>If he did have a chance of winning, the (dwindling numbers of)
>leftists who now defend him would most certainly turn on him and try
>to destroy him.
You misrepresent those who support the Nader/Camejo campaign, making a claim like the above for which you would be unable to present any evidence. Those who vote for him this year will do so mainly because Nader and Camejo oppose the occupations of Iraq and Palestine, which Kerry and Edwards support. It's as simple as that. If Nader/Camejo had a chance of winning, it would be great, but votes for Nader/Camejo, whether the ticket wins or loses, registers American dissent from the bipartisan consensus for wars, occupations, and empire. Besides, Nader/Camejo supporters, unlike Kerry/Edwards supporters, do not have to censor themselves so as not to embarrass Kerry/Edwards too much right now. Self-censorship of leftists about the Democratic Party's plan for Iraq and Palestine doesn't help us build a campaign against the occupations.
>(Of course nobody on this list who liked the Mark Ames article would
>condone using the phrase "whiny fag" -- to calling it "revealing" is
>an absurd attempt to suggest guilt by association.)
What's revealing is a high degree of tolerance of homophobia ("whiny fags"), careless words that have racist connotations ("Saudi money," etc.) when they come embedded in things that are politically convenient, in contrast to reactions to the same or even much less obnoxious formulations (e.g., "gonadal politics) embedded in things that are politically inconvenient. About the anti-Nader double standard, I am not going to worry too much, as this is likely to be his last presidential campaign given his advanced age anyway. About the double standard between vigilance against careless representations that may have anti-Semitic effects and tolerance for equally careless representations that may have similar effects against different races/nations, however, I remain concerned, (beyond a minor question of what's in Fahrenheit 9/11, as such a double standard is observable in other contexts as well), as such a double standard is good for neither the Jewish people nor other races/groups who do not enjoy as much vigilance against careless words on the part of liberals and leftists as the former do.
John Thornton wrote:
>Can you acknowledge my position on Moore as somewhere between hating
>and worshipping him?
That's actually my position, as I have spelled out many times, which doesn't seem to satisfy those who complain of any criticism of Fahrenheit 9/11 here. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>