RE: [Marxism] Michael Moore and Wesley Clark

["M. Junaid Alam" <junaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The contention won't stand the giggle test. Let's be frank, despite all
the Patriot Act and other things, nothing that has been done in the past
three years compares in scope or intensity to the McCarthy witch-hunt.
There's been no Rosenberg execution. They cracked some heads in Miami
during the FTAA meeting but didn't kill demonstrators like they used to
in the 1960's and 1970's.

What we really have is a hysteria among some leftists, who think things
depend on the style, inclinations or personalities of specific members
of the ruling class when in fact they depend a lot more on a whole
series of other factors which, to tremendously oversimplify matters,
I'll just call the relationship of class forces.
===
I agree with what Jose Perez says. In fact there is a commentary on MR
titled, A Turn for the Worse in the United States: Criminalizing
Dissent, which rather dramatically tries to characterize the assault on
civil liberties as something shocking and new, as if this is
unprecedented or even abnormal. The police have been spying on leftist
movements, beating protestors, and locking people up on bogus charges
ever since the police came into existence.
[http://www.monthlyreview.org/1203law.htm]

Furthermore I think Michael Moore is very much a populist; his humor is
a way of avoiding taking a serious stand on a lot of important issues.
In 'Dude Where's My Country', on Palestine, he simply jokingly advises
the US arm the Palestinians with helicopters too, so that the two sides
can blow each other up and leave us the hell alone, to paraphrase. What
kind of absurdity is that? There is zero recognition of Palestinian
history and circumstances or even the roots of the conflict. And since
he is pimping Clarke, he must not care much about his support of
Vietnam, bootlicking of a previous conservative administration, and
bombing of Serbia.

Sure, Moore is 'cool'. But he is fucking wrong, too. His mistakes would
be forgivable if they were made more in the context of inspiring and
practicing CONFIDENCE in the left and leftist ideas, instead of fleeing
away from them towards the trash heap of 'respectable' ideas/parties.


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