Dave Frans I wrote a whole book on why you are wrong: https://www.routledge.com/This-Happened-Here-Amerikaners-Neoliberals-and-the-Trumping-of-America/Street/p/book/9781032150598 Check out especially Chapter 4, titled "The Anatomy of Fascism Denial." Furthermore, you have totally missed in my writing that I --- like Hedges ---- am a radical Left critic of the dismal dollar-drenched Dems. The notion that I proceeed from party not class is absurd almost beyond words. You know literally nothing about my writing. Here is paste-in from the draft of my next Substack: 'It's not that difficult to write a historical record of how awful the Republican Party has been for the last quarter of a century. It’s much more difficult and involves significant intellectual work to understand and place that history within the deeper historical context of US and global capitalism and imperialism – a context that includes the Democratic Party’s rich participation in the overlapping evils of American inequality and American empire. That is what I have tried to do in my last six books: Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (New York: Routledge, 2008); The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Routledge, 2010); (with A. DiMaggio) Crashing the Tea Party: Mass Media and the Campaign to Remake American Politics (Routledge, 2011); They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy (Routledge, 2014); Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement (CounterPunch Books, September 2020); This Happened Here: Neoliberals, Amerikaners, and the Trumping of America (New York: Routledge, 2021). ' I don't know a completely polite way to say that you have no idea what you are talking about regarding my world view and my writing but I am sorry to say that this is very much the case.
Paul, I appreciate you engaging me on this. I am in no way offended by your response and I hope mine did not offend you.
Sure, you may be correct. I may not fully grasp your perspective as a political or social journalist. However, I do believe that when we rail against the spectacle of Trump and neglect to mention the hypocrisy of the left we are distracted from the truth. In the same way that we currently rail against the spectacle of Putin/Russia and fail to acknowledge American international crimes committed in the name of greed and capitalism. Furthermore our distinct contribution to the buildup of this conflict. The corporate media’s purveyance of this distraction is massively damaging the truth and propagating the war.
We are debating my opinion of your writing and media in general. I think we need to shine the spotlight on the actions and influence of our oligarchy. I don’t think you are inaccurate, but I do think I have had my fill of the modern boogeymen (Trump and Putin). I do appreciate your work as an independent journalist. You and others may be our only hope to “right the ship”. Thank you Paul.
This is a bit too sensationalistic for me. Apparently recommended by Chris Hedges Report, this stuff is anything but objective. Great if you enjoy ramping up fear and loathing, but not so much for truth and rationality. Yes, Trump was a bad president, but nowadays they’re all bad. Too many foolish people are caught up in the partisan spectacle that this writing promotes. Don’t distract the public from the real problems of society. The modern struggle is along class division, not party lines.
Dave Frans I wrote a whole book on why you are wrong: https://www.routledge.com/This-Happened-Here-Amerikaners-Neoliberals-and-the-Trumping-of-America/Street/p/book/9781032150598 Check out especially Chapter 4, titled "The Anatomy of Fascism Denial." Furthermore, you have totally missed in my writing that I --- like Hedges ---- am a radical Left critic of the dismal dollar-drenched Dems. The notion that I proceeed from party not class is absurd almost beyond words. You know literally nothing about my writing. Here is paste-in from the draft of my next Substack: 'It's not that difficult to write a historical record of how awful the Republican Party has been for the last quarter of a century. It’s much more difficult and involves significant intellectual work to understand and place that history within the deeper historical context of US and global capitalism and imperialism – a context that includes the Democratic Party’s rich participation in the overlapping evils of American inequality and American empire. That is what I have tried to do in my last six books: Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (New York: Routledge, 2008); The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power (Routledge, 2010); (with A. DiMaggio) Crashing the Tea Party: Mass Media and the Campaign to Remake American Politics (Routledge, 2011); They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy (Routledge, 2014); Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement (CounterPunch Books, September 2020); This Happened Here: Neoliberals, Amerikaners, and the Trumping of America (New York: Routledge, 2021). ' I don't know a completely polite way to say that you have no idea what you are talking about regarding my world view and my writing but I am sorry to say that this is very much the case.
Paul, I appreciate you engaging me on this. I am in no way offended by your response and I hope mine did not offend you.
Sure, you may be correct. I may not fully grasp your perspective as a political or social journalist. However, I do believe that when we rail against the spectacle of Trump and neglect to mention the hypocrisy of the left we are distracted from the truth. In the same way that we currently rail against the spectacle of Putin/Russia and fail to acknowledge American international crimes committed in the name of greed and capitalism. Furthermore our distinct contribution to the buildup of this conflict. The corporate media’s purveyance of this distraction is massively damaging the truth and propagating the war.
We are debating my opinion of your writing and media in general. I think we need to shine the spotlight on the actions and influence of our oligarchy. I don’t think you are inaccurate, but I do think I have had my fill of the modern boogeymen (Trump and Putin). I do appreciate your work as an independent journalist. You and others may be our only hope to “right the ship”. Thank you Paul.
This is a bit too sensationalistic for me. Apparently recommended by Chris Hedges Report, this stuff is anything but objective. Great if you enjoy ramping up fear and loathing, but not so much for truth and rationality. Yes, Trump was a bad president, but nowadays they’re all bad. Too many foolish people are caught up in the partisan spectacle that this writing promotes. Don’t distract the public from the real problems of society. The modern struggle is along class division, not party lines.