Trotskyite Fourth International Attacks The Nation's 'Right-Wing Campaign' Against Julian Assange

You know this whole radical progressive schism over the Assange rape allegations has gotten out of control when one of the world's leading revolutionary parties is pushing back against the feminist left's charges against the WikiLeaks frontman. See the Socialist Equality Party's, "The Nation Joins the Campaign Against Julian Assange."

This article is just too darn good --- and I hate to admit it because I'm so bloody anti-communist! The writer David Walsh, a top editor at World Socialist Web Site, just hammers Katha Pollitt and her recent piece on the rape allegations. See, "The Nation joins the campaign against Julian Assange." There's a lot to digest, and for a progressive/communist organization, I'm even a little surprised at the not so subtle political incorrectness. More on that below. The introduction is worth sharing first of all:

The Nation magazine in the US, with its publication of “The Case of Julian Assange” by columnist Katha Pollitt (posted December 22, 2010), has joined the right-wing campaign against WikiLeaks co-founder Assange, a campaign directed by the highest levels of the American state.

The sexual assault charges against Assange in Sweden are part of an orchestrated effort to divert public attention from the content of the WikiLeaks exposures—the duplicity, hypocrisy and criminality of American and world imperialism—and bury the important revelations in a pile of scandalous garbage. Pollitt has eagerly lent a hand to that effort.

Such a development was predictable, given the history of the journalist and the publication, but that does not make it any less reprehensible… or educational. The arguments employed by Pollitt shed further light on the politically rotten character of contemporary feminism and identity politics generally.

This is conspiracy theorizing par excellence, which I doubt could be improved upon by anyone to right or left of the author. But notice this as well:

This is not the first time we have noted the alliance of the extreme right and feminism. [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/pola-o08.shtml] The latter has assumed deeply reactionary characteristics, misappropriating the movement for women’s rights that at one time was an element of the struggle against oppression.

Pollitt goes on to lambaste Assange’s supporters who have denounced the trumped-up and politically motivated character of the “rape” charges, including Truthout’s Dave Lindorff, filmmaker Michael Moore, MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann and feminists Naomi Wolf and Katrin Axelsson. “What's disturbing,” she writes, “is the way some WikiLeaks admirers have misrepresented the allegations, attacked the women and made light of date rape.”

Date rape has nothing to do with it, by the women’s own statements. The case involves consensual relations. Each of the women actively sought a sexual involvement with Assange.

I had to highlight that passage about the "deeply reactionary characteristics" of contemporary feminists. Sounds about right. And that last part about consensual relations is basically what Robert Stacy McCain said with "You buy the ticket, you take the ride" --- although I doubt The Other McCain would enjoy being lumped in with some Trotskyite revolutionary internationalists.

And here's my favorite:

Feminist opinion—as the Assange case and the Polanski affair before it have demonstrated—has become one of the means of legitimizing the suppression of nonconformists and political dissidents, and of changing the subject from the great social issues, above all, class oppression and social inequality, to stale and self-pitying concerns.

That whole thing could be placed in bold, but then none of it would be. I think folks catch my drift, in any case. "The means of legitimizing the suppression of nonconformists and political dissidents" has been the issue I've been exposing here this last few weeks. I'm especially interested in this since radical feminists are among the most fanatical activists you're likely to come across --- and I definitely get my quota of these types online. And clearly Sady Doyle's in a class all of her own. And while I'm getting a kick outta blogging the #MooreandMe campaign, I had to laugh out loud when I noticed that she'd unblocked me on Twittter the other day. Yep, she wants to see me tweets and she wants to read my blog. She won't link, but she's reading. And while of course there's nothing I could say to change any of her views --- considering that for Ms. Sady my effort to document her Stalinism confirms her whole program of Dworkinite feminist machinations (misogyny, blah, blah.) --- it's certainly worth it from my point of view. Some of her acolytes have been making sensational claims puffing up the impact of #MooreandMe to the scale of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Michael Moore really is a god if women today have placed him on par with Martin Luther King, Jr. The flip side is that of course such inflation of accomplishments reveals how little today's feminists have left to achieve. Hey, once you bring down MLK let's go for dethroning the 16th President of the United States from the pantheon of America's greatest leaders. Shoot. Saving the Union from irreparable and violent dissolution? That's nothing compared to getting the Flint Fatso to confess on Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that "every woman who claims to have been raped has to be, must be taken seriously ..." Blah, blah. Gosh. I mean, wow. That has to be Michael Moore's Appomattox. Ms. Sady is the rail splitter of the radical gender feminist contingents! Surrender!

More later ...

Year of the Woman? Not for Feminists

I guess it's logical in our identity-obssessed, quota driven politics, but all this talk about "The Year of the Woman" is so yesterday. In California we've had two women senators for two decades. In 2008, Hillary Clinton nearly won the Democratic nomination and Sarah Palin was the GOP vice presidential nominee. And with Elena Kagan's likely confirmation, there'll be three women sitting on the United States Supreme Court. We have full gender equality in the United States. Women are still moving in top positions of power, and their numbers have yet to catch up with men in governmental institutions, but it's silly to deny full equality of opportunity. Indeed, Hanna Rosin at The Atlantic --- a gender extremist if there ever was one, in her demonization of breast-feeding, for example --- is jumping for joy in "The End of Men" from the July/August edition. Sure, a lot of it's over-the-top, but the larger reality of the empowerment of women is no longer in question.

So why all the attention to the string of women's victories in Tuesday's primaries? The press needs a catchy spin, for one thing. Or, more likely, journalists need to feed the cultish mavens of gender equality. For example, at Wall Street Journal, "Women Candidates Come Into Their Own." And at USA Today, "Women candidates play major role in 2010."

But wait! Everything's not so hunky dory on the feminist front. At the Los Angeles Times, "2010: the Year of the Conservative Woman?", you'll notice the stress on "conservative women," as if women on the right aren't for equality. And check the comments at Jezebel, "Meet The Political Ladies Who Triumphed Last Night." Tuesday was a big night for women candidates, but leftists can't stand it:

Republican women politicians (and just in general) are the worst. They want to take away my rights but have the right to keep theirs. Fuck all of these bishes!

I'm all for sisterhood (or whatever) but not if it includes women like these.

*****

Do we really want politicians, even if they are women, making decisions for our states and/or country that includes many people they don't even consider worth their time, not to mention trying to take ownership of our reproductive organs and forcing religion into politics?

*****

Oh hello there women of the GOP. Why don't we make a deal here. I won't try to control your uterus and you don't try to control mine.

That kind of downer on the left has Rachael Larimore asking, "Where’s the Rah-Rah Sisterhood?"

Why the schizophrenia on women's progress? Why the disconnect and disenchantment? Obviously, feminism today is an ideology that leverages victimhood and male-hatred into a regime of abortion-on-demand and gender quota set-asides. It's one of the most important currents on the contemporary radical left. And the trend isn't just isolated to extremist feminist bloggers like Amanda Marcotte or Jessica Valenti. Take a look at Barbara Kellerman's piece at yesterday's Business Week, "Don’t Drink Yet to New ‘Year of the Woman’":

There’s no doubt, obviously, that the role of women in society is changing, in some cases in important ways. Among the changes are those in education, where females are increasingly more educated, better educated and better credentialed than their male counterparts.

But so far as leadership roles are concerned, whether in government or industry, or for that matter in nonprofits and in the military, women in America still badly lag behind. Here are just a few of the figures...

What follows there is a long list of statistics on the comparative indicators of women's progress. But we'll always have differences in achievement in America. We're to the point where women are catching up and surpassing men in the everyday measurements of success such as college attendance and middle-class earnings. That's what Hanna Rosin's boasting about at The Atlantic. And until the rest of the downbeat press corps and radical feminists start picking up that meme, despite increasing female representation in politics, we'll never truly ever have a "Year of the Woman."

Gender Neutral Bathroom Fail

Boy, today's college kids ... what will they think of next?

From Gary Fouse, "The "Demands" of the UC-Irvine Protesters":

5) We demand that UCI immediately equip the campus with gender neutral bathrooms. Students and workers who do not fit the illusion of gender normativity suffer routine violence and intimidation. UC should not privilege heteronormativity over the interests of its LGBT community.

See also, the Orange County Register, "17 Arrested in UCI Protest."

International Officials Launch Gender Inquiry on Caster Semenya

Freaky story from the Los Angeles Times, "Questions Raised About Gender of Winner of Women's 800-Meter Race":

A South African teenager's stunning victory in the women's 800-meter race at the World Championships on Wednesday was only a precursor to the shocking circumstances unveiled afterward.

At least two of the seven runners who lost to Caster Semenya said they are convinced she is not a woman, and track and field's international governing body has launched an investigation into the 18-year-old's gender.

Semenya, a muscular 5 feet 7 inches and 140 pounds, was an unknown before she ran a blistering time at the Africa Junior Championships three weeks ago. She did not speak to media after the race. An interview sheet distributed by the International Assn. of Athletics Federations said "no comment available," and Pierre Weiss, the IAAF's general secretary, appeared in her place at a news conference because officials determined Semenya was unprepared to face a barrage of questions.

Weiss said it could take several weeks to get the results of the investigation, which he said included testing of Semenya in both South Africa and Berlin. Without that evidence, the IAAF could not keep Semenya from running here.

"We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way," South African team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane told the Associated Press. "Our conscience is clear in terms of Semenya."

The issue of gender testing is so controversial that the International Olympic Committee suspended widespread gender testing in 1999, reserving the right to do psychological, gynecological and chromosome investigations "if there is a valid suspicion," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said in an e-mail.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the international federation began to ask questions about Semenya on July 31, when she ran what then was the fastest time in the world this season, 1 minute 56.72 seconds, at the Africa Junior Championships in Mauritius.

She ran even faster Wednesday, winning in 1:55.45, a time bettered by only a dozen women in history. With 150 meters to go, she turned the race into a rout, leaving defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya (1:57.90) and Jennifer Meadows of Britain (1:57.93) far back in second and third.

"I've never seen her [Semenya] before today," Meadows said. "She took the race by storm."

Also, KTLA, "Man or Woman? Officials to Test Gender of 800-Meter Runner."

Plus, "South Africa's Track President Defends Gold Medalist Semenya."

Video Hat Tip: Right Fielders.

Standard Operating Procedures for Summer BBQ

Good stuff! Barbeque etiquette from Maggie's Farm (humor alert!!):

We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine...

(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat ...

More at the link!

Biology and the Sick Ideological Fantasies of the Left

Dr. Sanity comments on the case of the Swedish parents who want to let their child "choose" its gender when the "time is right":

This is probably one of the best examples of the kind of biological fantasies generated by the so-called 'progressive' and 'reality-based' intellects of the left. Yesterday I talked about how the face of evil constantly renews itself ; however, the ultimate goal remains the same: it is anti-mind, anti-life, and anti-reality.

The parents who wish to deny the biological reality of their child are no different than all those who wish to deny reality in order to proudly disply their leftist credentials. They are no different from any other "selfless" sociopath who desires control over others; except that their particular brand of malignant narcissism couches its oppression of others in terms like "social justice" and "choice"--but it is tyranny nonetheless.

Is it any wonder then that, unlike the capitalist system they abhor, where basic human nature--both the good and the bad parts--is harnessed and made socially useful, the ideologically-motivated paents described above (and all the reality-denying morons of the left) intend to stamp out or ignore any aspect of human nature they don't happen to like, or which is inconvenient to their ideology.

Someone should tell them it has been tried many times before, and by much smarter tyrants than the current crop of ideologues will ever be. It won't work. It cannot work. It has NEVER worked.