The heart of a leftist

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>So, Yoshie, can Stalinist be criticized and excoriatedwithout 
>commiting the horrible vice of red-baiting? Or is the "left 
>red-baiting" the commie analogue to the "self-hating Jew" rebuttal 
>of the Zionists, a way to short circuit criticism and condemnation 
>evenw hen it is merited?
>
>After all, Stalinists are advocates of tyranny and repression, 
>apologists for mass murder, at the very best self-deluded about the 
>real nature of the regimes they defend, hard as that is at this late 
>stage, and, although this is not the worst of their crimes, they are 
>major causes of the decay of the fortunes of the left. But it is not 
>permitted to say this, even if it is true, because this is 
>red-baiting? Get real, grrrll, you are too smart for that. --jks

I haven't heard the word Stalinist used in a context where it is 
actually merited.  I was born in 1964, you see.  Stalin died in 1953. 
Now there is no country on earth that is neither capitalist nor on 
the road to becoming capitalist.  The world has changed, if you 
haven't noticed.  Name-calling will continue, as long as capitalism 
will, I suppose, but it's time to at least invent new epithets.  :)

Yoshie