Brad De Long doesn't belong on a left discussion list

[Carrol Cox]

I belong to four maillists (actually 6, but the other 2 aren't relevant
hear): lbo, marxism, leninist-international, and marxism-feminism. I
would not want Brad on the last two of these (nor, I am reasonably sure,
would he care to be on them). I would be indifferent to his presence on
marxism unless too many subscribers on that list found it difficult to
resist flaming him, in which case he would be a disruption.

But surely there needs to exist a list in which marxists can co-exist
with, occasionally clash with, non-marxists such as Brad. As far as I
can tell, he does not engage in red baiting: that is, he does not assume
that a proposition is wrong just because its author is a communist.
Hence he does not poison the wells of discourse here. One can at times
learn from him; at other times ignore him. He is *certainly* not a M....
or a L... or a K...: each of them exists *only* to spread noise on
whatever lists they post to. Brad has never done that, and I don't mind
occasionally being reminded of intelligently held stupid positions on
Mao's China.

I think those who are objecting to Brad's presence are the disrupters
here, not Brad.

Carrol