Brian Leiter, professor of law at the University of Texas, tells a troubling tale of neo-McCarthyism at UC-Irvine. Apparently to appease conservative donors and the regents of the UC system, the chancellor of UC-Irvine backed out of an agreement to hire Erwin Chemerinsky -- a scholar of substance and standing -- as dean of the new UC-Irvine law school because he was perceived as too controversial by conservatives.
I expect David Horowitz -- that stalwart defender of free speech on campus -- will be coming to Chemerinsky's defense any minute now...
Still waiting David...
David?
Thanks to Eschaton for calling our attention to this.
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Anti anti-fascists scanning the ether for signs of dissent, disloyalty, and defeatism.
Occasional thoughts about political life in 21st century America
Anti anti-fascists scanning the ether for signs of dissent, disloyalty, and defeatism.
Premature Anti-Fascist
Returning to America from the Spanish Civil War, veterans of the International Brigades who fought against Franco in the republican cause were said to have been branded as Premature Anti-Fascists. That is, they opposed fascism before World War II, before everyone was supposed to oppose fascism, and therefore were likely to be communist subversives, presumptively disloyal because they fought the fascists too soon. Whether the US government actually used the term itself is now contested by anti-communist historians (although it would be difficult to deny the actual persecution of communists and dissidents in 20th century America). I use it for the name of my blog because, in my darker moments, I worry about the proto-fascist tendencies I see at work in America and because, whether the US government or the Brigadists themselves invented the term, it seems to me a bittersweet badge of honor. For more on the Lincolns, see Peter Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
What Price Empire?
PAF recommends for News:
PAF's Book List: Some Recommendations
- Walter Hixson, The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and US Foreign Policy
- James Carroll, House of War: The Pentagon and the disastrous rise of American Power
- James William Gibson, Warrior Dreams: Violence and Manhood in post-Vietnam America
- H. Bruce Franklin, MIA: Mythmaking in America
- Jerry Lembke, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam
- Susan Faludi, The Terror Dream
- Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism
- David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism
- Larry Everest, Oil, Power, and Empire
- Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow
- Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris
- Thomas Ricks, Fiasco
- Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis
- Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone
- Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs
- Malise Ruthven, A Fury for God
- Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, The Next Attack
- Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion
- Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America
Blog Archive
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2007
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September
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- Put the pressure on Bush Dog Dems
- Empire of Stupidity
- David Addington and the Imperial (Vice-)Presidency
- Bullshit in Anbar
- Shocked, shocked that there is gambling in Casablanca
- Did Bush lie or did he believe it?
- PAF hearts
- The Myth of Al Qaeda in Iraq
- Still more deliberately misleading claims (do we c...
- Try to pretend that you're surprised
- More loss, more pain
- Classic freudian slip
- Academic Freedom!
- Where to now?
- Another shocker
- in case you just can't get enough irony in your life
- Shooting ourselves in both feet
- Song of Anger: Dear Mr. President
- Academic Freedom for Rumsfeld?
- A republic, if you can keep it
- Antiwar Demo
- Feeding the Jingoes
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September
(22)