From http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07292011.html
Incidentally, on the topic of Breivik, we have had an enquiry from a
reader noting that Breivik’s “Manifesto” has plagiarized material from
William Lind, erstwhile Director for the Center for Cultural
Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation, and asking that since
CounterPunch published material by Lind, what is our precise
relationship to this contributor. The inference seems to be that we
published racist neo-Nazi propaganda which helped inflame Breivik. God
knows what he would say about our contributor William Blum, considering
the late Osama bin Laden famously cited Bill as one of his favorite writers.
As any CounterPuncher can quickly establish by reviewing Lind’s
contributions through our “Search” function at the top of this home
page, we published columns on the conduct of America’s wars by Lind
between 2003 and 2007, in the Bush years because, from a conservative
position, he was a trenchant and knowledgeable military analyst and
critic of the US onslaughts on Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. Lind
had been a participant of the military reform group, trenchant critics
of the Pentagon.
His column was distributed by the Center and we would pick it up if it
was on themes we cared for, which did not include Lind’s commentaries on
many other matters, the cultural downslide of America and so forth.
CounterPunchers should know that its editors stand responsible for
pieces CounterPunch publishes – though we obviously don’t agree with
every word in the roughly 3,000 pieces we put up on this site every
year. We publish and where necessary edit articles for the edification
of a large and intelligent regular readership. We don’t publish
anti-Semitic or Nazi propaganda, as assessed by any rational person. I
add this because many people eager to throw these terms around are
irrational and usually malevolent. If you read our website with any
frequency you will know where we’re at, as a left, radical enterprise.
We’ve always held it as part of our brief – stemming from political
appreciation of the actual prospects here in the USA – that we should
acknowledge positive political work and insights on the libertarian
front and the right and from original viewpoints. Every once in a while
some Trotskyite purist like Louis Proyect will hoist his skirts and
jump up on the kitchen table, aghast at the sight of an “incorrect”
thought or assault by CounterPunch, often specifically me, on the canons
of political and cultural PC as sedulously observed by this politically
and intellectually demure old Trot. Then, when I say something he likes
he’ll dispense a grateful bouquet.
We don’t hold ourselves responsible for articles our contributors
publish elsewhere. We have neither the time nor inclination to dredge
through their lifetime archive on the internet to scrutinize articles
they may have written one, five, ten or twenty years ago. These days we
get regular requests from contributors to purge our archives of their
seditious thoughts because they are up for a job, or are in a tenure
battle. A new search site has just been launched to enable the internet
bloodhounds to person their blacklisting tasks more efficiently. That’s
not our world.
* * * *
Unfortunately, Alexander does not engage with what I wrote. I
specifically said that Lind’s articles were not objectionable except
one. I guess he still stands pat on this one unfortunately:
4GW theory warns that we now face a world of cultures in conflict, that
we must defend Western culture and that many, perhaps most, other
cultures are threats, especially when they flood Western countries with
immigrants. Cultural Marxism welcomes immigrants who will not
acculturate precisely because they are threats to Western culture.
Rather sad, really.
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