RE: [Marxism] Marxism and Conspiracy

["Austin, Andrew" <austina@xxxxxxxx>]

I'm surprised by your arguments, Louis.  First, the question concerned the 
photographs of the fire damage prior to the collapse of WTC-7 that Popular 
Mechanics saw.  You did not show the pictures in question with the links you 
provided.  You can't.   You don't have them.  Neither do I.  And they do in 
fact exist, according to a source you have offered as rebuttal.  Second, how I 
would describe the followers of Democrats is irrelevant.  But, for the record, 
I don't call them idiots or crazies.  Third, your argument concerning Bush and 
trust, or whatever point you were trying to make, is irrelevant, and, honestly, 
is a standard dorm room debate tactic completely beneath the level of 
discussion that should be happening here.  If I didn't know you better, I would 
think you were engaging in purposeful subterfuge, Louis.  In any case, you 
haven't responded to anything I said.

All that to one side, here's what I think, and I base this on the character of 
the counterarguments presented.  I think that some (most?) Marxists believe 
that if they allow other Marxists to ask rational questions of the official 
9-11 account without calling them "idiots" or "lunatics" that the enemies of 
Marxism will paint Marxists as crazy.  Whether they admit it, or even whether 
they realize it, it's something of a political-practical move to distance the 
community from those whom the bourgeois authorities and media would label crazy 
and thus avoid tarnishing the whole community with the label.  "Let the right 
wingers believe in conspiracy theories.  Marxists use structural analysis.  We 
can't be accused of conspiracism."  (I am still trying to decide if the cry is 
at least noble in its intention. Theoretically it's impoverished because it 
leads to a type of functionalism when practiced in the formulaic way it too 
often is in e-mail discussions.)  In any case, I think we should realize that, 
for many of our critics, we're already crazy.  Marxists believe the entire 
capitalist system is premised on the systematic exploitation of the working 
class - and everybody knows that's not true.  You can't get any crazier than to 
believe that the good people who bring us the American Dream are actually 
exploiting the people they serve.  It's not like you could keep something like 
that a secret if it were true.  We're crazy for believing that the US state 
makes war for profit.  We're crazy when we say that the United States and 
Israel engage in terrorism or that they ever act without at least noble 
intentions.  But at least "we aren't so crazy that we would doubt key elements 
of the event that the Bush administration has used to justify the expansion of 
imperialism and the police state."

Andrew

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