For one, Ali is a smart learned man of the left who has spent his life working for some good causes no matter what one's diasgreements with him or his perceived intellectual or character shortcomings. Someone like that doesnt deserve to be ridiculed & liquidated with some anecdotal flourish and personal comment. That sends a message to others.
Many people read look at lists like this one and for different reasons and some are not "veteran leftists" so these lists serve as a window into what a left world might be like. More than one person has remarked to me on the harsh nature of the comments here and the negative light they cast on the left in general. The impression it can leave is of people looking to affirm their own status by tearing down others, something that others are all too willing to believe of progressives even in the best case scenario (I'm not talking about cultivating an absence of humor or puritanism either just in case you are wondering) David
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