re: #112 Obdicut

I think it’s perfectly, perfectly valid for Killgore to ask questions like:

If people are responding to protests organized by Adbusters, shouldn’t what Adbusters stands for (including anti-Semitic conspiracy theories) matter?

Shouldn’t the protesters be held accountable for those that protest along with them? If someone is there with an openly anti-semitic sign, shouldn’t he be confronted?

I think those questions are perfectly valid, however it’s also true that KT hasn’t really been asking them, that’s more what you did. His job seems to have been exposure, not critique. And a lot of his commentary lately is snark, mockery, and a somewhat creepy glee at the sight of protestors getting beaten. I can understand that coming from a sarcastic pov that wants to get back at some of what he perceives to be ignorance to his otherwise fair observations. But some stuff just comes across as petty and it doesn’t help anything.

I think a lot of the rationale of what he’s saying gets lost because he’s also putting a laugh track on pictures of people getting pepper-sprayed. And then saying he doesn’t like the violence.

Yup.

To put it another way: An Adbusters candidate for office would be just as radical as a Tea Party candidate. Whatever you may think of their goals or ideals, they are very, very far away from the mainstream of US thought, and being pro-anarchist and anti-capitalist would make for about as extreme a candidate as a theocratic Tea Party type.

Indeed, that would be the MBF having become real. It isn’t real, however – put a “yet” after that statement if you want.

The difference being that I don’t think there is any reason to believe the people at these rallies are going to swing the DNC by the tail in the way that the Tea Party did, and that I don’t think the leaders of the Democrats are going to embrace their values anytime soon, whereas the values and message of the Tea Party were very much embraced by the GOP. In fact, I’d say the Tea Party just lifted up the lid of a value system already in place in the GOP, legacy of Dick Armey, Norquist, the collusion with the Religious Right, and generations of the Southern Strategy.

Agreed. But I do want to point out that there are legitimate points that OWS has been focusing attention on, real issues that even the President adressed recently (and for that he got massive conspiracy theory flak from the Right that is by now pretty much canon). If these real issues become the core focus of the protests, that would be great. If it all rides off into lefty la-la-land with the Dems following then it would become MBF come true.