> But even if it's the 1% you claim, I'm guessing it still reaches
> more GIs than The Nation, or at least more of the GIs who need to
> be reached. If GIs are seeking out The Nation, The Progressive, MR,
> or what-have-you, then that is a good thing, and I'm sure that many
> of them actually are doing that -- but that just means that they're
> the kind of people who are questioning the war and looking for
> strong critiques of US policy already.
>
> GIs who read Hustler and come across Christian Parenti's article
> are often going to be the kind who do not actively seek out the
> left media. Some of them -- no, many of them -- will be people who
> have uneasy but incoherent feelings about the war, but don't know
> exactly what to think of them, and they will read this article from
> a leftist that says a lot more about the insanity of what they've
> experienced than anything else they've read or seen in the
> mainstream media.
In his interview with Iraq war vet Tomas Young, Derek Seidman asked Young how he got to know about Iraq Veterans Against the War. This is what Young says:
<blockquote>[DS] When did you join Iraq Veterans Against the War? How did you hear about IVAW? [TY] I joined in early September of this year. My mother told me about them.
[DS] How did she hear about them?
[TY] She was messing around on the internet and found Military Families Speak Out (MFSO).
<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/seidman041205.html></blockquote>
I believe that's a far more typical route for soldiers and veterans who are questioning the war to get acquainted with other like-minded soldiers and veterans who have gotten politically active than reading Hustler (which doesn't give you how to get in touch with anti-war vets and GIs who are organized) or even The Nation (which only sometimes does).
Note that Young heard it through _his mother_.
Even in counter-recruitment and GI organizing, a straight-male- centered perspective -- "we gotta publish in straight porn magazines to speak to regular guys!' -- probably isn't the most useful one. "1 in 7 U.S. Military Personnel in Iraq Is Female" (at <http:// www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1265/context/cover/>), and about 1 in 10 men in the military is probably gay (if we don't take into account a possibility that the military, like priesthood, may attract a disproportionate number of gay men). Even just concerning straight men in the military, today's military men are much older than draftees in the days of the Vietnam War: "The average age of a casualty in Vietnam was 20 years old. The average age of a casualty in Iraq is nearly 27" (at <http://www.commondreams.org/ headlines04/0417-02.htm>); and "About half of the dead were married," many with children (at <http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/ 0504/052804nj1.htm>). They are more likely to listen to what their wives, children, and mothers say than what articles in porn magazines say.
Moreover, women read more than men: women spend about 3.06 hours per week reading while men spend only 2.24 hours per week (see <http:// mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of- Mon-20051114/025100.html>), working-class women apparently exhibiting more intellectual hunger than working-class men, pace my beloved WDK.
A female-centered perspective is likely to work better not only for working-class women but also working-class men (who are after all embedded in working-class families).
Leigh wrote:
> > That's why
> > the corporate media can get away with a kind of double message:
> > headlines and lead paragraphs suggest one thing; here and there,
> deep
> > into back pages, they reveal another thing. Periodicals are
> > generally designed to be "scanned" for information (or titillation,
> > as the case may be), rather than "read."
>
> Larry Flynt is alot more together than your average dickhead media
> type
Some people think that Larry Flynt is a cool "anti-establishment" guy, but I don't buy the mystique of a "rebel capitalist.' What he gives with his left hand (say, occasional satires of politicians that Dennis mentions), he takes away with his right hand. None other than Christian Parenti reports:
<blockquote>The SWAT culture of militarism is also promulgated by the weapons industry, professional associations, and a slew of magazines, books, and videos. Foremost among these is the National Tactical Officers Association and its publication Tactical Edge, which is marketed exclusively to police officers. (Civilians are prohibited from subscribing or even logging on to the NTOA website.) Less secretive and very widely read is SWAT, the subtitle of which reads, "Special Weapons and Tactics for the Prepared American." Published by Larry Flynt of Hustler fame, SWAT reads like pornography for gun nuts: "During penetration, the prestressed Quik-Shok projectile expands rapidly and then splits into three even sections. These segments or fragments penetrate in separate directions in an ever- widening pattern inside a soft target. Fragmentation is the main cause of tissue disruption." (Christian Parenti, "SWAT Nation," <http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.01.99/swat1-9926.html>)</ blockquote>
Max wrote:
> > With liberal contributions from generous LBO-talk readers,
> MRZine might
> > be able to include more salacious images for the masses.
>
> Three words: Yoshie. Furuhashi. Centerfold.
Three more words (borrowed from one of the most skilled hustlers of the left): "Keep Hope Alive!"
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>