An Assad supporter said she had gone through my posts, found me a shallow thinker & asked what gave me the right to speak on international politics. Then she compared me to Alex Jones. That would have hurt to the quick except that Jones is an Assad supporter & one of her co-thinkers too contemptible to refute.
There is no credentialing agency but what gives me the right to speak on international politics is my commitment to human solidarity, my decades of careful study, my understanding that politics are very complex, that I don’t know everything or even very much about a lot of issues, & my refusal to be glib or pretentious on an issue. But I know the fundamentals, mostly I understand militarism, & don’t consider the bandwagon a useful guide to who I stand with in solidarity.
For the record, I don’t question anyone’s right to speak about international politics but respect all who stand against war, occupation, genocide, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, fascism, & white supremacy & who don’t make exceptions for Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians.