On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 6:02 PM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> I don't think Chip has $170 million in the bank.
I didn't say he was successful at it.
Seriously though, the difference between the two is that Dees is smart enough to make it as a con-artist and a snake-oil salesman, Berlet, on the other hand, is simple and sincere: he really believes the hysterics he peddles in an almost sad and touching way... or at least he would be if he wasn't such a douche-bag in denouncing others as soft on fascism(see below)
On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 6:17 PM, Chuck Grimes <c123grimes at att.net> wrote:
>
> Anyway, you need to read some of Berlet's work like Rightwing Populism in
> America. Sure opened my eyes since I didn't know half the history, which
> isn't found on the regular US history menu. I have some minor arguments with
> it, but that's for another time.
He's a one-trick pony who makes a living hyperventilating about conspiracy theories, fascism and antisemitism...all of it which nicely, and creepily, dovetails with yahoo liberal sensibilities: http://www.newint.org/features/2004/10/01/conspiracism/
Most of his writing that I've come across is awful, his "research" silly and pointless and at its best a set of banal observations or empty truisms with a particular focus on marginal figures and groups, all stuck together with the historical and theoretical framework you'd expect from a high-school student. I particularly love his his writing on fascism.
He appears to have quite the history on this list though, including calling out Edward S. Hermann as pro-Taliban and soft on Islamofascism: http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2001/2001-December/027491.html
-mep