I used to know Horrorwitz personally (since he was a friend of my girlfriend of the time) and in fact saw him in the process of flipping, though likely after he had gone over the top (or "jumped the shark," as it were).
As I understand it, he was a total jerk back when he was a leftist/Marxist. He has been accused of plagiarizing from authors who submitted articles to RAMPARTS; allegedly, he rejected articles and then published them under his name. In general, he is said to be obnoxious. In some ways, his current disgusting actions are simply a reliving of his youth. Not only is he getting back at his mother, who was an organizer for the Communist Party, but my speculation is that he is acting like her. Back in the 1970s, I met him at a picnic at a park in Berkeley. I mentioned, in a mild voice, that the beer he was drinking -- George Killian's Red -- was made by Coors, which was being boycotted. He reacted in a much stronger tone than mine, telling me that he preferred Coors to the Teamsters Union, which was then run by corrupt gangster affiliates. I was a bit taken aback -- not expecting such a response -- so I didn't respond, mentioning that Teamsters for a Democratic Union favored the boycott, etc. At the time, I didn't know at the time that he had been a big muck-a-muck on the left. Another time, I ran into him at a bar in Berkeley (Brennans?). After a little bit of chit-chat, he told me that I needed to undergo a personality change in order to get rid of my bad politics. The implication for me was that he had had such a change himself. This was due, I've been told, to the fact that he had bet on the Black Panthers at a time when they were descending into thuggism and had allegedly killed his friend Betty Patter, who'd he'd arranged a job for with them. Perhaps the third time I encountered him, at some forum about the US war against Nicaragua I believe. His friends were telling him that he shouldn't be hanging with folks from the Heritage Foundation (and the like). He referred to the HF guy as "Aryan looking." I said that "Aryan" referred to a language group, not an ethnic appearance. He said that he'd be more careful in the future. I didn't expect that he'd continue to shift to the right. The last time I saw him was at his wedding in Los Angeles. I didn't really talk to him, but his new and old families were talking about how conservative he was. They hadn't seen nothing yet, since he shifted much further. On 8/18/06, Jayson Funke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Does anyone have any insight into why David Horowitz completely flipped his political/philosophical position from Left to Right? From what I have encountered, much of his early critical work was quite good and is still frequently referenced by Leftists. Why the dramatic change? Jayson Funke Graduate School of Geography Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, MA 01610
-- Jim Devine / "While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser" -- Karl Marx
