[Marxism] Minnesota on the "cutting edge"? Hardly.

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gulf Mann wrote:
> Ahhh Minnesota--always on the cutting edge. ~H/
>   
> ====================================================================
In case this comment was not meant in jest, let me puncture the implied 
illusion. I was born in Minnesota, lived in New York for twenty-five 
years, and returned to my home state fifteen years ago. It has many 
great qualities, almost all of them relating to nature, Native American 
history and culture. We homosexual activists who live here often refer 
to it as the land of ten thousand therapists, or the therapy capital of 
the world--a takeoff on its slogan of the land of ten thousand lakes.
    It is most definitely NOT on any cutting edge. It was, perhaps, in 
the 1930s, during the labor strike wave in which the far left played a 
leading role, and when it had elected a Farmer-Labor governor. That is 
now ancient history. Its gay/lez "movement" is among the most 
politically correct and unimaginative in the country, stifling and 
smarmy, though its gaybars have a tradition of drag revues and 
transsexual performers.
    Its main political force is the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party), 
which is surely as corrupt and antienviroment as any other party, 
including the Republicans. When I was a gay activist in New York City, I 
frequently met with Democrat politicians, and found them far more 
receptive and lacking in arrogance and corruption than Minnesota's DFL 
politicians. With virtually no exceptions, the entire northern Minnesota 
DFL cabal in the state legislature favors allowing destructive 
Off-Highway Vehicles and four-wheelers free access to state forest land, 
and the DFL is the main force behind, and the main supporter of, several 
destructive environmental policies, including peat mining in the Big Bog 
near Red Lake, the largest wilderness area in the 48 states. This racist 
project will result in irreparable damage to the ecosystem not only of 
the bog, but also all the adjacent waterways, which flow north to the 
Canadian border, and to Upper Red Lake, a mere fifteen or so miles away. 
Despite decades of opposition by Red Lake to industrializing the bog (a 
sacred and economic mainstay of the tribe), the Democrats have pushed 
this boondoggle through, in complete disregard for the citizens, both 
native and nonnative.
    We have fabulous sunsets, moonscapes, and the northern lights. But 
our natural patrimony is under constant threat from the capitalist 
establishment.
    The fact that Minnesotans tend to vote conistently for criminal 
Democrats for president hardly qualifies them as "cutting edge," and I 
can't think of a single other reason why someone might come up with the 
misperception that that moniker might apply.
David



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