I don't get this. I can't claim to have read every word of his piece in CNS, but Patrick never called Robin any bad names, but Robert's leaning heavily toward doing so against Patrick (digging up the epithet "Trotskyist").
Patrick wrote: >>this is what we academics do: comment on each other's work. << Robert Naiman wrote: > Patrick, I doubt that you are representative of "academics" in this > regard. I don't think that "academics" regularly engage in polemics > against individuals of this sort, unless they are Trotskyist > academics. Note that Patrick's "polemic" was against Robin's opinions on one specific issue and not against Robin personally. And Patrick's "polemic" was much more substantive than polemical. It's only on pen-l that he says "Robin's brain has been infiltrated by a neo-classical economic virus," which _is_ polemical and aimed against Robin personally. > I strongly doubt that Obama will bring back cap and trade legislation. > He'd have to overcome opposition from House Republicans representing > the fossil fuel industries. I doubt that Trotskyist opposition would > be much of a factor in his calculations. So here's the name-calling: Patrick is part of the "Trotskyist opposition"? (BTW, are all people who disagree with the content of Robert's political program "Trotskyist"? Well, I guess that's a better epithet than "Stalinist.") BTW, I don't think that Obama really wants to bring back cap and trade legislation. It's not just a matter of House Republicans; it's also a matter of Obama's lack of backbone. I don't mean his own personal backbone, but instead the political backbone: he needs to see large numbers people pushing against his current policies (marching on Washington, etc.) In fact, if people in the US are actually waking up to the crime of drone-based warfare, he might swerve to the left on ecological issues in hopes of buying off the opposition. (Nixon's creation of the EPA was at least in part a response to the anti-war movement.) -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
