Workers of the World, Untie!

I read the Boston Magazine blog to save me the trouble of reading the Globe, and prevent me from missing stories like this:

Not everyone, it seems, is excited that a bunch of A-list actors are in Boston taping a miniseries based on BU professor Howard Zinn's book "A People's History of the United States." Producer Chris Moore revealed yesterday that while out for a drink the other night, the crew nearly got into a scuffle with some not-so-enlightened lager louts.

"They were out at a local bar and it was, like, 'You bunch of commie [expletive],' " Moore said, sounding more amused than upset. "It was like they were going to get into a fight."

There's a name for these folks: Reagan Democrats. Despite our reputation as the capitol of east-coast liberalism, there's a huge difference between Cambridge and Berkeley once you get past the fact that both voted for Kerry in '04. Spend 5 minutes in Southie, Somerville, Quincy, Dot, heck, even parts of Cambridge, and you'll find plenty of pickup trucks with American flags and those delightful "Terrorist Hunting Permit" stickers in the back window, and if you're lucky, you might even see one with the peace sign and "footprint of the American Chicken" below.

Zinn's view of things have always struck me as something like an alternate-history novel in which the Nazis convince Britain to sign a peace treaty shortly before Pearl Harbor. Zinn seems to think that the various radical movements that flared in and out of existence from the late 19th century up through the early FDR years represented the authentic desire of the American people, and would have gained strength had the bankers and captains of industry not managed to simultaneously suppress and marginalize them. In his view, the AFL-CIO (which would in the 1980s under Lane Kirkland join hands with Reagan to support Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement) was really an Uncle Tom union created as a sort of compact between skilled native white male workers (i.e. the top quartile or so of "labor") and their bosses.

Needless to say, this is precisely the sort of thing I'd expect a bunch of pipefitters and ironworkers to refer to as 'commie faggot bullshit.'

Don't get me wrong, I think committed contrarians like Zinn can raise a lot of interesting points, even if they're wrong on the broader picture, because consensus always acts to stifle information which contradicts it. In a sense, it's sort of like the fact that Robert Mapplethorpe's photography was technically ravishing, whether the subject was an orchid or a bullwhip shoved up a dude's butt. There's a place for this sort of thing, but it's not in the mainstream, and for some of those who identify deeply with it, that fact will always be infinitely infuriating, especially when

Also, if you're drinking anything, swallow before reading this howler from the same story:

David Strathairn said it's a treat to work on something so overtly political,
and he doesn't worry for a minute about being blackballed because of it. "We're
all on the list," Strathairn said, laughing.

Indeed, because we all know that Hollywood's social and professional life is dominated by West Texas Republicans. Eight years of Bush, Ashkkkroft, and warrantless wiretaps have to my knowledge resulted in precisely zero film offers being pulled from Scarlett Johannson because she supported John Kerry, let alone anyone being actually prosecuted. Leaving aside the now-indisputable fact that more than a few Hollywood leftists were on Moscow's payroll back in the day (and knew it well), the days of the genuine blackball are so far behind us that every time the Hollywood establishment wants to preen about it on an awards show, they need to raid the local nursing homes to find someone who actually experienced it firsthand.  ¶ 7:56 AM