June 14, 2007
Cases in point
There's a good piece on AdBusters (perhaps the most self-defeating publication on the planet) about the victim complex of the American Left. Though it does get some of its critiques right on the money, it's also guilty of engaging in the same kinds of behavior that it criticizes, particularly in its assessment of the state of the media.
I think a truly honest assessment of right-wing talk radio's criticisms of the left isn't that they're representative of a corporatocratic conspiracy but that they're 1) largely accurate, and 2) indicitive of the way that a huge swath of the American public perceives the left, whether or not it's accurate.
Money quote:
"The sad truth is that if the FBI really is following anyone on the American left, it is engaging in a huge waste of time and personnel. No matter what it claims for a self-image, in reality it’s the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God’s green earth. And its ugly little secret is that it really doesn’t mind being in the position it’s in – politically irrelevant and permanently relegated to the sidelines, tucked into its cozy little cottage industry of polysyllabic, ivory tower criticism. When you get right down to it, the American left is basically just a noisy Upper West side cocktail party for the college-graduate class.
And we all know it. The question is, when will we finally admit it?"
