I don’t blame him but holy shit.

I just don't know where that came from. I don't know a single feminist who even likes West let alone agrees with him.

Coates has created excellent analyses in what has usually been productive intergenerational racial discourse in this country.

West used to. I've appreciated and learned from both of them. I've read every book they've both written, but West does no one any favors to publicly discredit Coates. Coates has shown me that the older analyses West expounded upon, existed on foundations built to uphold white institutions and systems. As white. The only solid foundation of agency is the one African Americans have built within their own families, culture and institutions.

I've come to see how this country's law and order, overt and covert race relations as Coates sees them. I believe Coates' outlook on race/power/economic relations is more relevant and useful for forging racial and legal equality.

Coates has been moving out of the racial discourse trap. His latest writings explicitly state that. Those who value his ideas will stay with him, no matter his medium.

Coates has already found better media than Twitter.

but Cornell West has lost his mind. He's borderline delusional in much of his recent history.

Last edited Wed Dec 20, 2017, 12:16 AM - Edit history (1)

They haven't been right since.

Look where they are now: Smiley has been booted off the air because of sexual abuse allegations and West has become a Clinton/Obama/Coates attack dog.

Not pretty.

of conformity early on that resulted in writings others could admire and thus elevated him. But he was always at least somewhat "like that." And so many like that end up self destructing.

For sure he's always craved attention, and I suspect that's likely what was really behind this. Coates's star rose while his starting going dark a long time ago. Same for Obama. Jealousy.

And I could tell by the tidal wave of piling on that a whole lot of prominent liberal pundits on Twitter have been quietly itching for years to get their pound of flesh out of Coates if the opportunity ever arose, and West kicked in the door...

Seriously, motherfuck Cornel West... How long has it been since he's had an original thought? How long has it been since he's done anything other than piss on other liberals/black folks? Going after Coates for the sheer purpose of forcing the spotlight on himself again has to be the most underhanded thing he's ever done...

All 3 of those men have taught me and msde me think. None are perfect.
Dysons article just made me sad.
SNIP.
The Ghost of Cornel West
What happened to America's most exciting black scholar?
BY MICHAEL ERIC DYSON


April 19, 2015
New Republic
SNIP

It is to 2017 what "Establishment" was to 2016 -- A buzzword label for wannabe-smart social media pundits to slap onto everything under the sun until the poor word itself has no shape anymore... Just for fun, ask the next person who says either word to define it -- Hilarity will ensue...

There's also something so very unholy with West calling anybody out for fetishizing white supremacy when he's in this ugly menage a trois with Stein and Putin and getting his signal boosted by Richard Fucking Spencer of all people...

empty insults that mean absolutely nothing.. especially considering the source.

But that meaning has been obscured since it is now used to insult anybody who isn't far enough to the left, or even worse, just a generic insult to anyone with whom one disagrees. Are centrist Democrats really neo-liberal?

It describes an economic philosophy somewhere between laissez-faire capitalism and Keynesianism. It is to the left of Republicans and to the right of Rooseveltian Dems. Most Democrats holding national office are these days neo-liberals.

"Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism refers primarily to the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism. Such ideas include economic liberalization policies such as privatization, austerity, deregulation, free trade,and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society."

Eight whole years of the Obama administration, surely you must be able to give several examples of neoliberal policies during that time. And what was neoliberal about the Democratic Party platform that the nominee ran on last year?

Why is it that nobody accusing Democrats of being neoliberals ever gives examples to support their claim?

Will that be cash, check, or money order?

You are wrong and get no peanut brittle.

I've noticed that quite often, it's those pretending to have the answer who never allow us objective or peer-reviwed evidence to support that same answer... merely more bumper-stickers, fortune cookies and anecdotes.

You're already two out of three in this thread alone! Nice work.

reductions in government spending, and the promotion of the idea that the private sector should play a larger role in determining economic and social policy.

Doesn't sound like any Democrats I know.

Sounds like repubs and a made up insult directed at Dems.. by those with a agenda

The term is now being characterized in some dictionaries as a pejorative catchall that is essentially meaningless.

Mahalo!!!

"perjorative" and "meaningless" part down.

this ongoing campaign of hatred from what I guess I'll call "Kremlin Left" (Assorted incestuous Emoprog/Purity Dem elements from the Greens, the Bernie-or-Death crowd, Alternet, TYT, wikileaks, Red Rose Twitter, Greenwald and his circles, Sirota and his circles, Taibbi and his circles, Tracey, Adam Johnson, H.A. Goodman, the list goes on; and it's backed by an army of twitterbots) against the #Resistance opposing Trump/Putin? You'd think those people would be on our fucking side but 95% of their tweets are just bullshit or InfoWars-sourced vitriol against established Dems... And if that wasn't enough, there have been repeated targeted smear campaigns against WoC on twitter like JoyAnn Reid, Imani Gandy, Neera Tanden, etc.

It of course goes a lot wider and deeper than this, but you get the basic picture. In my observation, this stuff doesn't look like random happenstance...

Right. Because there's no hate coming from Donut Twitter. It's all totally one-sided.

Not really. I'm not even on twitter. Nothing to be defensive about. Just pointing out bullshit is all.

I'm not a Bernie or Buster, and neither are you. It isn't about me or about you either.

why do you try to defend something that's going on there? Just wondering is all.

Just pointing out that it's bullshit to act like negativity only comes from 'red rose twitter'.

I'm curious if you're even playing in that pool since you seem to be implying one side of that divisive bullshit is better than the other

(Hint: It's not)

But read tweets on the web which are linked here or in articles.

What's your handle?

I guess I didn't understand you were trying to play some sort of "gotcha game" by asking me what my twitter handle was. Thought it was an honest question.

My mistake.

Peculiar.

These people are not on our side and I highly doubt they are liberals. Yet they affect our elections.

my new peaceful home.. and a voluntary news black out for 5 months.

Mahalo to all those who hang in there day by day to fight for our Democracy.

You know that Dems took all statewide offices in Virginia in November and almost took the VA house of delegates? You know Alabama has a Dem US Senator to start in January. Also, Dems won offices nationwide in November? Otherwise, things have been sort of grim - psycho Trump tweets almost daily, sometime several per day.

It was good for me.. I needed it.

I did not know that about all the Dems taking statewide offices in Virginia! Thank you!

But, I did come back because I heard Doug Jones won thanks in large part to brilliant ground game of the Black Voters in Alabama. It was like life changed on a dime.. an instant psyche healing.

We succeeded in electing a Democratic woman to a major NYS executive office that has been held by Republicans for over 100 years. (NB The town of Hempstead has a population larger than that of the state of New Hampshire.)

http://liherald.com/stories/gillen-makes-history-as-first-democratic-hempstead-supervisor,97391

https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-nassau-win-shows-worse-to-come-for-the-trumpist-gop

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/nyregion/westchester-nassau-county-executive-results.html

Excellent news.. congratulations!

Thank you for the links..

"Democrat Laura Gillen pulled off a historic victory in the Town of Hempstead on Tuesday night, defeating incumbent Anthony Santino. She declared victory along with Laura Curran, of Baldwin, who won the county executive's seat. Gillen voted at Hewitt Elementary School in her hometown of Rockville Centre early on Tuesday."

http://liherald.com/stories/gillen-makes-history-as-first-democratic-hempstead-supervisor,97391

"Many Democrats said they decided to get involved at the local level as the best strategy of resisting the Trump presidency. That movement helped overcome decades of history: In each county, only two Democrats have held the office of county executive since the 1930s."

“Tonight, Nassau County voted to end the culture of corruption and give our county the fresh start it so desperately deserves,” Ms. Curran said in her victory speech.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/nyregion/westchester-nassau-county-executive-results.html

I will be using that term because it expresses exactly what I've been thinking about this crowd. I listen to WBAI in NYC, I would donate to them. I tuned into the station during the election, and present, and I am stunned by the Kremlin Left of most of the hosts. I now wouldn't donate a cent to them. My only desire is that they go under as they have become a destructive voice.

It properly defines a totalitarian mindset in a person who for identification purposes, identify themselves as leftists, but truly are not of a left mindset.

that would chase people away, but I do see a lot of activity by certain members that would tend to keep certain people from wanting to come over or stick around.

that you think were a problem?

The finger of blame is not being pointed at minorities or feminists

My point is the total opposite of what you said! To clarify, some AA members and some women members were driven away from here by others. Not the admins.

This was before you were a member.

Dinging them for their ethnicity is BS. They did the hard work.

This site has had its ups and downs, sometimes through an excess of tolerance. We got overrun by trolls more than once, and you can look for their spiteful spinoff sites and read their ongoing grievances over having been outed and ousted.

You want to see more feminists and POC? Then speak out and help make this a more honest and welcoming arena. If you see bigoted or trollish behavior, call it out and/or alert on it. Don't tolerate it.

But don't gripe that the people who had the vision and did the hard work are either male or white. That doesn't fly.

Having worked in an organization controlled by white men, I can assure you that editorial change does not happen until diversity occurs.

"Control"? Are you offering to buy DU? Is there publicly traded stock I don't know about? This is a privately-owned discussion board.

"Control"? Did you read the Terms of Service before you signed on?

As if.

alert on him or her to get rid of them?

I think the user name is a play on their love of liquor. Might be posting and drinking again!

They are still here though just FFR.

What is it you say?

"Good luck with your issues?"

I'll apologize first.

before AA and feminist voices were droned out and driven away. It happened. Yet these are the constituencies actually preserving our democracy.

think I'm unaware of much.

can be real, even weepingly intense under these circumstances, without forgetting how to count on one's fingers. They don't have the numbers to save democracy, even adding in "feminists," whichever women qualify for that label. For that, enough of the plain old massive white vote is critical.

And to my way of thinking, one white male working class vote is very bit as vital and admirable as one black man's or feminist of any background.

is no longer critical.

but there has been a sea change in acceptance of outspoken AA who have been told be seen, not heard. And if heard and not appreciated as toeing the 'party line' by being what some HERE think they should be, banned. Period.

Watched it happen. It’s fucked up.

I wonder if that is true, if it is I wonder why?

to say more for equally obvious reasons.

with trump would be happening?

election results. I have no idea how influential DU is in the real world even though I have been a member since 2001. Indeed the bitterness of 2016 campaign was really no worse than that of 2008 with its wholesale purge of Hillary supporters.

the people here, who have been around a while, who know and will admit that white privilege and entitlements trumps any truth that may show up anywhere in this forum/culture/society....always been that way and will stay that way until it's forced to change or die.

likes him. lol

Jackie!

To say I was surrised, nah it was more WTF?

wear it like a badge of shame.

but now he is mainly a self-righteous purveyor of provocative attention-grabbing opinion. Don't get me wrong, his opinions are valuable, and I personally agree with him on many things. But an honest intellectual would not use "neo-liberal," an economic term for the laissez-faire privatization of public services that has prevailed the 1970s, as a vague catch-all insult aimed at moderate progressives. Obama, on the whole, tried to rein in and resist the spread of neo-liberalism. West surely knows this, so he has devolved into a rhetorician rather than an authoritative public intellectual. Sad. Bigly.

that I must refrain from arguing or speaking about him.

I simply cannot separate my anger at him from whatever is being said - that prevents me being rational in his case.

Not a good look, but definately a great way to come across as that old white guy spouting bullshit he doesn't understand.

On the other hand, "Fuck all Jill Stein stooges, they helped elect Trump"

at other prominent African Americans, yet his income is from a White university.

That dude jumped overboard a while back.

I appreciate the opportunity to read his work.

West is not the good man I thought he was.

Cornel West is a hard left nut who is best of friends with far right nut and Christo-Fascist Robert George.

Coats adds to the discussion, West does not.

ClownWest isn't worth the headache.

deleted his account rather than get down in the mud with that desperate attention whore.

I am no fan of West, but this whole thing is just stupid. I have no doubt Coates will return.