More on Ayers and Dohrn

by the Pirate on February 27, 2008

At Belmont Club.

Now as to why reputable academic institutions should employ the likes of Ayers and Dohrn the answer is equally simple: solidarity. It’s a solidarity that exists not only in the present but goes back through history. To observe that Adolf Hitler is reviled while Josef Stalin is still held in high regard by [the] Left may be seen by Goldberg as a contradiction. It is no such thing. It’s just a fact. The Left isn’t stupid. It’s just on the other side.

{ 2 comments }

James Joyner February 27, 2008 at 4:40 am

Who is it that holds Stalin in “high regard”? Nobody comes to mind and I’ve met quite a few liberal academics in my day.

Some hold Karl Marx in high regard and even some of the ideals of Communism but who is it that approves of Stalinism?

Attila Girl February 27, 2008 at 9:45 am

The phrase “high regard” may represent overstatement—except, perhaps, as regards one of my ex-boyfriends who is an unrepentant Stalinist—but there certainly is a double standard WRT Stalin vs. Hitler among my lefty friends (many of whom are academicians): for Hitler, it is understood, no apologies can be made. Stalin, on the other hand, meant well, and accomplished so much. He just got carried away.

“No one is really evil,” one friend earnestly remarks.

“How about Hitler and Stalin?” I ask.

“Stalin, no. Hitler, yes.”

And the very fact that the ideals of Marxism are still held up as worthy goals says a lot: do people say similar things about the “good” aspects of National Socia-iism?

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