DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
Chomsky's ivory tower has accelerated his drift into less than admirable positions, objectively supporting the empire. Like many of the worthies signing this ridiculous open letter, he has joined the choir condemning Venezuela—on what basis may we ask?
The forces of illiberalism are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who represents a real threat to democracy. But resistance must not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion—which right-wing demagogues are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.
...
Said shorter: "Don't cancel the Fascist but, more importantly, DON'T CANCEL US!"
The people who signed the letter, all in influential positions, seemed more concerned with being criticized themselves for the nonsense they write.
Next to Noam Chomsky there were quite a lot of warmongers and false 'liberuls' who had amongst the names, for example David Frum and J.K. Rowlings. These are people who are themselves prone to practices 'cancel culture' when they disagree with others.
Counter letters were written and published:
The signatories, many of them white, wealthy, and endowed with massive platforms, argue that they are afraid of being silenced, that so-called cancel culture is out of control, and that they fear for their jobs and free exchange of ideas, even as they speak from one of the most prestigious magazines in the country.
...
[T]he irony of the piece is that nowhere in it do the signatories mention how marginalized voices have been silenced for generations in journalism, academia, and publishing.
That the original letter and its signers can not be taken seriously was emphatically proven with this:
Jeremy Repanich @racefortheprize - 23:14 UTC · Jul 17, 2020
LOL. Thomas Chatterton Williams, who wrote the Harper's letter, admitted today that Glenn Greenwald was kept off the letter b/c other signees didn't like his views.
The signers of the letter against the 'cancel culture' had cancelled Glenn Greenwald from signing it.
I am not sure who should be more embarrassed about this - Greenwald or the other signers.
Posted by b on July 18, 2020 at 17:30 UTC | Permalink
From a historical perspective, the term that most attracted my attention was "[the forces of] illiberalism", which is an obvious recall of the term "totalitarianism" from the post-war "center-left" intellectuals from the West.
History repeats twice: once as a tragedy, and once as a farce.
By the way, the letter has also been called as bullshit by the British leftism's newspaper The Canary:
‘Cancel culture’ is a myth. So is the idea that the political right is under siege
The key here is proportion. What is concretely happening? What are the facts on the field? What are the material results of each opinion?
Essentially just more anti-BDS bullshit.
The neoliberal establishment hates any form of collective action.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 18 2020 18:03 utc | 3
Posted by: BM | Jul 18 2020 17:43 utc | 1
Chomsky is an anti-communist. Need I say more?
Posted by: barovsky | Jul 18 2020 18:04 utc | 4
I'm not surprised that JK Rowling signed this gibberish. She's got a really bad case of the ex-Celebrity Blues and is probably bored shitless since she lost her place in the spotlight. I think she's really, really cute. But... she IS a Blonde, after all so she should be forgiven on that basis alone...
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 18 2020 18:08 utc | 5
@BM
"No reason for Greenwald to be embarassed - he is a fake Liberul like many of the others, and should have been allowed on the platform."
Greenwald wasn't "embarrassed" by being 'voted down' by the majority of the other signers of the now infamous "Letter", because he was never even "asked" to sign in the first place.
Here is his response 'tweet':
"1/ Regarding the apparent fact that the Letter’s organizer wanted to have me sign but the luminaries actually in control cancelled me (I was never asked), it’s been obvious from the start that the Letter was signed by frauds, eager to protect their own status, not the principles"
And calling him a "fake Liberul" (sic) is laughable. If anything, Greenwald is, and has always been essentially a constitutional Libertarian - opposing both the self serving conservative and liberal factions of the ruling corporate power party.
Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Jul 18 2020 18:27 utc | 6
To me, this issue is just the usual bloviating by people who take themselves way too seriously. What we have to watch out for is people who are in posesión of the Truth. Those are the people who are responsable for the most barbaric atrocities the world has seen. As has been said: opinions are like assholes, everybodys got one.
Posted by: c | Jul 18 2020 18:28 utc | 7
@ 6
Greenwald totally supported Citizens United which institutionalized legal bribery of the political process by the corporate elites.
In return, Greenwald got rewarded by the corporate elites while relinquishing his megaphone and his Snowden files to Omidyar
Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 18 2020 18:44 utc | 8
BM @1
Chomsky is a very intelligent man who has had the misfortune of having lived his entire life in a sheltering academic ivory tower. He's never had a real job to give him life experiences that could anchor him to reality, so he ends up just as vulnerable to delusional drift as are stupid people who have actually had real jobs. This vulnerability has only worsened as he has entered old age. Chomsky's attack on the Venezuelan government is tragic proof that he has become unmoored. What is funny/sad is that the empire's apologists, who would criticize almost every other stance Chomsky has ever taken, will defend him on that one issue.
Chomsky has done some excellent work, but I would strongly caution against putting him on any sort of hero pedestal. Chomsky's ideas are definitely worth studying, but not uncritically.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 18 2020 18:49 utc | 9
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The signers of the letter against the 'cancel culture' had cancelled Glenn Greenwald from signing it.
I am not sure who should be more embarrassed about this - Greenwald or the other signers.
No reason for Greenwald to be embarassed - he is a fake Liberul like many of the others, and should have been allowed on the platform.
Interesting Chomsky was on the list, very contradictory character, hard to finger. I'd be interested what other people think about Chomsky.
Posted by: BM | Jul 18 2020 17:43 utc | 1