Appreciating being targeted

I talk a lot.  I give tours and presentations and talk at college classes and conferences of all types.  Basically, if they will let me near a microphone and public space, I am happy to try to draw an audience to a public presentation.

Just give me the mic and no one gets hurt.

Since giving up full-time anti-nuclear organizing in eastern Europe, no one has thought that my presentations were sufficiently contentious as to write up a critique of them and publish it.  Until recently.

Some months back, Kami and I gave a talk at Elon University and some conservative writer was sufficiently outraged that they published a critique of our workshop.

What is so interesting to me about this attack in the American Lens is about 2/3rds of the words are mine.  They are so convinced that anarchism and protesting are abhorrent to their readers that there is not much of a need on their part to editorialize about these evils.    So it mostly ends up being an advertisement for our presentations and ideology.

The most critical things this article has to say are:

The description (of Twin Oaks) also notes that “A number of us choose to be politically active in issues of peace, ecology, anti-racism, and feminism” In other words, it’s basically a commune started in the 60’s didn’t fizzled out.

The Anarchist and Fingerbook maker’s workshop, as previously mentioned, is free to attend and, unlike other similar workshops at other universities, this one is not being held in lieu of an actual class. That’s a good thing perhaps, given it costs $31,247 a year to attend Elon University.

What makes something outrageous?

This type of thinking was a central part of the strategy which got Trump elected.  Have what you say be so outrageous that the media thinks the story tells itself.  I have no such lofty ambitions but was flattered that my positions were so outrageous that they need so little comment.

Feel free to comment on the American Lens article at http://americanlens.com/research/elon–paxus-calta/