[Peace-discuss] anti-semitism

[Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

Karen--

I think the importance of this list and others like (there aren't many) is precisely that one needn't present credentials ("Show me your papers!") to participate.
And so there are undoubtedly people "posing, spying ... or just off their rockers" on the list. (Recall, though that AWARE members are job creators: from the NSA to local police & FBI clerks, someone has got to monitor this stuff, on the look-out for terrrorists, and our tax money is paying them to do it...)

The notion of "protected space" - from protest zones to trigger alerts - is a tool of contemporary censorship, which the present administration has  ramped up beyond its predecessors. (The enabling context is American liberalism's abandonment of class politics for identity politics.)  

I certainly do want  "a ready-made audience" of fellow-citizens concerned about our government's criminal wars, because the Obama administration and corporate media are working assiduously to insure that "nobody will talk to [people like me] elsewhere" (e.g., in the media owned by six corporations, the universities devoted to avoiding "the sixties" again, with debt-traps for students & ideological tests for faculty, and sham election campaigns).

"Engaging these people [like me] fuels their need for social interaction -- arguments are social interaction" - and may lead to action against our murderous government.

Regards, Carl


"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." --Louis Brandeis

"If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." --Noam Chomsky




On Jul 21, 2014, at 11:44 AM, Karen Medina via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> I will just point out that this is an open list.
> People don't actually have to be "peace activists" to be on the list,
> so if they post to the list, do not assume that they have any
> credentials. They could be posing, or spying, or trying to test the
> peace, or just off their rockers.
> 
> Basically this is not a protected space. Rather listservs often
> attract the people that feel they need a ready-made audience because
> nobody will talk to them elsewhere. Engaging these people fuels their
> need for social interaction -- arguments are social interaction.
> 
> My advice: Doubt each person, doubt their posts, and ignore the posts
> that aren't people with whom you would willingly enter into a
> conversation.
> 
> -karen medina
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss