[lbo-talk] what money will buy you

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 29 09:50:14 PDT 2011


Doug: "But the liberal foundations are great at buying off actual and potential radicals. "

[WS:] I think it is a left wing canard designed to cover up inability of many lefties to sell their ideas to broader audiences or perhaps their inability to speak any other language than their own. Obviously, if you come to a program officer and tell her that you want them to fund your overthrowing the political system, you will not get anywhere. But if you approach her to fund a program to "educate the people" - a framework that is often used in Third world countries for empowerment programs - you may get somewhere. I understand that EPI is funded mostly (53%) with foundation money - so clearly there must be foundations willing to fund staunchly pro labor outfits. So if a labor mouthpiece is funded by foundation, so can be mouthpieces promoting other left win causes, from environment protection, to "balanced" news reporting, to public education, and to government social policies.

I am not a big fan of foundations, especially when they fund projects that should be funded by government with much bigger outlays. But they can have a very useful role of funding projects that cannot be publicly funded, such as advocacy, especially advocacy designed to leverage government support. Right wingers figured that out and use it quite effectively, but the lefities are way out in the left field in that respect, and then they hide behind their self-styled unwillingness to compromise their ideals. Sorry, but if you scratch uncompromising radicalism you will almost invariably find mental rigidity, poor communicative skills, and inability to persuade and attract others to one's cause.

Wojtek

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 29, 2011, at 9:18 AM, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>> Right wing/fascist funding sources do not waste their money in such a
>> way.  Instead, they fund their intellectual Sturmabteilung to wage a
>> Kulturkampf to sway public opinion in the favor of right wing/fascist
>> causes - an example of which is the Craigs list posting in question.
>> And they are far more effective than the liberal foundations even
>> though they are not as well endowed as liberal - leaning foundations.
>
> But the liberal foundations are great at buying off actual and potential radicals. Hire some as program officers, who can then feel like they're making a difference. Have them fund competing nonprofits, all fragmented and dependent, never building a popular base or working in any politically coherent way. It's a perfect way for liberals to feel good about themselves while sustaining the status quo.
>
> Doug
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