On Thu, Feb 17, 2005 at 08:56:08AM -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Thomas Brown wrote:
>
> >I think the two phenomena are related. Were the left more "nitpicky
> >about factchecking individual claims", it would be less vulnerable to
> >such attacks.
>
> I doubt that. It's much more about power, not about factual accuracy
> or argumentative skill. I spend much of my life getting the details
> about capitalism straight and concocting analyses far more thorough
> and accurate than mainstream pundits, and the effect of all this has
> been approximately zero. Sure, no one can attack me on grounds of
> accuracy and rigor, but on the other hand, O'Reilly never notices,
> much to my constant regret.
>
> Hegemony consists in part in being able to designate official
> critics. Churchill's the lucky critic-designate this month. I don't
> like his ideology - I think you have a point when you say:
>
> > Reading Churchill reveals that he is not of
> >the mainstream left. He is an irredentist ethnic nationalist, closer
> >to Milosevic than anyone else I can name off the top of
> >my head.
>
> but for the moment I don't care. Churchill - and Lynne Stewart - are
> easy targets for a right that wants to purge the left from campus and
> criminalize the legal defense of terrorists. It's all rather dire,
> and focusing on the shortcomings of the targets isn't very helpful
> now.
>
> Doug
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu