>She? Do you think Illinois allowed gay marriages in 1969?
>
>Or didn't you bother to read the whole post?
Carrol, this is precisely the sort of reaction I'm sick of. There's no reason to get nasty and I'm not going to put up with any more of it here.
I got an email from one person - no shrinking violet - who feels intimidated from posting because of Lou's abusive style. I'm not going to put up with that either.
I don't mind sharp polemic at all - I thrive on it. But from here on, anyone who confuses nastiness with rigor of thought or crankiness with the defense of principle is going to be suspended.
I hate assuming this role. But it's more than list ecology that's at stake. The left worldwide is in dire shape, and it's probably the most dire of all in the U.S. There are many reasons for this weakness, but factionalism has to be part of it. That factionalism has taken many forms - the Commies vs. the non-Commies vs. the anti-Commies, the Stalinists vs. the Trostkyists, the Trots vs. themselves, the class politicians vs. the postmodernists, etc. Some of those differences are on matters of principle, but some are just pathological - what Freud called the narcissism of minor differences. If 250-300 leftists can't carry on a serious conversation about fundamental matters of politics, then we might as well just give up. Which I'm not ready to do yet, but oh god, is it tempting sometimes.
Doug