Your regular reminder that I personally loathe Noam Chomsky for the reprehensible things he said in apologia for the Khmer Rouge - and has never really taken back. He was no friend to the Cambodian people.
(Not to mention his stance on Ukraine).
It's a bit funny because how quick the left usually is to cut people loose for failing purity tests, but there's always the few who manage to get into the state of grace where the test must be wrong.
Tbh the left is pretty fucking awful at enforcing the “supporting Russia/genocides committed by vaguely leftist seeming countries” purity test nowadays
If your leftism isn't fundamentally centered on the idea of human dignity and freedom as universal and immutable values of everyone, frankly, what is the fucking point of your philosophy.
Was thinking: this was true in the 60s too. North Vietnam was not one to cheer for, and Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh had been kicked upstairs to figurehead status, so they really were Le Duan fanbois.
The people I have come to feel really sorry for were the people in the traditional hats in the rice paddies. Like most Gazans, not just no good choices, but no choice at all.
"It’s why I’m always leery of those who call for revolution or accelerationism."
Same. And it's always the same folks who are well-off or apparently think that they'll be just fine while everyone else is consumed in the fires.
That's not a good comparison, the viet Cong were southern fighters supporting the northern army whereas in Gaza I don't think most civilians dig tunnels willingly for Hamas. In fact Hamas just simply takes it and evicts people
My view is a touch different, we both know south Vietnam was a brutal dictatorship, but many in the American military treated all who hated them as suspected which was a retread of Korea