On 9/21/13 7:37 PM, Gar Lipow wrote: > simply being nonsense. > --
It is like I tried to point out on Marxmail. There is a deep malaise on the left rooted in the need to "defend Syria". It has led John Bellamy Foster to endorse an article that made the wildly improbable claim that most members of the FSA are foreign fighters, something Julio Huato then agreed with but thankfully backed down from. In terms of inaccuracy, this would rank with saying that there are no ties between fracking and polluted waters, or between chemical fertilizers and the loss of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. How people such as Gar and Foster can lend their good name to preposterous notions about Ghouta and the FSA must be thought about carefully. If the left can't move past this tendency to accept nutty "findings" on Syria at face value, it will begin to discredit itself in the way that the CPUSA did in the 1950s. Since we are so weak, we can't afford this. Finally, I am tired of hearing excuses from people like "I am no expert on Syria" or "as an American my job is to oppose my government". If you can't take the trouble to do a little research, then at least don't give credit to Mint Press and the like. There will never be a need to retract a statement opposing Tomahawk attacks on Syria, but why stick your foot in your mouth over matters you have absolutely no commitment to fact-checking? _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
