Jason Rees wrote:Chris Hedges is often confused with being leftwing because of...
I don't know... in his last article he showed that he has swallowed 'global warming' hook, line and sinker. So I think it goes beyond a single issue like wars.
Like any writer, i don't always agree with him.
The bad:
Although he hates utopian visions, and believes they have caused great problems, he still votes socialist. Huh?
For all his critique of the leftwing ideologues, he votes socialist. Even though he has written in length about communist dictotorships and oppressive leftwing governments, he votes socialist.
Does he naively think it wll magically change the nature of the establishment?
yeah, i really disliked that last article. He was far too smug in his rant against denying global warmiing. He failed to give credit to the critics, some very legit critiques at that. Actually i disagree with alot of what he says. And yeah, is IS far more sympathetic with the left thatn the right.
Although his critique of war is very well informed( he covered alot of war zones, lots of interviews and research) i think he fails to see that sometimes you HAVE to go to war, sometimes it isn't a choice. I think he let his negative experiences on war make him hate it so much that in his mind there is no excuse for war.
But if someone is trying to kill you, or wipe you off the face of the earth(and this happened lots in history has it not?) you will probably have to go to war. You don't particularly ENJOY it, but you don't exactly have many options.
Although im more pro-palistine than pro-isreal, im not as negative toward isreali opinion as some pro-palistinian folk are. If you feel threatened, or have a history of attempted genocide against your people, you will not exactly be always thinking peaceful solutions are possible. Can't blame a population to believe this.
His writing made me rethink GLORIFICATION of war, and i learned new things on war propoganda from him.
But alot of people don't go to war for fun, and it isn't ALWAYS about greed.
What i like about hedges:
His points against utopian visions really meshed with me.
His writing ont he nature of governments, power and domination. His writing on propoganda and the problems of an image based society, and where society is headed, he has some great ideas. (why does he think socialism is different? It isn't)
I do like his observations about leftist(and rightwing) media are dead on. They do nothing to inform, other than spout opinions, present psuedo facts, yell and scream and don't want any real discussion.
He critques both the neo-athiest movement and right wing fundamentalist christianity and islam, without outright generalizing christians, athiests, or muslims.
(He has a book on neo-athiesm, evangelical christianity, and on islam he goes into fundamentalism in kosovo, hamas, other places. I asked him why he didn't make a book on it, he figures we already have a million books on the subject as is. )
Whats interesting, he doesn't look at these ideologies themselves and blanket it black and white as evil as many on the left often do, but more so goes into economic and political circumstances that make people extremists(and he includes Sam harris and hitchens in this)