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Entry: A Few More Thoughts Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_few_more_thoughts1#4271 Post contents: This whole thread is filled with nonsense on all sides. For starters the left is in no way dependent on Marxist materialism as its guiding light. In fact it is the modern libertarian movement..a movement for which Ron Paul is the vanguard figure..that is the most materialist movement since the collapse of the authentic "fellow traveler" left in this country. In fact the left has always had dissenters from the Marxist line, not the least of which were Bakunin and his "followers" (if one must use such terms to describe authentic anarchists). In recent years anarchism is the flavor of the month for much of the American left and even previously reliably socialist websites, magazines and causes often trumpet the cause of decentralists and turn over their pages to its major proponents (Kirkpatrick Sale, Bill Kauffman, Gore Vidal, Thomas Naylor, et). Also it is absolutely false to claim that the left cannot be authentically leftist or non-interventionist. With all do respect to the Pat Buchanans and Sam Francis' of the world, leftist like Alex Cockburn have been far more consistent in their anti-imperalist, non-interventionist views and historical interpertations. The Balkans wars which has been mentioned in this thread was almost universially opposed by the hard left in this country, from Chomsky on down...in fact the original paleocon/old right/left nexus was formed as a result of the isolationist perspectives regarding these matters. This has been a matter exclusively related to wars with Muslim nations or the Balkans. Cockburn has editorialized against the UN, Howard Zinn has all but condemned WWII, and the left in general were universially opposed to the Cold War proxy conflicts. Conversely alot of the figures associated with the "Old Right" were extreme Cold War hawks...who is inconsistent? Prof. Gottfried is also engaging in fantasy when he claims Gore Vidal has focused attention on gay activism. This is absurd. Vidal is arguably the least self-identified openly gay man in history. In fact he rejects the term, the existance of "homosexual" as a noun and to quote another leftist Ralph Nader, "gonad politics" in general. It would be far more accurate to suggest certain elemants of the paleos are disturbingly obsessed with the alleged negative impacts of homosexuality, most of which are never given. On the other hand anyone arguing that the Old Right were foolish to oppose WWII are thinking narrowly. The Old Right was absolutely right to oppose intervening in a foreign war, between empires and tyrants that were prone to destroy each other. Taking the side of Stalin, even if only for supposedly "realist" reasons, does not change the fact that Stalin was quite arguably a greater threat to the U.S. and the world in general than Hitler was or ever could have been. The disgraceful antics of the Old Left and their modern day disciples and propagandists, does not change the reality of Stalinist Russia, or the very real possibility that the Soviet Monster was the greatest benefactor of our enterance into the European War. If one wished to attack the left or the right there is plent ammunition. There is no need to lie, distort or feign ignorance in regard to obvious truisms. Sent at: 2008 08 30