Re: [Marxism] My blog

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gilles wrote:

> Come on... It started with Eli Stephens, then Yoshie Furuhashi got one,
> both plugging their non-sensical, self-centered blaber -- and now Louis...

> Gee whiz.... We are all so important, aren't we?

> Each of us is best, ain't we?. I suppose we need our own satellite channel
> to compete with Rush and the like.

I should let this pass, or perhaps just echo Dick Cheney's recent comment,
but I'm afraid, self-centered blaber that I am, I have to respond.

I'm not sure what Gilles finds "non-sensical" about Left I on the News
(http://lefti.blogspot.com), since a great deal of the material you can find
there is similar or even identical to things one can find on Marxmail (well,
perhaps he finds Marxmail nonsensical too). "Self-centered" is also a rather
strange comment, since my blog is written almost entirely without reference
to myself.

It DOES contain my thoughts on various subject, of course. I don't think I'm
"the best"; what a ridiculous accusation. Obviously I DO think I have
something to say or I wouldn't bother. Lots of what I post, though, is
simply excerpts from articles that have appeared elsewhere, be it the
mainstream press or sources like CounterPunch; again, just what one finds
frequently on Marxmail. The difference is that Left I on the News has 400
readers a day, most of whom are not Marxists, some of whom are not even
progressives or even liberal, and I believe (perhaps self-delusionally) that
what I put together on the blog will have some educational effect on those
people (again, if I didn't think so, I wouldn't bother). Steering people to
articles they might not have read, giving them something to think about they
might not have thought, I consider those valuable contributions. I'm sorry
that Gilles doesn't seem to agree.

I'll say this. There are lots of blogs. You can count the number which will
take up subjects like Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, or even Palestine on the
fingers of one hand, two at most. There are MANY people who understand
(maybe before the invasion, maybe now) the lies that led to the invasion of
Iraq. Not all of them agree that the very IDEA (that the U.S. has the
"right" to invade Iraq) is wrong, and even some of those still will talk
about invading North Korea or Iran or Syria or interfering in Venezuela or
whatever. And even some of those don't see the connection between opposing
such interventions and opposing the very source of those interventions,
capitalism and imperialism. The fact that there is a voice, or multiple
voices, on the web, making sure they make the connection between the lies
that were told about Iraq and the lies that are told about Cuba or North
Korea or whereever, and that they understand a bit of the underlying causes,
is very important, in my opinion.

And, in closing, to Gilles only, what Dick Cheney said.

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