Taibbi on the American Left
We heard from Max on the Internet Left and the ensuing distress. For a change of pace, here is Matt Taibbi on the American Left:
AlterNet: Time’s Joe Klein: a Supreme Suck-Up
[…]
Let’s get this straight: there are no “leftists” in modern-day America. Or, rather, there about ten of them, and you can find absolutely every single one of them at the next antiwar or anti-anything protest in Washington; they all fit in one section of the park behind the White House, where you can find pretty much all of them passing out small stacks of socialist fliers, mainly to each other. These socialists are committed, dedicated, utterly serious political activists, which makes them absolutely atypical Americans, which is why there are so few of them.
The rest of the people that the Kleins of the world are calling “leftists” are mostly cautious consumers who watch a lot of Netflix movies, have maybe read Love in the Time of Cholera once or twice, and whose most aggressive step in the direction of socialism is a vote in favor of increased school spending. They might drive a foreign car, or willingly see a movie with subtitles. If that makes them “leftists,” what word are we going to use for real leftists?
It’s totally fucking stupid, and Klein is old enough and close to bright enough to see the absurdity of red-baiting the basically timid conservatism of the American TV-watching, net-surfing leisure class. If you gave the people Joe Klein calls “leftists” a choice — told them they could have an instant Scandanavian-style state-directed economy, but only if The Sopranos was pulled off the air — how many of them do you think would vote for even that kind of socialism? The A&E network has nothing to worry about, let’s put it that way.
[…]
Heh!
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