My dude, Finkelstein is an academic. He's supposed to have good takes relative to the general population and relative to non-academic radicals. Like, that's literally the role academics are supposed to play. "But Castro was homophobic!" Castro was too busy leading an army of militants that overthrew a comprador regime to be completely up to date on queer liberation. He's allowed to have a few bad takes here and there since he didn't sit on his ass all day reading books. And you quite conveniently left out the part where Castro did self-crit in front of the Cuban people for being a homophobic shithead and rightfully so. Where are we gonna see Finkelstein's self-crit for being a raging transphobic piece of shit? Castro had to lead a nation facing a genocidal blockage, but still found the time to realize he made a grave mistake. What's Finkelstein's excuse?
I mean, that's essentially the grounds on which i'm defending him in general. just that he's consistently been one of the lonest and loudest voices on are particularly important topic that's currently gotten heated up to active genocide again. he's also an old old man who's brain is melting. what i think is that no one should let him be near a camera again in his life because he said that dumb transphobic shit. also yeah, agreed on castro. i think castro improved himself greatly, especially on this issue, and i think it would have been the obvious counter to my point to mention that he was sort of busy not reading and actually dealing with shit. i understand that. but my general point is just that no one is orthodoxically perfect, and it's odd to expect a dying old man to put it together. like this post in general, do people think norm is encountering the term "gooner" while browsing the internet? it should be upsetting to people that someone taught him this word. that's essentially my only take i'm trying to have. that he's an old old man who probably doesnt deserve "the wall" for something he said after his brain started melting from his fucking ears. it's like parenti having had bad takes on the same in my opinion. if norm finklestein shows up saying transphobic slurs at my friends, i'll beat his wrinkly ass. but that's really just not what's going on in my opinion. i hope this doesn't come across as combative, i'm really just trying to sincerely talk about where the line should get drawn on how we think about certain people. maybe norm has been way more out and about on this than i think he was, and i'm basking in my own ignorance. i also recall he wrote a very stupid book about cancel culture, and it was something no one should have let someone in his condition write. but i'm not trying to put him on the pedestal, i'm not saying he shouldn't be consistently and regularly rebuked for his very bad takes. it just seems distracting to me considering the ongoing genocide at hand.
I know I said this elsewhere in the thread but I think your defense of him and his awful views based on your beliefs about his mental health, and scapegoating his caretakers or whoever, on this is ridiculous. Nobody is making him speak; he did not have to speak purely on the basis that someone "taught" him about trans people.
Also the point about "it just seems very distracting" reads as pure cringe to me. Nobody is discounting rhe work he's done advocating for ending the gennocide in Palestine... As if we cannot discuss both and defending the right of trans comrades to exist is somehow "distracting", I think I've heard that kind of rhetoric elsewhere.
My dude, Finkelstein is an academic. He's supposed to have good takes relative to the general population and relative to non-academic radicals. Like, that's literally the role academics are supposed to play. "But Castro was homophobic!" Castro was too busy leading an army of militants that overthrew a comprador regime to be completely up to date on queer liberation. He's allowed to have a few bad takes here and there since he didn't sit on his ass all day reading books. And you quite conveniently left out the part where Castro did self-crit in front of the Cuban people for being a homophobic shithead and rightfully so. Where are we gonna see Finkelstein's self-crit for being a raging transphobic piece of shit? Castro had to lead a nation facing a genocidal blockage, but still found the time to realize he made a grave mistake. What's Finkelstein's excuse?
I mean, that's essentially the grounds on which i'm defending him in general. just that he's consistently been one of the lonest and loudest voices on are particularly important topic that's currently gotten heated up to active genocide again. he's also an old old man who's brain is melting. what i think is that no one should let him be near a camera again in his life because he said that dumb transphobic shit. also yeah, agreed on castro. i think castro improved himself greatly, especially on this issue, and i think it would have been the obvious counter to my point to mention that he was sort of busy not reading and actually dealing with shit. i understand that. but my general point is just that no one is orthodoxically perfect, and it's odd to expect a dying old man to put it together. like this post in general, do people think norm is encountering the term "gooner" while browsing the internet? it should be upsetting to people that someone taught him this word. that's essentially my only take i'm trying to have. that he's an old old man who probably doesnt deserve "the wall" for something he said after his brain started melting from his fucking ears. it's like parenti having had bad takes on the same in my opinion. if norm finklestein shows up saying transphobic slurs at my friends, i'll beat his wrinkly ass. but that's really just not what's going on in my opinion. i hope this doesn't come across as combative, i'm really just trying to sincerely talk about where the line should get drawn on how we think about certain people. maybe norm has been way more out and about on this than i think he was, and i'm basking in my own ignorance. i also recall he wrote a very stupid book about cancel culture, and it was something no one should have let someone in his condition write. but i'm not trying to put him on the pedestal, i'm not saying he shouldn't be consistently and regularly rebuked for his very bad takes. it just seems distracting to me considering the ongoing genocide at hand.
I know I said this elsewhere in the thread but I think your defense of him and his awful views based on your beliefs about his mental health, and scapegoating his caretakers or whoever, on this is ridiculous. Nobody is making him speak; he did not have to speak purely on the basis that someone "taught" him about trans people.
Also the point about "it just seems very distracting" reads as pure cringe to me. Nobody is discounting rhe work he's done advocating for ending the gennocide in Palestine... As if we cannot discuss both and defending the right of trans comrades to exist is somehow "distracting", I think I've heard that kind of rhetoric elsewhere.
when dementia becomes curable?