[lbo-talk] The epistemology of "political credibility"

Daniel Davies d_squared_2002 at yahoo.co.uk
Tue May 10 00:47:55 PDT 2005


Michael D wrote:


>>Access to abortion is good, and so are its medical providers. But that is
not the same as saying abortion is good. To miss that point is to ghettoize yourself politically, as is talking about "sex workers" as if they're truck drivers or receptionists. You can do this if you want, but you will never succeed, and you will be squandering vital political credibility as you do it.<<

As far as I can see, the implicit epistemological claim here is that the standard of validity for a political statement is one of whether it increases or decreases the likelihood of the Democratic Party getting elected. I can sort of see the roots of this theory in bits & pieces of Foucault and Irigaray on one side and Dewey and Rorty on the other. It's not a theory I'm ever likely to subscribe to myself, but I daresay you could still make a nice living out of it on the American university circuit.

Oh and by the way, just a tip:


>>Joanna sees this. Why don't you, Ms. Prole? (What does an RN in SF make
these days? It ain't minimum wage.)<<

It's often a good idea to leave a little bit of space between the posts where you make comments like this and the posts where you call other people "Commissar", because if people notice it's the same bloke behind both, they tend to take you a bit less seriously.

best

dd

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