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fpb ([personal profile] fpb) wrote2008-05-22 07:51 pm
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Once again, A CURSE ON THE PARTY SPIRIT

Is there anything else that would lead people to accept and defend complete rubbish, to hold up stuff that demeans their own intellect, to insult anyone who disagrees, and, worst of all, to completely abandon any shred of critical attitude, insisting that that which flatters our party positions is therefore sacred and untouchable?

I have come to the edge of a break with people I really like, and that is not the first time. But damn it to Hell, what do they expect me to - falsify my own life experience and the history of my country (on which every Italian alive or dead would answer as I do), accept a thesis that is not just false but obviously false, not just politically motivated but obviously politically motivated, and that for no reason except in order to preserve a personal relationship? If that were the case, that would be emotional blackmail. And yet I see no other reason for the rabid and repetitious attacks I have been subjected since I attacked a certain instance of American pamphleteering. It is as if someone were telling me that no peaceful relationship with them is possible unless I give in to their delusions. And that I not only will not, but cannot do.

Edited in: I imagine that the lurkers and wankers who were still following this LJ only a few weeks back will decide to hold back on this argument. It is the sort of thing they love, is it not - FPB arguing with someone? Only in this case it is not the kind of argument they want to present; it would not answer their prejudices, and might even lead their fans to wonder who is in the right after all.

Sometimes I really get tired.

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2008-05-24 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
If a book claims that water is dry and that grass is pink, do I need to engage with the subtleties of its argument? Godlberg's claim is based on the American superstitions about "collectivism", as if all political activity were not collective. I may in time deal with that rubbish, but the statement that FAscism has more in common with Socialism than with nationalism and extreme conservatism is a creepy joke whose popularity among the American right only shows that they are completely isolated from the real world. I have paid this crap far too much respect, and that is because I was so furious at feeling his paws all over my own past and my own memories. The proper response to this kind of book is to throw it across the room, or into the recycling bin - or just to laugh and laugh and laugh. It has all the credibility and intellectual seriousness of the Flat Earth Society or of the average creationist. Have I made my point clear enough? It is not something that deserves debate, but the document of a weird and cultish mindset that can deny the obvious. Have I made my point clear enough now?
Edited 2008-05-24 06:37 (UTC)

[identity profile] headnoises.livejournal.com 2008-05-24 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
"Answer the fool according to his folly."