[Fwd: Re: Wenn ich Kultur hoere (was Re: Invention of thewhite race // Rakeshon eugenics)]

Katha Pollitt kpollitt at thenation.com
Tue Jun 2 08:38:55 PDT 1998


I just don't understand this infatuation with the Militias on the part of some leftists. These are not big groups, they don't don't have our politics -- in fact, they have the opposite of our politics, and the idea that they are waiting around for leftists to explain to them what they "really" believe is such a fantasy!

Why not pay these people at least the respect of taking seriously the beliefs they say they have? You might as well say the nazis weren't "really" anti-semitic, but were just using that vocabulary to express their class anger. It might even have been true, sometimes, but so what? They still beat up, stole from and murdered jews. And it was still the job of the left to oppose them. People who have joined militias have made a very strong commitment to a set of repulsive ideas -- they are not like the Baltimore racist mentioned earlier on this list, who turned out just to be afraid of crime.

I don't care if there are a handful of blacks or women involved in the militias. All that shows is that some blacks and some women are REALLY confused. After all Ward Connerly is black.

Alexander Cockburn's love affair with the Militias makes my skin crawl. Is this where the "class, not race or gender" position leads? To romanticizing gun fetishists, religious fanatics, stalkers and killers?

Best, katha



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