It seems astonishing that most of the celebrity journalists & so-called intellectuals have tanked over the issue of Syria, siding with the Assad regime rather than the revolution of working people against his dictatorship. Their capitulation to the fascist right becomes farce when they blither about a new Cold War because of the investigations into Trump’s connections to Russia. They’ve completely discredited themselves as intellectuals & don’t exhibit the investigative skills required in a 7th grade book report.

This is not some new phenomenon in intellectual & political history. This kind of mass exodus to the right has often occurred among progressives during war, most notably WWII. The courage to stand one’s ground does not flow naturally from being able to write. It comes hard to people when they realize great poets were cheeseheads & often scoundrels in real life. It comes harder to learn that people who talk a good game to earn a living are actually deeply conservative thinkers on the make & not committed activists for social justice. How else do you explain that Max Blumenthal & Glenn Greenwald now find common cause with Tucker Carlson who is one of the most racist & stupid commentators on Fox News?