Another good book on this period is _Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left_ by Susan Braudy. It shows how Kathy Boudin grew up to become part of the Brinks armored car robbery crew. Yikes.
I first heard about Days of Rage from the Status 451 article about it in 2017. Their main takeaway, which was also the part that stuck with me, was the disparity in institutional support between righty and lefty terrorists.
Your righties seemed to be mostly lone wolves who are now dead or in jail. Meanwhile the Weather Underground was being funded by the National Lawyers Guild while they were hiding from the FBI, with Bill Ayers getting to hang out on their yachts. He became an education professor, Bernardine Dohrn went on to have a multi-decade career as a law professor, and Eleanor Stein became a judge! Pretty cushy retirement for murderers.
The memory-holing of the weather underground, and the white washing of 60s radicalism, is maddening. A lot of these people were just idiot rich kids and psychopaths, who easily took advantage of the idiot rich kids, and criminals who wrapped up violence in a cause. And while the weather underground were incompetent at murder, that’s not for lack of trying. Bombing toilets is a great way to kill people. And they become respected academics and lawyers, and they have never actually apologized or admitted they wwee morons. They’ve “renounced” violence- duh! You got caught, and are old (violence is for the young), but listen to modern Bill Ayers. Still the same moron with “fuck you, Dad” politics.
And the only reason the Weather Underground aren't remembered like Timothy McVeigh is because unlike McVeigh, they were bad at bombmaking and managed to blow themselves up when they tried to make a big one.
I think it’s deeper. It’s that a lot of good liberals kind of admired the extremists. “I am living a boring a bourgeois life! They actually tried to do something. Their hearts were in the right place.” There is a clear romanticization of political violence among a type of baby boomer liberal who ended up, for instance, in academia.
There is was also aesthetic aspect to it. The Panthers were ideologically Marxist-Leninist and racial nationalists, and were led by psychopaths and criminals, but they looked cool and said things that sounded good. And had free breakfast.
McVeigh coded as a right wing Christian (which annoyed him - he wasn’t Christian, which he constantly complained about). And actually a competent bomber. He was clearly within the ideological neighborhood of the early 90s militia movement. Bill Clinton tried to blame Rush Limbaugh, which was ridiculous. But none of those associations would get him support in academia and so on.
Thing is, I'd like to think that if the Weather Underground *had* successfully blown up a federal building and killed a whole bunch of government workers, that that would have woken liberals up to the fact that they were murderous extremists and terrorists.
I agree, to an extent. They would have a lot fewer supporters, and would be far less welcome in polite society, should they ever get out of prison. But there would still be some who would give them the time of day.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was so clearly guilty, gets treated as some sort of great intellectual who gives commencement addresses. Angela Davis’s was acquitted of her involvement in a murder, but her close association with the East German regime is well documented. She received and accepted a “peace prize” from the Soviet Union! Of course, that the academia is going to be okay with this doesn’t surprise me, but the fact that it doesn’t says a lot about the academy.
Old Gustav must have found email a real pain in the ass. Not only did everyone have to somehow enter "gkruppvonbohlenundhalbach@krupp.com" without any typos, but his footer had to explain both that his pronouns were er/ihn/ihm/sein/seiner/der/den/dem/dessen and that his preposition was von.
I was in junior high from 1972-75. We had a couple of bomb scares every year. Other schools had fire drills; we had bomb scares. Everyone had to get up and troop out of class and go stand on the lawn some distance from the school. I don't think any of us were ever scared; we all assumed, correctly, that it was just some prankster trying to disrupt class.
But I don't think middle schools have very many bomb scares anymore.
Maybe the producers of OBAO, facing a starting budget of over $150 million dollars (high star salaries?), decided it would be too expensive to set the movie in the 1960's? Where would they even find all those faded bell bottom blue jeans and Volkswagen Beetles.....
Another good book on this period is _Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left_ by Susan Braudy. It shows how Kathy Boudin grew up to become part of the Brinks armored car robbery crew. Yikes.
Fyi, a cache of weapons: the word cache is pronounced like cash money, not like cachet.
I first heard about Days of Rage from the Status 451 article about it in 2017. Their main takeaway, which was also the part that stuck with me, was the disparity in institutional support between righty and lefty terrorists.
Your righties seemed to be mostly lone wolves who are now dead or in jail. Meanwhile the Weather Underground was being funded by the National Lawyers Guild while they were hiding from the FBI, with Bill Ayers getting to hang out on their yachts. He became an education professor, Bernardine Dohrn went on to have a multi-decade career as a law professor, and Eleanor Stein became a judge! Pretty cushy retirement for murderers.
The memory-holing of the weather underground, and the white washing of 60s radicalism, is maddening. A lot of these people were just idiot rich kids and psychopaths, who easily took advantage of the idiot rich kids, and criminals who wrapped up violence in a cause. And while the weather underground were incompetent at murder, that’s not for lack of trying. Bombing toilets is a great way to kill people. And they become respected academics and lawyers, and they have never actually apologized or admitted they wwee morons. They’ve “renounced” violence- duh! You got caught, and are old (violence is for the young), but listen to modern Bill Ayers. Still the same moron with “fuck you, Dad” politics.
And the only reason the Weather Underground aren't remembered like Timothy McVeigh is because unlike McVeigh, they were bad at bombmaking and managed to blow themselves up when they tried to make a big one.
I think it’s deeper. It’s that a lot of good liberals kind of admired the extremists. “I am living a boring a bourgeois life! They actually tried to do something. Their hearts were in the right place.” There is a clear romanticization of political violence among a type of baby boomer liberal who ended up, for instance, in academia.
There is was also aesthetic aspect to it. The Panthers were ideologically Marxist-Leninist and racial nationalists, and were led by psychopaths and criminals, but they looked cool and said things that sounded good. And had free breakfast.
McVeigh coded as a right wing Christian (which annoyed him - he wasn’t Christian, which he constantly complained about). And actually a competent bomber. He was clearly within the ideological neighborhood of the early 90s militia movement. Bill Clinton tried to blame Rush Limbaugh, which was ridiculous. But none of those associations would get him support in academia and so on.
Thing is, I'd like to think that if the Weather Underground *had* successfully blown up a federal building and killed a whole bunch of government workers, that that would have woken liberals up to the fact that they were murderous extremists and terrorists.
I agree, to an extent. They would have a lot fewer supporters, and would be far less welcome in polite society, should they ever get out of prison. But there would still be some who would give them the time of day.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was so clearly guilty, gets treated as some sort of great intellectual who gives commencement addresses. Angela Davis’s was acquitted of her involvement in a murder, but her close association with the East German regime is well documented. She received and accepted a “peace prize” from the Soviet Union! Of course, that the academia is going to be okay with this doesn’t surprise me, but the fact that it doesn’t says a lot about the academy.
Napoleon was probably Hitler before Hitler.
"Who was Hitler before Hitler?"
Be careful, this is the kind of thing that wrought unto the world "The Carrie Diaries."
And unlike the Hitler Diaries, they were horrifyingly authentic.
Old Gustav must have found email a real pain in the ass. Not only did everyone have to somehow enter "gkruppvonbohlenundhalbach@krupp.com" without any typos, but his footer had to explain both that his pronouns were er/ihn/ihm/sein/seiner/der/den/dem/dessen and that his preposition was von.
One reason to love Saturdays and Mondays is I don't have to listen to that lame female British computer voice.
Something needs to be done about that! We were promised the male British computer voice (not my first choice but, hey, Democracy!).
We had a vote!
Honestly, I thought of that Simpsons reference when I immediately heard the name. I think it’s more than five.
The problem with a Weather Underground doc...no footage.
So, you must admit, maybe Faye Dunaway in "Network" was the good guy after all?😁
"Supergirl?" Less clear .
Wow Faye Dunaway really played the long game.
The script writer was clairvoyant…..
Marge Simpson is pregnant again?
Arthur A. Ablabab
I was in junior high from 1972-75. We had a couple of bomb scares every year. Other schools had fire drills; we had bomb scares. Everyone had to get up and troop out of class and go stand on the lawn some distance from the school. I don't think any of us were ever scared; we all assumed, correctly, that it was just some prankster trying to disrupt class.
But I don't think middle schools have very many bomb scares anymore.
Really? I'm pretty much your exact age and we never once had a bomb scare. Must be location🤔
Maybe the producers of OBAO, facing a starting budget of over $150 million dollars (high star salaries?), decided it would be too expensive to set the movie in the 1960's? Where would they even find all those faded bell bottom blue jeans and Volkswagen Beetles.....
"That 70s Show" discard pile?