Alexander Cockburn On Thomas Friedman, Neoliberalism & NAFTA (TMBS 109)

[@hampusheh]

Alexander Cockburn once said that one of the premier goals of his politics, which he apparently got from his equally brilliant father Claud, was to be able to talk to all kinds of people in the same spirit of egalitarian generosity. I've always loved that. AC could be savage in his cut downs of the powerful and pompous, but there were always such a spirit of joy to the man, whatever he did, that is just so infectious. Cockburn really is responsible for bringing me into the radical left, and making me stay here through all of the nonsense which goes on in our subculture (which it still is, sadly). I always think of him when wanting to give up on the inane circle jerk that can be the online radical left - you can be a radical, and still be a free thinker, a collectivist individualist; you have to like people, and be able to talk to them. Keep any forms of misanthropy at bay.

[@TheMichaelBrooksShow]

Yes!!

[@punchcat1234]

Nailed it 👍👍👍

[@DanDeLeoninthefield]

Agreed but with this exception: You don't have to like people, but you do have to care about them.

[@hotstixx]

Yes,he really is badly missed.People started to worry that he was getting a little libertarian after his climate change views became known(he was wrong)..Where he lived had a strong libertarian contingent dug in. He certainly had Hitchens number. Here`s the way i like to remember him - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWipfYyjosd6jaM

[@hampusheh]

@@hotstixx Ye, but his libertarian flirtation I think had more to do with the sorry state of the anti war left under Obama. He loathed the democratic party, for good reasons, so I think he flirted a bit with them out of hope that they would be a good ally in anti imperialism. His take on climate change was Alex at his worst, but what can you say, the guy loved old cars and hated the Sierra Club elite liberals.

[@jo-annegawley5027]

What a brilliant man, far out, why can't we have more of these please.

[@sorinruga3434]

And we will remember the best of you Michael

[@lsobrien]

How great to scroll through my recommendations and the wonderful Alexander Cockburn. More of this please.

[@fairdose]

I used to read him on CounterPunch during the Bush years, he was great. Incidentally Laura Flanders who also has an excellent show is his half-niece.

[@carne_verde]

I miss Alexander Cockburn's column in the SF Examiner in the late 80s-early 90s. Great writer & def not afraid to piss off the powerful.

[@julieannmyers8714]

Learned something new... sorry I never heard or read Cockburn. Thank you!

[@tomservoux5]

Wow, Alexander Cockburn and this video needs to go viral.

[@ANTIFAGlobal]

"His books are all nonsense." Pretty concise summary of his body of work.

[@jo-annegawley5027]

Sorry, forgot to give you and Sam a shout out too! You guys help keep my sanity everyday.

[@ambylam]

I just scrolled past this quickly without reading and I was like “damn, Jimmy Dore is lookin’ rough”

[@charlotteruse8718]

How about talking with Micheal Hudson about neoliberalism.

[@steveeddy8195]

Charlotte Ruse, couldn’t agree more!

[@RipTheJackR]

Hudson is great :)

[@Simonjose7258]

So on point

[@birdworldist]

Hug

[@themajesticspider-man6116]

"Cockburn" is such an epic fucking name.

[@bullgatesSR]

His analysis of immigration is spot on.

[@NJGuy1973]

Another time on C-Span, Cockburn called Friedman a "nitwit."

[@homerco213]

They who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them for their blindness. That's the beginning of Manufacturing Consent if I remember correctly.

[@bubblefroggy1]

Yes, the word "amnesty" for migrants his hateful; normalization should be the right thing to do indeed. Thank you for those Alexander Cockburn gems... Thomas Friedman compared with dog food... Appropriate.

[@joanbradshaw333]

Read Counterpunch love Alex ( his great ...great grandfather burned Washington). Liked Claud's "Beat the Devil" but I think he was partly responsible for Orwell having to flee Spain. They both had a morally complex orientation to Orwell, Tom said kindly.

[@miketh1234]

"Coburn," are the c and k silent?

[@DeaThShiNoBi213]

Yes they're pronouncing it correctly. I'm guessing it's because it's an Irish name but don't quote me on that.

[@ianward2120]

i was remembering some comments -which i swear were delivered by cockburn but i am running into a memory-hole sort of thing.. i cannot locate and have searched several different ways.. cockburn was speaking about the aftermath of 'the battle for seattle'.. and premature celebration about that particular victory.. he was talking about how the state was going to recombine and reflect ..("we fucked up!") and that it was going to figure out how not to ('how do we not fuck up again?') and it was interesting because i thing the comments were delivered before miami and i think cockburn presupposed the 'miami model' that would follow seattle for these sorts of trade meetings.. the whole clip was good, but but.. does anyone remember this? was it not cockburn? whoever it was i am sure it exists because i used to share it from a sort of P2P infoshop i curated back in the limewire days. (i took a shit-ton of radical media from various formats and converted them to realmedia format (remember 'realmedia'?) which were much smaller but could be easily downloaded by people who were then still on dial-up.) somebody help.. anyone else remember this? was it cockburn? if not, who? link? love your show michael, and cockburn was a superstar for sure.

[@ianward2120]

NM, found it.. short but sweet. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZ6lpmCPbZp9jck

[@ianward2120]

..and now that i see the chronology, yeah.. the recording was released 11 months before miami. prescient.

[@Will_Moffett]

I tire of the dunking on Dave Rubin, which is like watching a small defenseless animal being tortured. But I never get sick of the ragging on Friedman, who I really think is an evil person. I know that is out of bounds in a certain sense, to question motives. However, if you were a really smart and really evil person, wouldn't being Thomas Friedman be the most bad you could accomplish if you didn't have the charisma to be Dick Cheney?