Re my post below on Bill Ayers, commenter unsinkmolly, whom I thank for her regular contributions, writes:
You make a strong case of discrediting Ayers' and Dohrn's regrettable and appalling extremist choices, but your statement generalizing the entire "far left" concerns me greatly. There is a struggle clearly going on with Obama enthusiast progressives and those who have earned the right to look on inspiring rhetoric and anyone who wins in a system that has been the catalyst for hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed, including America's own patriotic children, and of economic corruption that is so embedded it seems what chance does the common good have against the money-providing corporations and their lobbyists, and a corporate media owned by the conservative, grossly self-serving ruling class.
Don't pull a Palin on us, Michael, and as she used Ayers to discredit the Democrats, don'tt use Ayers to discredit the ENTIRE far left...
Okay, fair enough and point taken. Obviously, most people on the far left then and now don't believe the Manson family was a force for liberation. But I should clarify my terms, which are
admittedly subjective and different for everyone.
When I say "far left," I refer to people who already think Barack Obama is a mainstream sellout hack who will never take on the power structure in such a way as to bring about real change and whose election, while laudatory in certain respects, is in fact especially dangerous because it will lull people into thinking that America is a tolerant, decent society and believing that a few crumbs from Massa's table represents reform etc etc. You know the kind of thing. So the folks I'm referring to aren't that engaged in the intra-progressive debate over Obama's appointments, or they at best represent the farthest left fringe of that debate. In general terms, while not of course tossing everyone in the pot, I'd venture that these are same kinds of folks would be more likely to accept Ayers' poppycock at face value.
And by the way, I rethought the Polanski business over the weekend. He should face justice. I should note, however, that prosecutorial misconduct is a very serious thing, and if he can prove that it happened, then the principles of the Constitution must be followed, and if that means he is to be a free man, then so be it. And say what you will, but I like Bitter Moon better than me likes Chinatown, and tough noogies!
