I am choosing to read Snowstalker's and CELTICEMPIRE's posts here as self-aware self-parody of the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" mindsets all-too-inherent to many ideologues, rather than serious suggestions.
Doing so is a good strategy for preserving one's basic faith in humanity.
>implying that you aren't an ideologue
Can we please stop pretending its possible for someone to approach issues from a 'non-ideological' standpoint, or pretending that being 'non-ideological' is possible?
Fine, then, it is
part and parcel of my ideology to acknowledge the contingency and complexity of actual life, and be wary of "pat" solutions that don't at least give lip service to the details of the solution at hand*. If that sort of care and nuance is inherently ideological, then okay, I will wear that label with pride.
But, really, it's not
actually necessarily ideological in the
specific way that you're implying, and if it is than you're really just insulting yourself. I choose to believe that, if you tried, you could come up with a solution for Syria [or insert other country/region/issue here] that both acknowledged (and demonstrated an understanding of) the unique sorts of challenges it faces, and tried to incorporate a Marxist [or insert preferred approach here] approach into a contextual, on-topic answer.
The problem is that those folks
didn't even try. They just parroted talking points that could be cut and pasted into any situation, anywhere. Do you seriously not see the problem with that?
*I might extend that further, actually, to say that I don't believe perfect consistency to be even possible, and I furthermore think that the effort to twist reality to create the appearance of perfect consistency is something that has caused great harm over the years. That is an ideological thing to say, and I acknowledge as such, and you would be right to label it as such. It is also superfluous to my task of proving that Snowstalker and CELTIC are being tiresome knuckleheads with their "solutions" here. One does not need to commit to capital-P Pragmatism to point out when the proverbial Magic 8-Ball is broken.
