[lbo-talk] Berlet on Democracy Now

David Green davegreen84 at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 12 08:58:07 PST 2011


I've read the transcript of Chip Berlet's interview with Amy Goodman.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/10/chip_berlet_on_the_becking_of

I must say that I do not understand or agree with Berlet's approach to understanding the behavior of the assassin. I think that Alexander Cockburn has been correct all along about the self-aggrandisement of the SPLC and Potok. I also find Berlet's comment on American Renaissance passing strange. Berlet seems to be defensive that they might be thought of as anti-Semitic, when in fact--as one would predict--they're the kind of racists that are pro-Israel. So Berlet seems to give them a pass on this basis.

A former University of Illinois (Urbana) political science professor, Robert Weissberg, has written some horrible stuff on the AR website. But he's a tenured academic--why not ask how it is that a "respectable" individual like this, who taught PS to our children for 25 years, belongs to a hate group? But of course, that might lead to those more respectable forms of hatred that Berlet wants to sort out from his particular obsessions. Moreover, I find it reprehensible that Berlet has lumped in Ron Paul with his analysis of hate groups.

I believe that we should be fundamentally concerned about the state and those who have the power to employ its capabilities for violence. It doesn't appear to me that Berlet understands that, or cares.

David Green



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