Dixie Chicks pulled off the air

Gar Lipow lipowg at sprintmail.com
Sun Mar 16 20:16:21 PST 2003


On Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 13:48:16 -0800 (PST)

Dennis Perrin wrote:

quoting Thomas:


>
>> The "Dixie Chicks" were not going to be thrown in
>> jail...the press was going to work their fans into a
>> frenzy against them, thereby "democratically"
>> blacklisting them. Self-righteous long-time fans would
>> refuse to buy their records, attend their concerts;
>> somebody would come up with a "cute" name for them
>> like "the Dixie Traitors" and it would be repeated on
>> the air ad infinitum. It's market forces...and the
>> State would not have to lift a finger. This is the
>> nature of mccarthyism today, if that's what we want to
>> call it.
>>
>> -Thomas
>
>
>
> Well, I think "McCarthyism" as pejorative is pretty played out. The old
> drunk's been dead a long time, and I'm sure we can find another term. In the
> radio interviews I've been doing lately, I've been using "antidemocratic
> bullying" -- not as pithy as McCarthyism, but accurate, and in the follow-up
> I break it down for the listeners who, in many cases, have no idea what
> freedom means.

If McCarthyism as term is dead is dead - but the historical comparisons are closer than you think. Most U.S. citizens who suffered in the McCarthy era suffer through blacklists - many of them private, many others government lists shared with the private sector - much like our own "no fly" lists.

In terms of non-citizens - I think our mass roundups are already exceeding what happened to non-citizens during the Truman-McCarthy era.

My mother, who was blacklisted during that era, has noted the comparisons. She thinks the main difference between then and now is that people are not for the most part just backing off and giving in. (The Dixie Chicks , we can hope, are an exception.)



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