#1
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/no-this-is-a-genuine-revolution/

They take a kind of puritanical “anti-imperialist” framework that assumes the significant players are governments and capitalists and that’s the only game worth talking about. The game where you wage war, create mythical villains, seize oil and other resources, set up patronage networks; that’s the only game in town.

...

And there is another criticism, which is quite popular in pro-government circles here in Turkey: “The model the Kurds -in the line of PKK and PYD (The Kurdish Democratic Union Party)- are trying to promote is not actually embraced by all the peoples living there. That multi-… structure is only on the surface as symbols”…

Well, the President of Cizire canton is an Arab, head of a major local tribe in fact. I suppose you could argue he was just a figurehead. In a sense the entire government is. But even if you look at the bottom-up structures, it’s certainly not just the Kurds who are participating. I was told the only real problem is with some of the “Arab belt” settlements, people who were brought in by the Baathists in the ‘50s and ‘60s from other parts of Syria as part of an intentional policy of marginalizing and assimilating Kurds.



lol

#2
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#4
its cool that every leftist intellectual eventually finds their own little movement or state to defend against all detractors forever
#5
personally I chose the soviet union years ago and never looked back
#6
epic lols ITT. you have my sword. and my axe. and my 5, OP. haha. that dude ive never heard of is an arab which is funny because: you would not expect him to be an arab? i have no idea just using context clues. but it had the cadence of a joke. if i had a six to give it would be yours OP.
#7
why does he keep gettin dumber
#8
oppositional defiant disorder
#9
i'm down with o.d.d. yeah you know me
#10
i think its funny that he puts "anti-imperialist" in scare quotes but i also dont get what's funny about some guy being an arab
#11
oh its basically that theres ethnic cleansing of and discrimination against arabs in other kurdish-controlled areas, and graeber answers in a way similar to alain finkielkraut defending franjo tudjman or something
#12
I've been locked inside your 2-state box for weeks
#13

jools posted:

alain finkielkraut defending franjo tudjman


i thought you were making fun of me until i checked and found out that these are the names of real people

#14

jools posted:

oh its basically that theres ethnic cleansing of and discrimination against arabs in other kurdish-controlled areas, and graeber answers in a way similar to alain finkielkraut defending franjo tudjman or something

wow this tpaine bait is just going over the top these days

#15

jools posted:

oh its basically that theres ethnic cleansing of and discrimination against arabs in other kurdish-controlled areas, and graeber answers in a way similar to alain finkielkraut defending franjo tudjman or something



#16

c_man posted:

jools posted:

alain finkielkraut defending franjo tudjman

i thought you were making fun of me until i checked and found out that these are the names of real people



yes. franjo tudjman was the first post-communist leader of croatia, and also a fascist. alain finkielkraut is a french liberal intellectual.

#17
lol
"In 2009, he was criticized for his strong defence of Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland for illegal sexual relationships with a 13 year old girl. Finkielkraut claimed that she was a "teenager", "not a child"."
#18
helro i em franjo tudjman. my wife herayut tudjman ajnd i run deh undbergrand ralrorb.
#19
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#20
i read the article and apparently there's a revolutionary anti-capitalist anarchist kurdish territory and grabber went there, and it was real, and epic.

khammy and jools i take it from the quotes in the OP that your criticisms are that it's not representative of arabs in the region (the so-called "baathist imports" that grabber writes off) and that they're accepting aid currently and operating as a western ally in the fighting in the region?
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#26

discipline posted:

did you like the part where he calls Marxism Leninism "Stalinist"

Yes

#27
#28
i went to a talk graeber had while promoting his debt book and all i could focus on was how poorly he was dressed
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#31

aerdil posted:


nice. i like how the most drab pair of new balance ive ever seen is all that differentiates him from a homeless person.

#32
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#33
i get that youre a leftist academic but if you dont really sleep in a trash can why do you try to look like you do
#34
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#35
he is surely striking a blow against the superficiality of western culture w/r/t clothing and he is certainly not just a fat lazy windbag that sniffs his own farts
#36
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#37
i think i ordered a defend novorossiya tshirt when i was drunk and its getting sent to my workplace
#38
all olive everythang
#39
i don't really understand this beef. i mean, i see that graeber completely misunderstands his critics and says dumb things as a result. but i don't understand the part before that. is graeber wrong about the actual facts? i certainly don't have the means to verify whether or not there's some baby chomskitopia in northwest iraq.

or is it just making the assumption that transferring imperial arms to a anti-capitalist statelet in a war zone goes beyond risky and into impossible/implausible? b/c i would agree with that but at the same time am not inclined to be mean to people who feel differently.
#40
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