On 4/12/2002 1:35 PM, "Steve Diamond" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thiago suggested that noone on the left supports "regimes" (a term I usually > apply to states controlled by groups that gained that position without a > democratic election, as opposed to governments which have some claim to > legitimacy). At least he had the courage to omit Castro from his list. It > would no doubt surprise him to find out that hard core Sandinistas actually > admired North Korea, that leading figures in the anti-globalization movement > admire Lee Kuan Yew, and do I really have to trot out defenders of the > Hussein regime? > > As far as madness goes, what is one to say about Thiago's closing remark: > "He [Chomsky] has been right all along [about the U.S.] - whatever the facts > may have been in Cambodia." > > Facts, unfortunately for Chomsky, are stubborn things. If the point had been about Cambodia rather than a comparison of the media's representation of Cambodia and Indonesia, that would be a fair quibble. But it was not and it is not. There is nothing mad about Chomsky's making his particular point. Presumably, I , on the other hand, am mad for suggesting that the guy said this rather than that; meaning that I support genocide or want to ignore it to save Chomsky from your fabrications... Most ten year old children are capable of seeing what is wrong with this sort of thinking. Well, I admire many of Castro's policies, as I admire some of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's, and for that matter, Kennedy's - why must we totalize everything all the time or be damned? And if I think that Castro is a homophobic thug and about as socialist as a policeman, does that mean that I must at once call for his elimination, the murder of tens of thousands of Cubans and the installation of a US friendly regime? And support for Nicaraguans translates into support for North Korea! That's not an argument -that's not even sophisticated enough to be considered blackmail. As for your Lee Kuan Yew jibe, I have on idea what you are talkig about... Actually, why don't you trot out one defender of the Iraqi regime? I will then trot out one defender of Saudi Arabia who is now planning to change the regime in Iraq. Then you can trot out another defender of Stalin. I will then trot out, from somewhere in Montana, a defender of Adolph Hitler: attacking the weakest construction of extremist positions has always struck me as a terribly sophomoric passtime... politics, however, rarely outgrows the playground. Anyway, I apologise for fueling this pointless debate. I will recite my sutras before reading the list in the future. Thiago ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: www-mail.usyd.edu.au
