The dinner party video has wound up Momentum’s critics. They just don’t get it | Maya Goodfellow

Momentum’s latest video has caused quite a stir. Described as “hateful” by the Sun, the reaction from parts of the (rightwing) media has shown they haven’t updated their analysis of the Labour party since before the election. The people who have a significant platform and are most annoyed about this video seem to be a certain class of Conservative politician and journalist who might well be guilty of agreeing with the statements uttered around the garden table. And so they’ve not engaged with the message behind it: it’s about intergenerational unfairness and the importance of collectivism. These ideas, if continuously talked about, have the power to appeal to all sections of society.

The people featured in the video are emblematic of the small proportion of the population who have done well over the past 30 years, and who aren’t overly concerned about pulling up the ladder behind them because that’s the attitude Thatcherite individualism encourages. Momentum’s aim is to expose the hypocrisy of these arguments, remind people of the unfairness of our current economic model and mobilise the young – as well as speaking to people of all ages up and down the country who haven’t reaped the rewards or stability that capitalism is supposed to offer. And while this video doesn’t represent a surefire strategy, it might speak to older people who are worried that their children and grandchildren won’t ever have a stable job or home.

According to Momentum, it reached nearly half a million Facebook users in less than five hours.

It has been proven that shareable online content has the power to spread Labour’s message effectively (although we shouldn’t overstate the importance of this one video – it doesn’t define Labour’s or Momentum’s entire strategy). Prior to the election, many people assumed the media were the gatekeepers to power, but amid endless attacks from the right, Labour had the biggest increase in its vote share since 1945.

The media can’t be written off as obsolete – not least because Ofcom rules ensured Corbyn got a decent amount of airtime, certainly aiding his cause – but grassroots, creative politics matters too. One of the crucial ways Labour managed to spread their message was through online content and most importantly, organic shares: it wasn’t just how the content was made, but what it was saying.

Regardless of whether you think this video strikes the wrong tone, perhaps it’s more interesting to look at some of the critiques. One journalist described the video as “bizarre” because “these are the type of voters who Labour attracted at the election, while the working-class swung to Tories”. But this simply isn’t true. This analysis only makes sense if, as many pollsters do, you rely on an outdated mode of class analysis that’s used in market research. As Richard Seymour explains, this lumps whole sectors of people together; for instance, treating everyone who works in a call centre as middle class. We’re much better off understanding class through the power and autonomy people have over their jobs.

But even if you were to accept this outdated understanding of class, evidence suggests that more young working-class people backed Labour than middle-class. And what’s regularly missed out of analysis in conversations about Labour’s supposed “core” vote – another unhelpful concept that hasn’t kept up to date with the shifting demographics of the country – is people of colour who make up a disproportionate number of the working class, came out to vote for the party in high numbers. This video might speak to them, too.

Time and again Momentum and Corbyn’s Labour have been told they get it wrong, that they don’t understand where “the country” (as if it can ever be treated as a unified concept) is, and that Labour is heading for annihilation. In the face of all of this, the party has defied expectations – and yet the analysis has, among many people, stayed more or less the same.

There was a brief window following the election when pundits, even those who were staunchly anti-Corbyn, attempted to engage with what had just happened. But quickly many of the same old voices redoubled their efforts to treat the left as the out-of-touch metropolitan liberal elite, as if it’s easier to return to old insults than address the shock of the result.

None of this is to argue that Labour doesn’t need to engage with more people, or that there aren’t more important changes to strategy and messaging that could take place – the Tories still emerged as the largest party, after all. But what the response to this video shows is that much popular political analysis hasn’t changed since Labour was 20 points behind in the polls. Until they catch up with reality, the party should continue to take such advice and criticism it with a pinch of salt.