U.S. Political Right Reactions to 9/11 & Middle East Crisis

Charles Jannuzi b_rieux at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 10 04:26:20 PDT 2002


RE: U.S. Political Right Reactions to 9/11 & Middle East Crisis

http://www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/reactions.html

Hi, Chip! Here are some suggestions and comments on parts of your online article.


>>How the U.S. Political Right Reacted to 9/11
and the Crises in the Middle East By Chip Berlet May 5, 2002<<

I would suggest two articles here: one, how they reacted to 9-11 and two, how they reacted to the crisis in the Middle East. Of course the two are related at the institutional policy level, but you are dealing with the issues more as causes to effects in right wing discourse.


>>The horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, the
U.S. bombing and invasion of Afghanistan, and the collapse into violence of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis has had a dramatic effect across the political spectrum, including right-wing social and political movements in the Unites States.<<

An overly long sentence just begging to be cut down and made into at least three clear sentential thoughts. I suppose you meant to say ALL HAVE HAD effects, but you see how easy it is to lose your train of thought when overloaded box cars pile up into each other?


>>Conspiracism

Widespread conspiracism has afflicted some debates over 9/11 and the crises in the Middle East. Some of these theories are from the political right; others claim to be from the left, others represent a fusion of left and right viewpoints.<<

I thought 'conspiracism' was more than just a bunch of theories. But then again, I was never sure what the term is supposed to mean in your little world.

Could you give some examples of the last type--the left-right fusionists?


>> One theory claimed that remote control devices
flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another claimed that all the buildings were actually destroyed by bombs hidden inside the structures, and one variation asserted that no plane hit the Pentagon at all. Progressive analysts David Corn, Norman Solomon, and Bill Weinberg have led a progressive challenge to this type of conspiracism. <<

Corn's article was crap, a waste of space, a total ripoff of a crap article that had appeared earlier in the mostly crap New Statesman--though at least NS put X-Files babe, Gillian Andersen, on its cover.


>>Tasks for the Left
Given that there are clearly several issues where right-wing and left-wing rhetoric appears to coincide, it is imperative that progressive sociologists help left activists make clear the different solutions for these problems articulated by the left. Three tasks stand out: <<

Wow, you just said a mouthful there, but ask yourself, could it possibly make sense to anyone but the person who wrote it?


>>1). Encouraging some type of dialectical
materialism or power structure research versus rampant conspiracism;<<

Well, some of us just want to go after the shits who sit atop US national security and defense for the overpaid incompetents they are.


>>2). Delineating the difference between calls
for Palestinian rights versus historic antisemitic stereotyping;<<

Huh? Couldn't two sentences with their own action verbs have helped out here? Unpack your thoughts, my freshman comp. instructor might have said.


>> and,
3) Differentiating between progressive internationalism versus xenophobic right-wing nationalism as solutions for imperial marauding and transnational corporate greed. <<

As THE SOLUTION you mean. You do like clear-cut dichotomies, don't you? One problem is that the US political spectrum doesn't include very much 'progressive internationalism', so you've got a lot more work cut out for you than classifying 'xenophobic right-wing nationalists' and guiding left activists.

Also, might I suggest you get a good editor (or just an attentive reader) to read this stuff before you put it up?

Charles J

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free http://sbc.yahoo.com



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list