Leftists flocked to study groups to unravel the gibberish of Slovaj Zizek who calls himself a Marxist philosopher. Then he began ranting quite lucidly against refugees in the most racist, Islamophobic, & xenophobic terms. He was preferable when he was incomprehensible or when he philosophically evaluated toilets.
Pepe Escobar is a journalist many leftists look to for analysis of politics in the Middle East & Latin America. His analyses are more libertarian or undisciplined impressionism though not without interest. Except when it comes to Islamophobia.
He posted an article titled “Nightmare” Mistake: Visa Free Travel For 80 Million Turks Coming Up” which deplored the “inane, self-serving” deal Angela Merkel made with Turkey on behalf of the EU which would give visa-free travel to “80 million Islamic Turks” in exchange for taking back refugees deported from Greece.
Escober posted the article with this caption: “Caliphate at the gates of Vienna, anyone? That’s sooooo old history. Every eurocrat I talked to went for “nightmare” & “seeds of our own destruction”.”
So the problem with the unsavory EU deal with Turkey, as Escobar sees it, is that “Islamic Turks” will be given visa-free travel & not that Syrians, Afghans, Pakistanis, & others will be deported to squalor & homelessness in Turkey? Perhaps he should elaborate the entire range of his views about refugees.
Escobar has the right to claim whatever he likes. Those who want to understand the complexities of politics might disdain Islamophobic commentators like Zizek & Escobar.