On Apr 9, 2010, at 2:06 PM, Christopher Cutrone wrote:
> Except there's no smear: Ali said what I said he said. It may be to
> some, as Henwood says, uncontroversial, but I think what Ali said
> should be treated as controversial. That's my point, to not accept
> it as uncontroversial (on the "Left"). Perhaps saying "lie" was too
> strong, because it implies intentional falsehood, but innuendo
> doesn't quite capture the problem, either.
No, he didn't say what you said. I suspected your characterization of his remarks were bullshit, and when I listened to them myself, my suspicions were confirmed. You are so busy proving the left is stupid and/or dead that you can't listen straight to the parts that are smart and alive.
I'm all for asking questions and being critical. I spend probably too much time doing both. But I still have no idea what kind of political practice, or approximation of political practice even, you're trying to being to think about. You remind me of Adolph Reed's characterization of a certain council communist and his comrades whom some of us know. Every year they get together and decide that things are so exquisitely complicated there's nothing that they can do. So they adjourn, and resolve to meet again the next year. If we criticize the war in Afghanistan, we're apologizing for the Taliban. I suppose that if we organize a living wage campaign, we're caught in nostalgia for the 1930s.
Doug