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Bay Area Anarchists Celebrate Consumerism, Authority
March 30, 2005
Fear and Loathing sell, at the 10th Annual Bay Area Anarchists Book Fair. The SF Chron reports: "A Bush election is very good for anarchist consumerism," said organizer Joey Cain, 50. Happy customers abounded. "This is Christmas," said Eileen Rose, 43, hands full of books. "The hardest thing about coming here is that there's so much of what I feel is critical tools to have." She showed a friend her finds, including "Anarchism and Other Essays" by Emma Goldman and a "F -- your fascist beauty standards" patch. Indeed, the F-word was especially popular at the fair: "You don't have to f -- people over to survive" and "F -- all boy bands" were among the slogans on the ubiquitous T-shirts, pins and patches. In addition to celebrating consumerism, attendees of the anarchists' book fair were talking up authority, too. Mike Travers...was there with his 5- year-old son, Sam....He sighed: "It's hard being an anarchist parent," he said, "because as a parent, you have to be the authority figure." Must mention the great celebrity guest. ...the star of the day (was) Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor whose controversial comments about Sept. 11 have recently sparked protests and debate about free speech on college campuses. Altogther, a classy bunch; and going places, too. Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 30, 2005 12:30 PM Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: Comments:
Here's what I love about the whole Ward Churchill thing. The guy is a radical fringe college professor that basically no one had ever heard of. He writes a couple articles and a book disparaging US foreign policy that basically nobody read. Somebody in the right wing noise machine decides that Ward is going to be the new poster boy for liberal craziness. Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Anne Coulter, they all go crazy about this guy, like he actually mattered. Suddenly, the guy is a celebrity and probably making a lot more money than he ever did as a college professor. They probably helped him sell a bunch of books too. What a country! Posted by: Steven at March 30, 2005 02:48 PMActually, it was Churchill's scheduled appearance at Hamilton College in upstate NY earlier this year, that touched off a critical review of his work there, then that campus controversy got picked up, justifiably, I'd argue, by the national media. Personally, I wouldn't have expected Dan Rather or Peter Jennings to have broken the news to the nation. Posted by: Matt R. at March 30, 2005 03:38 PMThat was my point. It wasn't newsworthy. The only reason it got picked up by the "national media" was to try and paint all liberals with the Ward Churchill brush. Rush and Bill gotta keep the ratings up somehow. Posted by: Steven at March 30, 2005 04:20 PMWell no, I'd argue it was newsworthy..pretty plain and simple.... ...U Col. prof. Ward Churchill had slid under the radar, but a concern about his previous pronunciamentos emerged at Hamilton College before his planned speech earlier this year, and rightly so.....Examine the actual content of what he said (in a link I put in the post here, which connects to the controversial article he wrote on 9/11); and examine his deeper record (quite a lot to look at there). The real Churchill story is what passes for scholarship these days. I'm no big fan of "conservative media" despite being a (mostly, and moderate) conservative, but in this case I feel the content of the Churchill story outweighs any theorizing about the "motives" of those who highlighted it. If this is the star of the anarchists' book fest in SF - a guy who said the 9/11 Twin Towers occupants were "little Eichmanns" who deserved their fate, then, well, you tell me what you make of that.....in my view, the issue is not Rush, or O'Reilly......or "the right-wing media cabal." Judge folk by their words and deeds. Posted by: Matt R. at March 30, 2005 06:56 PMPost a comment
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