Chris Hedges is always using his years of experience as a war correspondent to render authority to his long-winded jeremiads & to his defense of the Assad regime.

This is my 51st year as an antiwar activist so I could claim some authority of my own. But one thing you know from activism is that longevity is no measure of good sense in politics. There’s no sectarian fool quite so deplorable as an old sectarian fool. New York City socialist politics is filled with them.

When a young activist in NYC, I was attending an antiwar meeting with a friend where an octogenarian socialist was ranting on & denouncing everyone in that hammer & sickle language that is their style. My friend leaned over & whispered “If I turn out that way at 80, just shoot me.” I won’t shoot him but he did turn out that way & is now a vociferous defender of Assad.

What doesn’t kill you in politics makes you loony instead.