[lbo-talk] the Stalinist-ethos par excellence

Bhaskar Sunkara bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com
Tue Jun 22 16:18:26 PDT 2010


A clip from a draft I never finished and probably never will:

In June of 2002 the /Beijing Evening News---/a state-controlled publication with a circulation of over one million---translated a story entitled "Congress Threatens to Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built." The article claimed that Congress would leave Washington for Memphis, Charlotte or Toronto unless a new Capitol building was built with a retractable dome. When it was disclosed that the newspaper was actually headlining a piece from /The Onion/, mocking sport franchises that vowed to jump ship unless cash-strapped city governments built new stadiums, they courageously stood by their story and demanded further substantiation. Amid an international chorus of laughter, the piece was eventually retracted. In their ensuing statement the editors deferred blame onto, "*Small American newspapers [that] frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them with the aim of making money*." *** This is pretty much how the most vulgar of marxists (not that there are any of those left in China) view the arts, literature, sport, etc. What lies behind satire rags besides for the pursuit of crass class interest and monetary gain?



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