> In talking to others, to make them aware of the destructiveness of
> the current policy, is it really necessary to persuade them that the
> policy reflects the wishes of the capitalist class? Why not just
> limit oneself to what's uncontroversial: that it reflects the wishes
> of those who support the policy?
My line, in talking about Israel with folks unencumbered by high-Marxist theory, is just to ask, what has Israel done for *you* lately, apart from making a sizable part of the world mad at you?
I find this leads to an interesting and fruitful conversation more often than not. You do occasionally find people who can't get past cliches that they've heard on TV -- only democracy in the Middle East, "our" ally, etc. etc. And then there are the disturbing types who love the Israelis precisely *because* they're kick-ass bullies. Those you write off, of course. But they're the exception rather than the rule, though they're depressingly not rare.
It's amazing and encouraging how many people really are willing to try thinking for themselves, considering how relentlessly propagandized they are on this subject by the media.
Black folks, of course, are much more receptive to this line of argument than whites. But even among the whites one feels one is getting somewhere quite a lot of the time.
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Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com http://cars-suck.org