[lbo-talk] Berlet on Democracy Now

[c.berlet at publiceye.org]

Nice that you have this opportunity to vent you spleen at my expense. As a
reporter I thought accuracy was important. American Renaissance is an ugly
racist group, but it just is not organizationally antisemitic. I arrived
at my conclusion independently of Mark Potok, and very good researcher at
SPLC, and your implication of a pro-Zionist/Israel plot here is amusing in
a tragic way. Ron Paul is a conspiracy theorist whose views on political
economy are bizarre, and are mirred in Joughner's posts. That's a fact. I
agree with Ron Paul that the Fed needs to be audited and more responsive
to the needs of the non-wealthy.

I frequently write about abuses of state power and political repression by
government agencies, and have for over 30 years. A nine-year-old with an
Internet connection can verify this. If you are going to engage in
personal attacks, at least do your homework first.

Have a nice day.

-Chip


> 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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>