I've had (and will have again) my sharp disagreements with Lou Proyect, but after seeing this thread I got around to reading his last post on Diamond. One can agree or disagree with his arguments there, but anyone who uses _that_ post to ground such an idiotic phrase as "Commissar ____ Denouncement_ is a pretty fuck-headed reader and ought to go back to kindergarten to lear a bit about how to read and use the English language.
Who the hell introduced this thread anyhow. Whoever it was is a fucking troll, since no one on _this_ list had raised the topic of LP's views of Diamond. He presented an argument, and a fairly well-reasoned one. Since when does arguing a position vigorously make one a Commissar?
If you want to see a real approximation of Commissar behavior -- read the posts on this list by Wojtek and M Dawson. Their arguments often would make sense only if backed up by a large secret police and plenty of firing squads.
Carrol
^^^^^^^ CB: Not only that. Especially in Lenin's time, Commissars had more reasoned discourse in the interest of the working people ( i.e. democratic discourse) than the vast majority of bourgeois ministers of state and petit bourgeois intellectuals down through history including today. The term of derision for undemocracy should be "Prime Minister" or "President".