Wednesday, October 19, 2011

So gracious

Our old friend Tim Cavanaugh of Reason magazine, last seen 'round these parts wondering why more Americans weren't blaming "deadbeat" Americans for costing poor 'ol Wall Street so much money, is willing to concede not every member of the Occupy movement is the moral equivalent of Adolf Hitler:
"While the history of anti-capitalism is infused root and branch with racism, I do believe that at least a minority of participants in the Occupy movement are not racists or anti-Semites."
And I'm willing to believe "at least a minority" of Reason writers aren't such craven shills for the wealthy that they would stoop to suggesting a few nuts blaming The Jews for the status quo are representative of a mass movement that enjoys the support of a majority of Americans.

5 comments:

  1. Funny. I thought capitalism was infused root and branch with racism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You've seen this TPM article on the subject already, I presume?
    http://goo.gl/TZWv2

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reason is mostly hacks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like an inversion of the old cliche that "anti-semitism is the socialism of the stupid."

    It's been quite common historically to apply the language and symbolism of "parasites," "blood sucking," etc., to tiny ruling classes. It's been mis-applied to ethnic minorities (Jews, the South Asian diaspora in eastern/southern Africa, the Chinese diaspora in SE Asia and Oceania, perhaps the Hutu, etc.) when the dynamic is complicated by racial issues.

    Given the existence of class society and class exploitation, when ethnic or racial differentiation exists it's apt to be shoehorned into the structure in a way that complements or reinforces the class dynamic -- i.e. through the emergence of a class division of labor that fractures along ethnic lines. This is true, for example, of the way that European-style class divisions have been partially subsumed under race in American history.

    But that doesn't make the basic analogy of parasite and host organism, which is fully applicable to ethnically homogenous societies, invalid.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fake Rolex Watches, combining elegant style and cutting-edge technology, a variety of styles of https://uberant.com/article/937683-fake-rolex-watches, the pointer walks between your exclusive taste style.

    ReplyDelete