Far be it from me to promote discord and confusion for its own sake, but getting past Louis' hilarious put-down of LBO, I'd like to point out that the practical effect of LBO is PRECISELY to aid in efforts to pressure US Gov/biz interests into improved behavior and good policy in general. And that's a good thing. That it helps some ultra-lefts in their rantings is an irrelevant thing.
At bottom, Louis has always been irked by Henwood's respect for facts and rationality, since for Lou the revolutionary vision is what determines what is true and what not, who is good and who is evil. Their common, highly unstable ground (hence the on-again, off-again soap opera) is an unrealistic, improbable, and unspecified politics. I can't imagine either of these characters existing in a disciplined, hard-line communist cadre organization; Louis is too ornery and Doug is too principled. And those are good things.
The issue is not Doug's understanding of his own work, which is obvious, but the fog we all encounter in trying to gauge the broader political ramifications of our activities.
Cheers,
mbs
("Touch yourself but stay the hell away from me . . . " Mme. H-D Parlezvous)