Sorry, folks, my mail gets read backwards and I want
to shut this thread down now, but just for the record, when
I sent my New Years' Eve message triggering this thread I
had a temperature of 104 degrees F. I have only now barely
shaken that flu. And, no, I was not drunk.
Barkley Rosser
On Tue, 7 Jan 1997 14:01:59 -0800 (PST) Louis N Proyect
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I am going to stay on this *furkockte* (that's Ancient Greek for
> misbegotten) list just long enough to straighten a few things out.
>
> Berkely Rosser was ill and probably drunk when he called me a snitch the
> other day. Anybody who read what he wrote would figure out how deeply
> insecure the guy is. He is a honest-to-goodness book writer. (How do you
> do that anyway? Do write the fucking thing first and then take it to a
> publisher or do they come to you?) The demons who possess him share the
> first name Louis. One is a Harvard University dropout who works as a
> millwright. The other one, me, is a computer programmer. The only place we
> publish is on the Internet and nobody needs to give us an invitation.
>
> About 6 months ago I was in an extremely violent flame-war with Shining
> Path supporters on the Marxism list. One of them, "Quispe" called me a
> "Zionist" repeatedly. He used this term the way the Polish CP leaders used
> to in the 1960s against their opponents. It is another way of saying kike.
> Another of them, a certain Olaechea, spent day after day accusing me of
> being a "black fascist". (I am not black and I am not a fascist.)
>
> Hans Ehrbar, the MODERATOR of the Marxism list, in other words our Michael
> Perlman, was smitten with this gang. He used to be a member of a
> pro-Albanian sect in the 1970s and this was like going to a high-school
> reunion. He patronized them when he should have been saying things like:
> "We should not jew-bait list members. We should not call each other
> fascist." The patronization he engaged in was simply sick. He blamed this
> type of language and behavior on "growing poverty". Meanwhile, one of
> these individuals came from an oligarchic family in Peru and runs a
> translating business in Peru. (I should add that we have become friends
> and comrades subsequently.)
>
> I blew my stack at Hans. I told him on the list, "Hans, if you don't stop
> acting stupid, I am going to call the President of the University of Utah
> and report you." That was it.
>
> Now a word or two to that knucklehead Professor Levy. Levy got into a
> flame war with me on the Marxism list for the same reason that Rosser did.
> I didn't want to get together with him to have a beer and shoot the
> breeze. The reason should be obvious. They are not cool people.
>
> So at one point Levy quits the list in protest over my being me. I don't
> hear from him in months and it would be fair to say that we are not
> friends. The next thing I know I get a smirking email from him out of the
> blue telling me that Randy Martin, who I consider to be a friend and who I
> work with at the Brecht Forum in NY, was the guy who got fooled by Alan
> Sokal's hoax paper. (Alan Sokal is also a friend of mine by the way. Yes,
> I do know everybody.)
>
> I sez to myself, "What is Levy doing rubbing my nose in this shit?" And I
> don't forget nothing. So the next thing I know, when I get into a bit of a
> tiff with George Yudice and the Social Text crowd over on the Marxism
> list, I take that opportunity to let Randy know that Jerry was gossiping
> about him behind his back. Don't be a gossip, Jerry, and you won't get
> into trouble.
>
> Now I've found out that there are some people who are spreading this
> "snitch" shit around and I know who you are. I expect some private email
> from you letting me know that it won't go any further. Doug Henwood has
> described me as "volatile" and you don't know the half of it. I expect to
> haunt all these stupid academic conferences for the foreseeable future
> that you folks spend months getting psyched up for. If you think I can get
> angry on an email list, wait until you meet me in person.
>
> Louis "Born to Lose" Proyect
>
--
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
