"Yoshie has clearly embraced a 'Maoist' view of the US working class as hopelessly deracinated and reactionary, with a material interest in imperialism."
You mean all of it but her. I thought Yoshie was herself US working class, and in fact you [Doug] once argued on her behalf that she lived on a poverty-level existence, etc., when that all came up for some on-list reason. So she's the exception to the rule about the hopeless collaborationism of the US working class, eh? Everyone but her -- or at least folks to be lectured to on this list? And an article entitled "Solidarity with Iranian workers" urging US workers to oppose an invasion of Iran is "very funny" to her. Weird.
I dunno, the talk about "Persian angels" and "princes" still leads me back to Western exoticization/fetishization of the "Orient" a la the old pop songs "Rebecca from Mecca," etc. where there was an equal fascination with all things Arabian and/or Persian, with blemishes on reality blissfully overlooked. Persian culture is fascinating. But we could also hope to tease out the inner socialists of folks in places like Latin America, or, hell, the US, too. Not just obsessively with Iran.
-B.