Why I Took Down The Finkelstein/Mate Link

Triggered By "Trotsky" (In quotes Because It Was A Fake Name)

I was white-knuckling it through all the communist apologia, trying to learn more (as I urgently need to) about the Israel/Palestine conflict, from the very learned Norman Finkelstein, a self-described [qualifier word] “communist.” (I forget what the qualifier word was but will find it.)

I was gasping through the self referenced implied youthful charm of him having once been a “Maoist,” but when he started with the Trotsky quotations, I hit a wall of a sort.

Why can’t they see it?

I’m publishing, for the first time, a few quotes from James DeMeo’s “Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky: GENOCIDE Quotes.” I’ve been putting it off for a long time. They are what I would call “unassailable.” And my issue now is that I was actually starting to like this guy and let down my guard about the American far left. The so called conservatives have mostly gone genocidal anyway so I was looking for love in all the wrong places, I guess. And now I’m triggered and starting brand new fights we’re not even having.

Finkelstein talks about Nat Turner gaining a legit place in the history of the abolitionist movement. Does he know Karl Marx supported black slavery?

There’s nothing cute or charming about having been a “Maoist.” It should have been denounced in the next sentence or not mentioned. But there was no self-denunciation. Just the usual vibe of “oh I was so idealistic in my youth.” Chuckles all around. I STILL hung in there. Until he said the word ‘Trotsky,” and I jumped up and woke Lewis, who was sleeping on my lap.

I thought to myself: “Is this satire? “TROTSKY” is still a good name in leftist bookstores on Avenue C?”

Then what’s the point of all this?