Note to the "ladder of force left"

Kelley kwalker2 at gte.net
Thu Oct 18 20:22:15 PDT 2001


At 05:03 AM 10/19/01 +0200, Zak McGregor wrote:
>On Thu, 18 Oct 2001 22:36:00 -0400
>Kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net> wrote:
>
> > nice post. for zak, who apparently missed it, i'll repost what i
> > suggested
> > already, it's what i say after i've already engaged in an analysis of
> > what
> > we have done that would make them "hate" us. i then offer suggestions
> > for a
> > ME policy that might address legitimate grievances, though not reward
> > those
> > who committed such an act. i try to make people stop and think about
> > what
> > being brave is about and what it really means to fight an asymmetrical
> > war,
> > since i think that is exactly what is happening right now:
>
>Do you *ever* take a position and then keep it? You seem to be all over
>the place... Assymetrical or not, this sin't a war. It is simply murder.

i took this position a while ago. where have you been? i ask some tough questions here because i fucking get asked them by people i talk to in my ordinary life. people who want to know why i fucking hate america and why leftists are a bunch of totalitarian fascists. i'd like to be able to talk with them without alienating the piss out of them. if i acted like you did, or said the things you did, i'd never get a hearing.

and if people had talked to me the way you did way back when i didn't know much aobut any of this, i wouldn't be here, wouldn't call myself a leftist, etc. those people changed my life. and they changed others lives. one of them died not too long ago. the memorial service was incredible -- to think how much this man changed peoples lives, to get them to think differently about the world. i admire that. i'll never live up to it, but the gift i give to him and everyone else is an attempt to try to live up to their eloquence, patience, understanding.


> > Hey, we're all in this together, right? This was an attack on "US" by
> > "THEM," right?
>
>This is where we differ, Kelley. I do not see it as "US" vs "THEM". Who
>is "US"? I don't identify with any specific group that was either
>targeted or responsible for Sept 11th.
>
>Cheers
>
>Zak

i'm talking to people who don't think like us. that's where you are completely missing the fucking boat about what i'm saying. i have to actually talk to people and i want to persuade people to the notion that the left isn't always wacky. i'm appealing to something that i think ordinary USers can get a grip on. I don't think it's US for them and that's why i put the words under erasure with the scare quotes. jeesus. learn how to fucking read. but the fact is people do see at as Us v. Them. if you read more carefully you'll see that i was saying, "so you think it's "us" vs. "them". i was operating from their fucking premises and making them think about another way to handle the situation.

kelley



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