Michael Lumish
This is just something that I wrote on the Facebook page of a real world friend who also happens to be a self-described communist in San Francisco.
I am not trying to cause a shitstorm for the fun of shitstorms... although a good shitstorm can rattle around the marbles a little bit... which is sometimes necessary.
I come out of the left.
What motivates me is not some desire to piss on the progressive movement, but to encourage it to live up to its principles because otherwise the politics have no meaning. It just descends into toxic, divisive, Us versus Them, Democrats versus Republicans, manichean, self-righteous religious bullshit.
{And make no mistake, some of the most religious people that I ever met in my life were devoutly atheist.}
The truth, of course, is that the western-left is absolutely riddled with racism and prejudice and what raises my eyebrow is its general unwillingness to even acknowledge those prejudices. Instead, it all just becomes a sports competition in which we pat one another on the tush while booing the insidious Red Sox.
As for the types of progressive-left racism, there seem to be three.
There is western-left anti-white racism.
There is western-left "humanitarian racism" which is something akin to nineteenth-century notions of "white man's burden."
And then there is antisemitic anti-Zionism.
The task before you, if you wish to accept it, is to figure out how to reconcile the kind of economic justice that Kurt stresses - and for good reason - versus the kind of divisive and racist "idenitity politics" which gave the world the Great Orange Cheetoh.
Let me put it to you this way on a personal note:
It would be much, much easier for me to fight for economic justice if it did not also include Linda Sarsour and antisemitic anti-Zionism as the price of admission.
Both my parents were communists. All my grandparents were communists, REAL communists. I've never met a communist in the US who wasn't a Soviet expat. I see people who call themselves communist but they are not that. A real communist is a ruthless bastard who is a glint eyed ideologue that will denounce you so you are sent to the Gulag to die. But in the same breath they will take whatever luxuries and niceties you give them because they feel entitled. The people who yell 'power to the people' are the people who they want the 'people' to hand all the power to. And if they won't, you shoot them. There is absolutely NO notion of human and civil rights in communism because there is no individual. There is no freedom, no expression because you are the property of the state. You are a part, a tool, no different from a plow, to be used until it breaks. There is no such thing as a communist working for 'justice'. There is simply no concept of what justice is, in communism. It's an irrelevance.
ReplyDeleteI'll take your word on that. It's consistent with the things I've heard from others who found their way here from communist countries.
DeleteIn the early 1980's I met a couple from Poland. The husband was absolutely thrilled to be here, the wife, not so much. I always remember what she said, that she missed her family, and, "it's really not so bad, if you just keep your mouth shut."
Ever read Horowitz's "Radical Son?"
DeleteThere may be no individuals in communism, but Communists are individuals.
Linda Sarsour would not grovel to be admitted if Progressives were pro Israel.
ReplyDeleteArabs don't do grovel. They plan. This is a culture with a long history of conquest, and apparently not a lot of introspection in the Western sense. Their history is in sharp contrast to the Jews. What is being absorbed on college campuses, i.e., the juxtaposition of these two peoples is grotesque.
DeleteGAY PRIDE MARCHERS WITH JEWISH FLAGS TOLD TO LEAVE CHICAGO PARADE
ReplyDeleteEven made Newsweek. I'm shocked!
I've always been supportive of Gay and gendered rights, but I will never support those who piss on the Jews.
If LGBTQIAPK movement... lol ... wants to lose mainstream Jewish support then this is an excellent way of going about it.
{Idiots.}
Mike,
DeleteI'm sorry but those are just to many letters for me. FDR at least kept it to three.
"LBJ took the IRT to downtown USA. When he got there, what did he see? The youth of America on LSD!"
Any antizionist movement is racist. Any talk about equality from any of them should set their lying tongues on fire.
DeleteWhat I want is for my friends on the Left to understand that if you are prejudiced against white people or dislike "Zionists" then you have no credibility to complain about the racism of others. You cannot tell me that Trump is a racist and then turn around and support BLM. If you are not consistent then you have no credibility. It's obvious.
DeleteWomen of color? What language is that? This "people of color" thing sounds to me as stupid today as it did when I first heard it (with an explanation!) over 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteNow, of course there is a shrewd political reason behind it all, and it stinks to high heaven.
I read that about the 'Dyke March'. I'm of two minds. One, it's clearly antisemitism and two, the Jews can't possibly claim that they've never in the least been utterly unaware that their own movement is antisemitic. They chose to ignore it because they'd rather be a member of a group that hates them.
ReplyDeleteLet's see, Hitler wanted to build roads, Eisenhower wanted to build roads, hence Eisenhower is Hitler. Sarsour says 3+2=5, therefore I must say 3+2 does not equal 5 of I am anti-semitic. Does that make any sense? Ideas must stand on their own regardless of who supports them. To say otherwise is an appeal to anti-authority, which is such a bizarre notion that no text on logic would even bother to mention it.
ReplyDeleteHitler wanted to kill all the Jews. Eisenhower didn't, and had the death camps filmed because he knew one day someone would come along and deny it ever happened. Hamas and other Islamist groups that Linda Sarsour has a tingly feeling for engage in Holocaust denial. What Linda Sarsour says is that there is nothing creepier than Zionism. Linda Sarsour sells Sharia as feminism. Linda Sarsour cries for the genital mutilation of women who dare criticize the excesses of Islamic doctrine in any way. Linda Sarsour wants noncompliant Jews dead.
DeleteWhich of her ideas mentioned do you think stand on their own?
Joseph, if the progressive-left claims to be anti-racist then it might be helpful if they weren't racist. It's not a complex thing to grasp.
DeleteThere was a recent report by the Voter Study Group that revealed that the major change between 2012 and 2016 was that populists, that is voters who are liberal on economic issues and conservative on social/identity issues, shifted sharply in favor of the Republicans in 2016.
ReplyDeleteInvariably, liberals say that Democrats lost the populist vote because their economic liberalism has been watered down by too much association with Wall Street and that the way to win them back is to restore clarity by going all in on economic liberalism such as by making the banks pay for wrecking the economy in the Lesser Depression. This is of course non-sense. If there was any truth to it, socially liberal economic liberals would have had comparable defections from the Democratic Party as was observed among socially conservative economic liberals. This did not happen, showing that the Democrats' problem is hew too closely to social liberalism, not insufficient adherence to economic liberalism.
There are several axes on to measure social conservatism:
Blacks
Religiosity
Muslims
Gender
Orientation
Non-Europeans
Each of those deserve their own treatment, but this site is more concerned with Israel and the effect that Muslims have on Israel, so I'll stick to the topic of the place of Muslims in this country. There are three categories of Americans for how to relate to Muslims. There are those who say that Dar-al-Harbists, that is those who believe that the West must be brought under Islamic rule with varying degrees of patience allowed such as CAIR, and Dar-al-Amnists, that is those who believe that just so long as the West allows them to practice their faith inside their homes and mosques freely that the West should be left alone such as AI Congress, should equally be unwelcome here. There are those who welcome the Dar-al-Amnists but not the Dar-al-Harbists. Finally, there are those who welcome both the Dar-al-Amnists and the Dar-al-Harbists, or at a minimum decry any "inquisition" into who is a Dar-al-Harbist. If Democrats wish to win over the populists, they have to embrace more people from group 2 and silence those from group 3 who label members of group 2 as Islamophobes.
I am convinced that this is just the kind of thing that gave us Donald Trump.
ReplyDeleteThose who hate on white people cannot complain about racism.
ReplyDeleteThose who hate on "Zionists" cannot complain about racism.
Those who treat people "of color" as if they are children cannot complain about racism.
In other words, the progressive-left has pissed away any standing that it may ever have had to complain about prejudice of any sort.
A lot of these people make Donald Trump look like Mother Theresa.
Jews were at the forefront of support for black civil rights and gay rights. For that support they receive a knife in the back; many knives in the back. What that says about the moral levels of those who received such support is obvious. No one should continue to support such disloyalty, dishonesty and lack of morality. Those in those groups who are NOT bad actors should be vocal about the hijacking of their associations and clear about what they intend to do about it;if anything. If they are not, they should not be supported either due to their cowardice and complicity.
ReplyDelete"It would be much, much easier for me to fight for economic justice if it did not also include Linda Sarsour and antisemitic anti-Zionism as the price of admission. "
ReplyDeleteExcept it always WAS theprice of admission, Michael. You're only just finding out about it now, and if it bothers you, well...I feel for you.
Bernie Sanders who maybe you voted for understood this as well. As the Left wing Times of Israel and other sources reported, he sent his campaign team to work with Labour's anti-Israel and anti-semitic leader Jeremy Corbyn onhis campaign in the UK and his strong showing is attributable to his taking their advice and running a Bernie style 'economic justice' campaign.
Venezuela, the USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Occupy Wall Street characters...isn't it odd that the call from the Left for 'social justice' always seems to involve pauperizing and demonizing the Jews so often? Remember Hitler campaigned on 'economic justice' and 'making the fat cats pay their fair share' too.
And that 'Orange Cheetoh?'remark? A rather curious way for someone who calls himself pro-Israel to talk about the most pro-Israel, philo semitic U.S. president and the most pro-Israel, philo semitic administration in decades. And BTW, that definitely includes Steve Bannon, and I can vouch for that personally.
I know, I know, you come from the Left. But the Left doesn't love Israel, although they might make pro-Israel noises to deceive the gullible at election time or when they lust after Jewish money. ever notice that Jewish support for their agenda is never matched in kind when the crunch comes?
Some of us have known this for years. You're just finding it out, apparently. And that means you're going to have to make a choice, now doesn't it?
I doubt you'll respond to this and that's fine. Believe it or not, I'm actually trying to help clarify things, not attack you. I think you need to do some serious thinking and I hope this helps.
Rob,
Deletethanks for dropping by.
I do not know if we have ever spoken before, but you give me the definite impression that you have not the slightest notion of my writings.
Feel free to hang around and ask questions if you like and have a terrific 4th of July weekend.