Defacing Websites, "Stealing" Free Papers

Dennis dperrin13 at mediaone.net
Wed Mar 28 19:20:41 PST 2001



> It's a PR problem indeed when self-identified left-wingers such as
> yourself & Dennis play into the hands of racist advertisers & greedy
> newspaper editors, agreeing with them that "advertising dollars =
> free speech."
>
> All power to Brown culture-jammers who protested against being sold
> down the river to racists with advertising dollars!
>
> Yoshie

Oh brother (or this case, sister). I won't even attempt to answer all your posts against me Yoshie. You and I clearly have different concepts of resistance. And to compare me to Medea Benjamin was a bit much, especially given that I consider myself an anarchist.

This is the third post in which I said ad dollars DO NOT equal free speech. I said that the Brown paper has a right to take money from whoever they want and print or not print whatever they want, just as leftwing papers do. If the Brown paper had rejected Horowitz's ad, I would not criticize them. It would not be censorship. But they accepted it, as is their right. You don't like it? Quit school, get a working-class job and help to overthrow capitalism. Until then, spare me your paper darts from the academy.

Break all the windows and steal all the newspapers you wish, Yoshie. So far as I can see, this does nothing save to alienate the majority of workers who don't buy into this form of grandstanding. If there was something immediate at stake, like resisting violent strikebreakers for instance, then yes, I think workers would have no trouble taking aggressive action, and I would support them. But to throw a brick through a Nike window or steal a bundle of racist newspapers simply because it makes a "statement" in a rather divided atmosphere is acting out and little more, and usually plays into the hands of those who hold real power.

DP



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