Once again, A CURSE ON THE PARTY SPIRIT

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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.

Comments

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And that reminds me. The American right is pelted daily with horror stories about the British National Health Service. However, you may notice that there are no such stories about the German, French, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian or Dutch health services (apart of course from the unfortunate Dutch habit of killing the old and sick and calling it "good death" - a habit which, in spite of much rhetoric, has nothing to do with socialized medicine, and whose most famous proponent is an American doctor). Why is that? Is it because American journalists only speak English? Not really - that is a charge you may lay against the English, not against the more adventurous Yanks. It is more that such horror stories are much, much rarer on the Continent. And why is that? Because the British Health Service has been subjected, since the days of Margaret Thatcher, to a series of disastrous market-obsessed experiments and to increasing privatization. Contrary to freemarketeering wisdom, this has led to a marked increase in waste, overspend, bad practice, and corruption. If you want data to support this claim, get back to me or try to get hold the various dossiers on NHS privatization published by Private Eye magazine.