi policies - and no, disliking immigration doesn't count. Mirror Vax 14:37, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I didn't say he was a neo-Nazi though did I? I said he was far-right. And for the majority of people, an individual who regualarly uses extreme racial abuse, supports fascist dictators, openly admits to being anti-semitic and advocates the disenfranchisement of women IS far-right. Not exactly a contoversial description. Okay, put it this way. If we don't include Adolf Hitler and his immediate entourage, can you name anyone MORE right-wing? -BG 16.59 23.9.05

Hitler was "far right"? Hokay. So those on the political spectrum of anti-war conservative ideology are closing to Hitler then the "far left" or pro-war right? Hitler and Taki share much in common in their ideology? What a bunch of BS! (Hmmm... I wonder where Stalin would be on your stupid left-right line. Many put him on the left. Next time someone speaks of Noam Chomsky I will remember to say that his views are close to the mass murderer Stalin. Moron.)
When I think of the far right, I think of people like Pat Robertson. Religious, pro-war, socially conservative. Taki is libertine and anti-war. He's a free thinker who sometimes challenges convention, but that doesn't make him 'far right' in my view. Mirror Vax 09:55, 24 September 2005 (UTC)


I am posting another source for the racial slur comment, since certain editors have persisted in reverting documented info. Sholto Byrnes, "A racist rant too far? Police investigate Taki the playboy pundit," The Independent, February 1, 2003.Also: http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1997/06/28/wtak28.html

Thesaunterer 03:10, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Soi disant anti-Semite"

I corrected the implication that Taki "mistakenly" used the term "soi disant". The term has two equally valid, alternative meanings (viz. dictionary.com inter alia): "1. calling oneself thus, self-styled; 2. so-called or pretended." Taki, in the referenced Spectator article, clearly implies that he has been wrongly, according to his opinion, labeled an anti-Semite by others (i.e. that he is a so-called anti-Semite), but that he never considered himself one. The Gnome 17:32, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CORRECT spelling of last name...

Theodoracopulos... NOT Theodoracopolous - you should have been able to get that from his web page... or any of his publications... or books... etc. 172.135.163.199 08:15, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Well you would think so, but there is a reason the guy calls himself Taki. I did not know he had a webpage but I have read the guy since my early teens and I didn't notice the name was wrong. Lao Wai 08:36, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The name is wrong, it is actually Theodoracopulos. I am from Greece as well, and I assure you it is wrong. But I don't know how to change the name of the article... --Theoharis 10:21, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I've moved it; just because the man's a sleazebag doesn't mean that his name should be misspelt. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 10:46, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for that. But that's harsh. Lao Wai 10:53, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
Apparently, he is a little more complicated than what he comes off as. For example (something not worth mentioning in the Wiki entry), Taki volunteered for service to Israel when the 6-Day War broke out, holding the strong conviction that Israel was the victim and the Arabs the aggressors in the conflict. Subsequently, an on account of conversations with prominent Jewish people, like Yehudi Menuhin, who directed him towards then-unknown parts of the conflict's history, he changed his views so much that he now supports the Palestinian cause. (But not the Palestinian leadership, for whom he has nothing but scorn.) In his old age, Taki has even come to revisit some of his notions which were based on his extreme anti-communism. He has been after controversy for controversy's sake (the original trait of the bad boy) more than anything. The Gnome 05:45, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
It has to be pointed out that Yehudi Menuhin was an extreme assimilationist, uncomfortable with his own Jewishness (he refered to the Jews as "they" and not "we" in at least one televised interview) and was married twice to Gentile women. His father was an avid anti-Zionist who published articles in a neo-Nazi German newspaper. Quite a source for an unbiased prospective, wouldn't you say?

[edit] Geography

The article refers to "a shooting incident in the north of England"... since when was Birmingham in the north of England? It was in the Midlands last time I looked. 217.155.20.163 22:59, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

Good article, but it needs a picture to round it off. Any suggestions? Bastie 16:43, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

How about this? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 20:42, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
That's not nice. Or NPOV I expect. There is one on Taki's "Top Draw" website. Think he'd mind us borrowing it? Lao Wai 08:44, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
Well, it wasn't meant to be nice, just to express a truth. Fortunately comments here don't have to be NPoV. With regard to the website photo, you could always e-mail and ask (my success rate in such cases is about one in five, or below, but it's worth a try). --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 20:06, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neutrality

This article seems slanted in a negative direction. There are many unnecessary adjectives, and the selection of quotations seems designed to cast the subject in a uncomplimentary light. It needs editing toward a Neutral Point of View. --StanZegel (talk) 07:27, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly, I am no expert on Taki but I will add this to my watchlist and try to improve it soon. Algabal 05:14, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

It's pretty hard to be neutral about someone like Taki though. in 1991, when the Spectator was running articles lamenting the moral decay and lawlessness of British society, he contributed to the paper's shining example in this respect by using his weekly column to promise to hospitalise the author of a book which claimed that the ancient Greek philosophers were black. Amazingly IMO the piece was printed and he kept his job. Meltingpot (talk) 18:53, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Hasn't been neutralized yet.-- Ευπάτωρ Talk!! 19:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Davis Cup?

Is there a reliable source for the claim that he played in the Davis Cup? Because their website hasn't heard of him: [1]. Interplanet Janet 15:18, 10 September 2007 (UTC)