[lbo-talk] Taibbi (was Re: Fwd: Antioch College Closing!)

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Sat Jun 16 08:20:53 PDT 2007


On 15 Jun, 2007, at 11:55 PM, Brian Charles Dauth wrote:
>
> Now, I know some had trouble with me not understanding the appeal
> of "The Sopranos," but I am even more baffled by the failure of
> people to understand that being queer in the year 2007 can cost you
> your life.
>
> What don't you people get?

I am not sure what there is to get here. My being Indian also puts me at risk (the first person, IIRC, to be attacked in the US in the aftermath of 9/11 was an Indian): more than once I have been in situations that could have turned more violent (than just being attacked with stones), etc. It seems to me that what this reiterates is that there is a class (no pun intended) of issues that arise from a common source and the best way to counter it is through a framework that addresses this source/structure. While I am not necessarily peddling a framework here or trying to claim that I have one that works, the opposite seems trivially true:

Today "liberal" activism/struggle (in the US) seems to arise from mild enlightenment tendencies or some form of identity politics. Often the two co-exist without conflict: hence the mildly ignorant form of libertarianism espoused by some of my Indian, or gay, or successful female or black (e.g: Bill Cosby) or "collection of issues" activism such as the blogosphere.

So, if you see your issue as part of the problems of the current structural organisation and/or ideology, then more power to you! Now there are those who do not see past the issues -- sometimes this is conscious -- the question then is, what is it that _they_ do not get?

--ravi



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