Judith Butler Reconsidered Re: Hitch on Hardball

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Oct 18 17:31:55 PDT 2002


Steve Philion writes:

--I would add to this list 2 other Marxists whose contributions to the question of gender are valuable, Lise Vogal and Johanna Brenner....

When I started to type that post I had Lise Vogel in mind as first on my list in fact, but the post got away as I let baiting get under my skin and over-reacted, as Yoshie noted:

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>
>
> In her criticism of "left conservatism," Judith Butler made a logical
> and intellectual error of attacking a straw man. Making a logical
> and intellectual error, though, isn't the same as committing a moral
> wrong or having a bad character, as you have argued yourself.

Correct.


>
> Besides, unlike Hitchens and others who have further moved to the
> right, Butler has decidedly moved to the left, especially since 9.11:

That is good news. In fact, I believe that though a number of leftists (or "leftists") have moved to the right as a result of 9/11, there are moderate leftists (however one defines that) who are, if not moving left, certainly hardening their positions. I had many more clashes with Max Sawicki, for example, before 9/11 than since then. And his discussion of coalitions on his web site is a jewel.

Carrol



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