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A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
My Stuff
https://umass-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/rwolff_umass_edu/EkxJV79tnlBDol82i7bXs7gBAUHadkylrmLgWbXv2nYq_A?e=UcbbW0
Coming Soon:
The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.
NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."
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About Me
- Robert Paul Wolff
- As I observed in one of my books, in politics I am an anarchist, in religion I am an atheist, and in economics I am a Marxist. I am also, rather more importantly, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a violist.
5 comments:
Yes, disgusting. Enough to justify armed intervention by the UN or a coalition of the willing?
Not just Chechnya. Male homosexuality is a capital offense in some Islamic countries, including US allies. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_in_Islam#Criminalization.
The Chechnya story is being flogged now because "Russia."
Not long ago, homosexuality was persecuted in the US actively by US law enforcement, often using entrapment, and many gays went to prison. Many were subjected to "re-programming."
While this has recently changed to a great degree in the US, bullying is still rampant, as is anti-gay bias and discrimination. Those in the US aren't gay or haven't had gay friends that were open to explaining what they face, are naïve about this, if not in denial of the facts.
Moreover, this is a hot button political issue globally. Traditionalists complain that liberals are forcing them to abandon longstanding customs and laws, many of which are embedded in religion.
This issue is only one manifestation of the clash taking place between liberalism and traditionalism nationally and globally. Many countries are condemning the "godless West," which is now trying to force "Western values" on their children.
Religious wars are the worst. This is not likely to end well.
I’m struck by the fact that the monthly bribe mentioned in this article was 1000 rubles. That’s the denomination in which most Russian ATMs distribute cash. I remember buying a sweater — admittedly new, in a mall—for 1500 rubles. A quick internet search tells me that 1000 rubles converts to $15 USD. When I lived in Russia it was $20-25. That $15 is the most you can get in Chechneya for potentially deadly blackmail is a profound statement about the poverty there. This information seemed absent from the article, which made 1000 rubles sound like a lot of money, which, in Chechneya, I suppose it is. So I thought I’d comment on the exchange rate, for what it’s worth. I hope it’s worth at least 60 rubles, the price of an apple in the city....
The article says “thousands of rubles,” mea culpa. Still—$45? $60? I’d bet the bribe is under $100. Of course, the persecution of gay men is appalling.
In 2015, some of my Russian girlfriends took me to a gay bar in Yekaterinburg. They thought I would get a kick out of it as a gay American man. And I did! We all had a great time. A year later, one of them called me and told me some skinheads had shot the bar up in a drive by. The shooting ultimately closed the bar down. Chechneya is a completely different animal, of course, but the situation seems to be escalating in most of Russia. I wasn’t worried when I went to work there three years ago because most of the violence was happening to Russian gay men who were lured into dates/ meetings with skinheads on the Internet. I figured not using the Internet for that was enough to be safe, and in 2015, I think it was.
Another Russian friend of mine told me that the American or British (can’t remember) teacher who was hired to replace after I’d gone home, was irritating the Russians at the school I worked for with over-the-top homophobic comments. The anti-gay paranoia storm is making Russia something of a global sanctuary for people who feel threatened by gay men.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/04/11/chechnya-concentration-camp-homosexuals/
"When we asked Amnesty International if they could confirm the existence of the concentration camps they responded that it’s preferable, based on what we know, to refer to them as secret detention sites. “We should always be careful about using the language of ‘concentration camps,'” AI spokesperson Alexander Artemyev said."
This article is from last year and the headline is a bit exaggerated. When in doubt check Snopes
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