Opinion of StatesRights?

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

Anybody think my theory is plausible? I think also that, on a more conscious level and like the endless parade of Black Republican Presidential Candidates, being an Arab neo-Confederate gives him an attention-getting cachet.

Or one could discuss the merits of his views (or lack thereof, if you prefer), rather than mindlessly (and racistly) attributing them to tokenism.

The Hitler salute is actually often used by some Arab radical groups.

[7,052,770]

A nice guy. And I have no recollection of him being an Arab. Are you sure you're not confusing him with phknrocket1k, who was Middle-Eastern and drifted from Democrat to Marxist to Republican?

[patrick1]

A nice guy. And I have no recollection of him being an Arab. Are you sure you're not confusing him with phknrocket1k, who was Middle-Eastern and drifted from Democrat to Marxist to Republican?

No, I think States was half Arab Christian and half Austrian or German.  For some odd reason I think he said he claimed descent to the Wittelsbachs or other royal house. The weird things I remember or misremember about people I never met.

[Meursault]

I'm not attributing his worldview to tokenism, SPC. That would imply he's part of some faction proping him up as a totem of inclusion; so far as I know, he's a lone wolf. Rather, I suspect that the personal manifests politically in him as a drive to latch onto whatever is furthest from the obvious associations one would make with his Arab-Americanism.

[Badger]

The willingness to "take unpopular opinions and stick tenaciously to them" isn't commendable when the opinions are also wrong-headed or mean-spirited. Though that's usually the excuse given for excerable views; that somehow unwavering dedication to foolishness somehow makes one less of a fool.

Mean spirited?  Creating a poll which invites forum members to assail an individual with impunity is mean spirited.  

Wrong headed?  Assuming that everyone must share your views and summarily dismissing as foolish those who do not agree is wrong headed.

On the other hand, voicing an unpopular position and demonstrating a willingness to fight for it is the essence of the revolutionary.  

A freedom fighter is, by definition, one who is willing to engage in active and potentially armed resistance against those he perceives as oppressors, or against an oppressive system.  Of course, one man's freedom fighter is another's terrorist.  We all know that.  The question did not ask us to defend his views, only whether he fits the mold of the freedom fighter.  In my humble opinion, he does better than any other forum member.

"One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter". How original.

Nothing you typed refutes a syllable of what I wrote about SR.

[Badger]

I've thought about this reviewing some old posts. Yes, SR's neo-Confederate politics and views on race were beyond annoying. But truth be told he was a decent guy personally. He's living embodiment of the rule that politics are only a single facet of one's personality and should not be near dispositive of how we assess others. It's too easy to lose sight of that on a politcs forum and judge each other primarily by PM scores.