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Well, I was talking about Russophobia in America.  Today it is alive and well on the left (if you click on the link to Timothy's site, you can find more of my thougts on that) but even before the turn of the century in America, the leftist socialist trade-unionist movement in America was associated with Russia.  I just finished a book based on the case of a man in Chicago who was murdered by police in 1908, ostensibly for being an anarchist, on the sole basis that he looked like a Russian Jew. And then of course there was McCarthyism.  

There seems to be little or no association left in American between the left and Russia, as there was in the early to mid 20th Century, thanks to a combination of blacklists over here and Stalinism over there.  What's noteable now is how the neo-cons use tenuous arugments like civil liberties and democracy for demonizine Russia, and the left plays right into their hands, buys it hook line and sinker, even though the neo-cons could give a hoot less about civil liberties and democracy.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 10:48:15 AM EST
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I wouldn't call it playing into their hands, anymore than complaining about US abuses is playing into the hands of various human rights abusing critics of the US abroad. Just because the North Koreans and Cubans criticize certain things doesn't mean that the critiques aren't valid, ditto in reverse for the neo-cons.
by MarekNYC on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 10:57:17 AM EST
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I don't know about valid.  Valid would imply we actually give a f* about human rights abuses.

Insincere, inflated, manipulative and distorted - yes.  It's a Trojan horse of concern.  It's like the SNL skit with the killer shark and the candy gram.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 11:09:14 AM EST
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