How many ML’s are actually doing investigative journalism? Nearly none, AFAIK. We have to get our facts from wherever we can. We can take the information without catching liberal cooties from the messenger.
We should have standards of a kind. But as passing along sources of information goes, I don’t think one of them needs to be “must be a communist.” As I understand it, the primary contradiction right now is imperialism, so if someone is doing good anti-imperialist work, that’s something. Now if they are doing token anti-imperialist talking points and then taking a hard right turn, that’s a good place to draw the line, I think. But I’m not aware of this person failing in that particular way.
And that prior to that, he posted something defensive of Noam Chomsky before retracting it after having read more on exchanges between Chomsky and Epstein. Shown at around 1:10-1:30 into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW9gAKG7gFo
Where my mind goes is, what are his ties to Chomsky and reason for related sympathies. Is it nothing more than being defensive because, as he puts it, he saw it as “a rush to nullify a lifetime of noble work” (e.g. he believes in contributions Chomsky has made and sees it as the usual imperialist media looking for excuses to go after anyone outside the box?). Or is he himself too much like controlled opposition and Chomsky was too, and same is running cover for same?
I don’t know enough about him to judge and I think we should be cautious of assuming ill intent based on “six degrees of separation to Epstein” kind of thinking, especially when there are plenty of evident and straightforward connections to be concerned about. At the same time, I think there is value in being cautious in the other direction and investigating the material interests of people who are anti-imperialist but are not ML. It’s not going to be some cosmic accident that they are that way. There will be reasons they are willing to embrace the one, but not the other, whether those reasons are easy to see or not.
I liked Aaron Mate debunking of the Russophobia going around, nothing more.
Honestly, we don’t have to “settle.” We’re getting to the point where we have a list of sources we can refer to later.
How many ML’s are actually doing investigative journalism? Nearly none, AFAIK. We have to get our facts from wherever we can. We can take the information without catching liberal cooties from the messenger.
I guess…
It just seems that, well, we have standards, dammit…
We should have standards of a kind. But as passing along sources of information goes, I don’t think one of them needs to be “must be a communist.” As I understand it, the primary contradiction right now is imperialism, so if someone is doing good anti-imperialist work, that’s something. Now if they are doing token anti-imperialist talking points and then taking a hard right turn, that’s a good place to draw the line, I think. But I’m not aware of this person failing in that particular way.
The issue here appears to be that he recently posted a statement from Noam Chomsky’s wife, Valéria Chomsky, about the ties to Epstein: https://www.aaronmate.net/p/noam-chomskys-wife-responds-to-epstein
And that prior to that, he posted something defensive of Noam Chomsky before retracting it after having read more on exchanges between Chomsky and Epstein. Shown at around 1:10-1:30 into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW9gAKG7gFo
Where my mind goes is, what are his ties to Chomsky and reason for related sympathies. Is it nothing more than being defensive because, as he puts it, he saw it as “a rush to nullify a lifetime of noble work” (e.g. he believes in contributions Chomsky has made and sees it as the usual imperialist media looking for excuses to go after anyone outside the box?). Or is he himself too much like controlled opposition and Chomsky was too, and same is running cover for same?
I don’t know enough about him to judge and I think we should be cautious of assuming ill intent based on “six degrees of separation to Epstein” kind of thinking, especially when there are plenty of evident and straightforward connections to be concerned about. At the same time, I think there is value in being cautious in the other direction and investigating the material interests of people who are anti-imperialist but are not ML. It’s not going to be some cosmic accident that they are that way. There will be reasons they are willing to embrace the one, but not the other, whether those reasons are easy to see or not.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: