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Letters from our readers

On “The Steubenville, Ohio rape case

Dear Dave,

Thank you very much for your article, which articulated perfectly my thoughts over the past few days. My Facebook feed is blowing up with condemnations of CNN and its supposed support of “rape culture.” As far as I can see, Candy Crowley’s comments were a rare moment of humanity for a network accustomed to crying for blood.

“Left-wingers” find themselves in the same boat as Nancy Grace, and see no irony in that fact. It is interesting to contrast this with the lack of reaction from the “left” after the murder of Anwar al-Awlaki’s son, Abdulrahman. It seems outrage is only sparked when 16-year-olds are spared punishment. Killing them without trial is nothing to raise a clamor about.

Sincerely,

AG
20 March 2013

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I rarely disagree with WSWS articles, but I don’t agree with everything in David Walsh’s article on the Steubenville rape case—or at least I think there’s more going on here, and in order to understand people’s responses to the case, one must understand these other things. The place to start is with the dossier created by Anonymous hackers (Knight Sec). This dossier—“The Steubenville Files”—consists of text messages, Tweets, and video which shed additional light on what happened in Steubenville, and it’s much uglier than a simple rape. I think Mr. Walsh should review this dossier. In it he will find a number of important things to discuss, including the degraded, “pornified” attitude these young men have towards women and sex, as well as the intervention of Anonymous in this affair.

Best,

MJB
20 March 2013

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I was glad to see David Walsh’s article on the Steubenville rape case. For weeks now I’ve been suffering through pre-verdict denunciations of the defendants. I’ve not much sympathy for rapists, but I do have respect for the principles of jurisprudence. That none of these false left organizations, slavering for a new cause, could even wait until the end of the trial to begin their clamoring to string them up I found nauseating. The point that the sports culture as the only path from poverty eluded these self proclaimed experts. Never mind the social forces behind these actions. And as Mr. Walsh pointed out, never mind the thousands dying as a result of the state assassination program. Thank you for the real assessment.

Vince
California, USA
20 March 2013

On “India: Victimized Maruti Suzuki workers file affidavits documenting their torture

We hardly come across such news in the mainstream media, except as “labour unrest”.

JP
21 March 2013

On “Eighty years since Hitler’s coming to power

Just a heads up on an interesting interview by Bill Moyers with screenwriter Tony Kushner.

In reading the transcript of the interview, it transpires that Kushner regards the movie Lincoln as an allegory for the current political struggles between the Obama administration and the Republican Party. He makes this quite explicit.

Another alarming feature of this desultory and rather tortured interview is the following observation from Kushner:

“Had the socialists and the communists, the social democrats and communists in Germany made common cause in ’32, Hitler came, the Nazis began to lose power and Hindenburg wouldn’t have made him chancellor had he not, you know, had a strong showing. Had they made common cause they could have possibly prevented the Reich from happening. So there’s a lot at stake in politics.”

It should be clear from the body of the interview that Kushner has a distorted understanding of these events. Perhaps he equates the “social democrats” with the supporters of Obama, and the “communists” with Obama’s critics on the far left, such as anarchists and the Occupy Movements.

Kushner, for all his earnestness, is contributing to the confusion on what Obama represents and, as Trotsky said, tends to “exploit the contradiction between reformism and fascism.”

Tom Mackaman gave Kushner praise for this screenplay, but this screenwriters must be called out to answer for remarks of the following kind:

“... you know, the drone strikes are terrifying—the drones are a terrifying new weapon, and how is this to be used responsibly?”

Responsibly? Mr. Brennan will be pleased.

I’d suggest taking a hard look at Tony Kushner, a devotee and lackey for Barack Obama.

Randy R
Arizona, USA
21 March 2013

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