[PEN-L:3686] Re: Race as a "construct" <3.0.1.32.19990222104111.00d1da14@popserver.panix.com> <3.0.1.32.19990222113559.00c23530@popserver.panix.com>

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:

> Pomos certainly should not be classified with capitalists, but it is not
> that difficult to identify who they are and what they stand for. Lyotard
> wrote a book on the subject that is a good starting point. Jean Baudrillard
> has promoted postmodernism at many different venues, including Las Vegas
> casinos.

Now you name names, and whether your argument is correct or
incorrect, it doesn't depend on a vague and disputable category.
So Lyotard is an asshole. What is added by calling him a postmodernist
asshole? And notice, everytime a debate gets centered on some
label such as this it tends to generate all sorts of fluff and nonsense,
which could be avoided by simply avoiding sweeping categories
that aren't really needed in the argument.

It makes it easier for me to work up a real head of steam at those
who invent such categories-without-proper-names as "elitists" and
"conservative marxists" if I don't have political friends doing roughly
the same thing.

Carrol