[lbo-talk] Anti-C v. anti-c

[joanna]

Tom Walker wrote:
Of course, the obvious defence against charges of anti-communism is to 
claim that one is simply anti-Communist. However, to be anti-Communist 
without being anti-communist requires a highly developed sensitivity to 
nuance and innuendo and a scrupulous avoidance of them. That is, if one 
is clumsily anti-Communist, one becomes objectively anti-communist and 
often objectively anti-left. In a climate of general denunciation, 
anyone who doesn't join in is implicated as a dupe, fellow-traveler, etc...
___________________________
This all reminds me of a button that my ex wanted to make up after the 
Soviet Union went bust. It would have read:

"I am not now, nor have I ever been an ex-communist."

One of his funnier inventions.

Labels, labels, labels.

To some folks "communism" means dictatorship of the 
proletariat/nomenclatura. To others it means evil totalitarianism. Since 
we don't speak in upper or lower case, it doesn't really matter whether 
we advertise ourselves as communists, Communists, anti-communists, or 
Anti-Communists.

It is important to reclaim the words I want to use -- so I might say 
something like "I'm a communist; I think we should share." But the truth 
is that "communist" pushes such deep buttons that unless I use it as an 
alternative to "Fuck you. You don't scare me" there's not much point....

So normally, if pressed, I'll confess to socialism. That tends to stop 
conversation dead too. But, what does it matter any more? When all this 
gets sorted out, I suspect words-as-labels will play little or no part.

Joanna