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For one thing, Taibbi is anti-socialist. Moreover, he has a sophomoric understanding of it, as evinced by his comment in a recent radio program where he attributed his opposition to socialism to the fact he didn’t like what he saw in the USSR. If a person can’t think straight, one quirky thing after another is bound to occur. > On Jul 10, 2020, at 2:34 PM, Ryan Bell via Marxism > <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > I don’t subscribe to his blog so I can’t read the longer piece but he’s > really on a bad run lately… > > If it’s Not “Cancel Culture,” What Kind of Culture is it? > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkU1vozAQhn8N3EC2-SgcfEhKuyFKYCOlTboXZGxTHIxBYETIr1837GWlGY30zsw70jyUaP7dDQvuu1Hb08iHQjAM4xcQ-aHNsM9gFES2GItq4LwlQmI9TNzup1IKSrTo1HMB-MiuMeClH9ASgJeIsDD2wyqofFBxyigICIzsnysFmZjginLcKbk8fW2Ja6370fI2Fno3oYkoS-GOUzlqQhuXdq1Re5OicoQeHdVphxJjIh06ST0N3Jlrop1GKOb4IbG8d901XFlewpc9pOhzuSLZpLfunp_pnCcndHjdz6WXgX86ypPN_Zg0Y9rKmr2m4fH8EWTJac7Pm-W4zIJcs4eZE3T3KQ7ntzlLUmE8HuySilysXofrXn5dMkAu8ZQq4LJgQckW_tqT07DJaVAHv3fq-OcSPdjb9rpNbrvhqw5pAz86W2AEkHkdBDBGnu-50IX3Jpx8ESJFLR-03-i_j9gDHm4ll_Knx5-KwVKY2k5K6KXgipSSs5WYXhE_Ceil51jxeZRcaz6sosEYRgCC2DZHWGdYK7xy-AsYDLnc> > Another long week in the all-stick, no-carrot revolution > > > This is an excerpt of a longer article about the Harper’s letter, the > attempted cancelation of Steven Pinker, and other events of the last week: > > The intellectuals whose ouster is being called for by the new revolution were > themselves products of the last cultural revolution. People like Chomsky, > Steinem, and even Pinker came of age during the sixties liberation movements, > which shaped academia and popular culture for generations. These were people > raised on beat poetry, antiwar marches, Jimi Hendrix and movies like The > Graduate, whose one-word summary of the aspirations of their parents’ > generation – “Plastics > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUF2PgyAQ_DXyaAAp6gMPl2ua_gvDx7blimBgOc9_f2qTTTaZzczsjNUIz5Q3taSCpBbIk3eKjT0dhCROCceGy0B8mR4ZYNY-KMwVyFJN8FajT_EkUMHJSzkqgPPO0FEabmTXD9KOD-PACcms2Gm7y6Sr8xAtqBTDduqSoF6IS2m6r4bf9lnXtd1SxWqgtWk-EI321XS336a7gv6-3y_XXtwK8YpTTmnPKBt5J7qWtezvLavwkkfbCDo_eVuqKajt-9AiWeUfAyEct1P9CDPte67R4zZB1CaA--TETzHn37gtoCKsJQAi5A-4h5cDZXQku4lLe0NRofbG-H8TMXUn>” > – represented everything these new educators didn’t want for their students. > > This new intellectual class had grown up in a time of empowerment for women, > for gays and lesbians, and for black and brown people, but also of the human > spirit generally. Long before the term “intersectionality” was coined in 1989 > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkMuOhCAQRb-m2WlAadQFi9nMbxgeZVvTCIbHOP79oJ2QFLmVqnvrGJXhFeIp95AyKQnijFayaaAjF8RKbtn4HAmmeYkAm0IncyxA9qIdGpUx-HuA8o6s0vSjeU6jmQzXy8SEpmLojeWjWBYulCaXy6yKRfAGZPDuvPcSJ9ec9_Tovx7dd33HcbROHa0JrmwaVQu2VNnDkWpR0az4C_X3xk1DdNCYCD6t6mjQZ4gJzJVMOcxns4UITT5CY8EoC6lx9eZIUHa0o3RglE1dz_uWtezvLQpH0Xnz4HR7dW0qOmVl3jXIRqKMPxqcu3pwK5XCXOtWfDWawSvtwH4A5Q_R--B87iCv7A7yZX2LlZoYKaMTqSY2VLReZoVa4z9ZYIyk>, > post-sixties liberals understood the interlocking nature of political and > intellectual repression. > > The tumult of the sixties revealed the clear relationship between the > ignorant conventions that kept women at home and gays in the closet, and the > academic orthodoxies suppressing the research of people like Alfred Kinsey, > whose work would lift everything from the female orgasm to bisexuality out of > the dungeon. Dr. Benjamin Spock became famous for telling “good mothers and > fathers” that what they “instinctively feel like doing for their children > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMuOwyAM_JpySwSEpuHAYS_7GxEPp6UlEIFRNn-_JJWssTWWPZqxGuGZ8qG2VJDUAnn2TjH5oJMYiVPCsek-EV_mJQOs2geFuQLZqgneavQpXgdUcPJSdlw4GM7pQgdLBy6cGJi5LwBaSj1ZcqrMujoP0YJKMRzXXxLUC3Ert-Hnxn9b7fvexwP9CqW3aW0Mk3JqjQ7n_GhQSwMD8a1XH7uyJfvp9pSD60q3gfMas7dex66JlU5jJ0X_wjUQrzjllD4YZZIPYuhZz_4-YxV-5NHeBF2fvC_VFNT2c6qTrPLbQAjnDi6m2Z9bX2v0eMwQtQngvsngN8rLKR4bqAh7CYAI-Uu2uMaJMipJE3GpZRoVam-M_wdpy4Y7>” > was better than a century of ignorant child-rearing books (written by > highly-credentialed men, mainly) that told them not to kiss or hold their > kids. > > So many things that were banned, from Where the Wild Things Are to The > Catcher in the Rye to Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit, turned out to be > revelatory. The animating principle of the revolution that swept through > America back then was that once ignorance was conquered, we would be free to > celebrate our common humanity. > > It’s no accident this message made great art. The power of everything from > jazz and rock to abstract painting and Gonzo journalism derived from > exploding conventions. There was symbolism in the way people of all > backgrounds felt like dancing to the new music or laughing at Richard Pryor’s > forbidden comedy (similarly, cracks formed in the Soviet state when > dissidents overseas chuckled over samizdat copies of The Master and > Margarita). There was a universal urge toward peace, love, forgiveness and > humor that brought people together. No one needed to be driven by whip toward > this message. People were born with a hunger for it, which is why it became > culturally hegemonic for half a century after Vietnam and Woodstock. > > Contrast that with today. If sixties liberals were able to sell their message > to the rest of the country by making music even squares and reactionaries > couldn’t resist, the woke revolution does the opposite. It spends most of its > time constructing an impenetrable vocabulary of oppression and seething at > the lumpen proles who either don’t get it or don’t like it. > > Its other chief characteristics seem to be a total lack of humor, an endless, > crotch-sniffing enthusiasm for hunting skeletons in closets, a love of > snitching and decency committees, a fear of metaphor (woke culture is 100% > literal), a mania for collectivist scolding (“Read the room” is this week’s > “Destroy the four olds!”), and a puritanical mistrust of humping in the > apolitical context. The woke version of erotica is writing an article for the > Guardian about how “ejaculating” skyscrapers > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUd3SqyAMfJpypwNIbb3g4rs5r-Hwk2paRAfCWN_-oJ1hEtiQXdg4QzCt6dDbmomVDGlEr8Xw4E_VM6-VF8_7k2EeXwlgMRg0pQJsKzagM4RrvBq4kmzWz9fd9sqJgSt3N7IfuLSPzgreDeBcr9ipMpriEaIDvcZwXLws6Jloy7fu7yb_1bXve0szTMUkjya2bl0qahKZ6D1knGI9Si55Te8SauR9DWXba0NDcyqZME6NLRh83eQG3saVYC7UISHkJsMXMzUBckBoPpBis80m1H81L1gwnsV69Who_VZsMbkyVJgOhvoU5w_BxSA71bWiFd9PXxT2Mrqb4ssk21xsJuM-5-tZ0ultIYSzBhdSLRxrXsrJOEI0NoD_uUu_cVxu0bGBjrDnAESQfmC1vH9ywQdWRfxa5xI1GbQW_wN9hKHt> > are symbols of cisnormative dominance. They make the Junior Anti-Sex League > seem like Led Zeppelin. > > The question isn’t whether or not “cancel culture” exists. The question is, > without canceling, what would this culture be? > > This is an excerpt from today’s subscriber-only post > <https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkE2OwyAMhU9TdomAZPKzYNHNXCMC47RMCURg1MnthyarkWxZepaf9T3QhI-YDrXHTKxkTIuzSswjn_qBWdVbMX1NzOVlTYibdl5RKsj2YrwDTS6G84D3kj0V4NhJzS3HdV0BZrMi8FHjgLqDeQL2-bLoYh0GQBWDP05f5tWTaM-37n6T37VIO2Ncm4vJpOHVQtyqutd2a-MoNyFSA7qa-AaKp5KweT81NS8XLHNKcsn5KLiYZdd3rWjF72sovRtkgFvPt4f8582SSj8Gvf_s8FQq4FLnVoKjY8GgjUd7sdMV1slCx44q4Dt7JMJ0iTWQYeKCz6w-sbGmFtRF9AcgK38j>. > To read the entire post and get full access to the archives, you can > subscribe for $5 a month or $50 a year. > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/rgt2%40me.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
