Not being one to pull my punches, let me say frankly that one of the reasons the Islamophobic & anti-Semitic tripe of Assadist propaganda has corrupted so many is that the opposition to Assad has so many rightwing social democrats who look to the US Pentagon to salvage the Syrian revolution. One even called for Saudi Arabia to salvage the revolution whilst they are bombing the hell out of the revolution in Yemen. On the street, we call it ‘not knowing your ass from your elbow’.

Their primary focus of attack is “the western left” even though no such current of thought has existed for years & now the straggling remnants have all joined ranks to support the Assad dictatorship & Russian & Syrian bombing of civilians. Leading anti-Assad writer Idrees Ahmad just posted an attack on all activism, describing it as performative, careerist, self-aggrandizing, mindless, & a “cult of the dumb.” What a deplorable anthem to passivity & conformity & how profoundly ignorant of what it takes to organize people to fight against injustice, war, occupation, genocide, & for human rights. No one objects to our man being antisocial. That’s his right. But to impugn those who will not stand passive, even risking their lives against injustice, is deplorable & wretched politics. Would he dare to openly mock the civil rights struggles, the undocumented immigrant movements, the anti-colonial & anti-caste movements, the anti-occupation & self-determination struggles in Kashmir & Palestine, the Arab Spring uprisings, the struggle against genocide in Burma as merely performative, careerist, self-aggrandizing, mindless, & a cult of the dumb? Well it might surprise him, but in that regard he shares more in common with Assadist propagandists than he thinks.