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On 2018-03-29 21:42, David McDonald via Marxism wrote:
Hard to know what planet Jeff lives on. It certainly isn't the one
where
100% of all Stalinists, most Maoists and many Trotskyists -- especially
the
supposedly sane clone of the 1980's SWP, Socialist Action -- exhibit
Islamophobia openly.
I agree with that, up to the word "openly". The influence of
Islamophobic ideas on leftists is a problem which leads to bad
positions. That is totally different from consciously embracing
Islamophobia, saying and THINKING TO YOURSELF that you don't like
Muslims. If it were just that, then things would be simple, since
Islamophobes would identify themselves and they would be shunned from
the left.
I'm interested in uniting the revolutionary left, which sometimes means
convincing others why their positions are wrong, and in some cases could
even be classified as Islamophobic for instance. I believe in people's
good intentions (why else would anyone work for revolution?) and I know
leftists have the same ideals as me which is always against all racism.
Where people have blind spots, we should discuss it out, and sometimes
even discover our own blind spots. I'm on this list to win people over,
not to drive them away when we have a disagreement. And that's what I
think we are all here for. When I tell someone that their positions have
Islamophobic implications or were subconsciously motivated by such
prejudices, it is in order to lead them to views MORE in conformity with
their anti-racist values. These people WANT to be anti-racist, as we all
do, and I cherish that intention.
So when I say that I don't think the left ever "tolerates racism," I'm
talking about people's good intentions, not the unintended consequences
or subconscious sources of their mistaken positions. I do not think that
anyone on this list is consciously racist or antisemitic. In fact I'm
quite sure that if anyone did express conscious racist feelings, they'd
be kicked off the list, because that is so clearly antithetical to
everything that we are about.
- Jeff
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