Re: Jonathan Cook: Doubt is a treacherous path. We must avoid being diverted towards terminal cynicism Archived Message
Posted by brooks on October 2, 2020, 1:02 pm, in reply to "Jonathan Cook: Doubt is a treacherous path. We must avoid being diverted towards terminal cynicism"
Very good piece. Just a couple of thoughts: I agree with Cook's analysis, but don’t think generalizations about a “cynical left” versus a “critical left” are helpful and are even misleading. Pre-Covid, Off G did a lot of great work and though I haven’t been reading them much lately, I’m sure they continue to do publish some excellent critical analysis. Much better to point out specific errors of analysis, provide one’s own interpretation and leave it at that. Not that the label doesn’t catch real characteristics of a real trend in some leftist circles – we all recognize it – just that attaching it to specific people or publications, especially those who are erstwhile allies, is counterproductive (undermines solidarity), unfair (all of their work doesn’t reflect “the kneejerk, enervating, fatalistic cynicism” of the so-called “cynical left”) and doesn’t add anything substantive to legitimate criticisms of their work. The only other thing I would add that maybe Cook could have emphasized as a mitigating factor is that much of the distrust of Covid policies comes from the legitimate anger that the same anti-democratic, criminal governments that imposed crushing austerity and poverty that had already killed tens of thousands in the service of their corporate masters are now ordering their victims to endure even more lethal economic hardship, allegedly in order to protect them. And often doing this – as in the US – without giving them any economic help while they bail out the elites who had been crushing them all along. And to add insult to injury, are doing it with such incompetence – for reasons Cook accurately points out - that it doesn’t even do that (i.e. protect them). Under such desperate conditions, one can excuse cynicism about the policies and even understand the susceptibility to unfounded conspiracies.
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