Oh, I certainly do notice how odd this country is, perhaps in part because I grew up as an oddball Jew in the South, in part because I was educated in part abroad, and get my national and international news mainly from foreign sources. But just because US political culture is bizzare and unsophisticated doesn't mean we have to be here. And the fact that stupid anticommunism is a part of the craziness and stupidity of American culture doesn't mean it makes sense to circle the wagons and defend the indefensible here or in any context. We have a duty to be intellectually honest and morally clean, which means we side with the workers against the CIA _and_ the KGB. --jks
In a message dated Thu, 6 Jul 2000 11:44:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> writes:
<< Justin:
>In a message dated 7/6/00 6:08:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>furuhashi.1 at osu.edu writes:
>
><< The point of Christine's post is that Brad & Justin as well are
> Stalinists in American political discourse. And my point is that it
> is not the Right alone that is responsible for this type of political
> culture; liberals & leftists (loosely defined) engage in the same
> habit of using the word Stalinist as a form of epithet. Americans
> can never get over the culture of Cold War, it seems. Don't complain
> the next time someone red-baits _you_! >>
>
>Oh, grow up. I can't speak for Brad, but you cannot intelligibly use the term
>"Stalinist" to describe someone like me who is a militant loony raving ACLU
>civil libertarian.
American political culture isn't very sophisticated, in my opinion. Try arguing for national health care, and you find someone piping up, "that's socialism!" in an effort to derail discussion. There is an ideological reason why America has the least developed welfare state among rich nations, aside from rampant racism, and the culture of red-baiting seems to me to be a big culprit. The ACLU must be a CP front, and Hilary Clinton a feminist radical, in the American ideology. :)
You grew up in America, and that's why you don't notice how odd this country is.
Yoshie
>>