>No one else on the list generates this kind of hostility. I don't get it.
http://www.mail-archive.com/marxism@lists.panix.com/msg02631.html
"So Yoshie and I, in a campaign on lbo-talk which stretches over nearly the whole history of that list, have been basing our attack on "moralism" precisely on the marxist point made by Eagleton in this passage."
I agree that Doug and Carrol both go after one another in ways that seem as if they are obsessed with one another. I agree with Carrol that sometimes Doug seems to ignore what he has written and occasionally mischaracterizes him to get a dig in. Similarly, Carrol seems to get overly obsessive about stuff, particularly when it comes to Doug. Well, big whoopy. We all do that. Doug does it to me; I do it to him. I could probably pick out other examples in recent exchanges where there seemed to be a persistent, nearly purposeful misreading on the part of each side in the debate.
As Carrol has rightly noted, as long as each of the interlocutors essentially sees one another as on the same side, and not as (figuratively speaking) mortal enemies, then it can still be a productive conversation.
At any rate, if someone has written that they view the list you operate as a place in which to lead a special campaign to educate everyone as to the error of their ways, I'm guessing that same person is going to come in for some special, uhm, attention. It comes off as extraordinarily arrogant [1]. And since it appears to me that Carrol sees Doug as an important bearer of what he is, above, describing as "moralism" it is not surprising that both Carrol and Yoshie have made it a point to single out Doug as a target of this campaign. :)
Kelley
[1] And, while not organized or articulated publicly, as above, doesn't it sometimes seem as if we all have our own special axes to grind? ways in which we hope to "educate" a wayward left or wayward leftists with whom we don't agree? The anarchists seek to educate the supporters of democratic centralism and v.v. The non-academics seeks to educate the academics about the error of their ways when trying to "reach out" to reg'lar people. Anti-racists, feminists and others associated with "identity politics" hope to point out racism, ablism, and hetero/sexism among the left. Anti-pomos and like-minded folk hope to steer the left away from identity politics. The reg'lar folk wish to educate all o' us debatin' and writin' fools. And the activists set their guns on the arm chair theorists who do nothing but type drivel.
and on and on and on.