If you are searching for a view of the intellectual and moral slack the American far-Left is cutting itself, look no further than gentle old National Public Radio. More than a decade ago, when I lived in the US, NPR was genially Left-of-centre, but not aggressively so. Last week it revealed itself to be \u2014 in the eyes of many Americans \u2014 quite unhinged, publishing an interview with Vicky Osterweil, the author of a book called In Defense of Looting.<\/p>\n
Osterweil made two assertions, the first being that looting is justified because it attacks the idea of private property and the world of work: \u201cSo you get to the heart of that property relation, and demonstrate that without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second is that stealing from shops is part of the wider movement for change in America: \u201cLooting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police,\u201d she said: \u201cIt gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that\u2019s a part of it that doesn\u2019t really get talked about \u2014 that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of this is robustly challenged, and this was not some sociology professor playing with edgy thoughts on campus \u2014 it was an interview conducted and disseminated by one of the most important mainstream broadcasters in the USA, a non-profit devoted to ideals of impartiality and truth.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n The American Left is spiralling out of control. By the BBC’s former US correspondent. https:\/\/t.co\/gfEFPzwHmg<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jules Evans (@JulesEvans11) September 7, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n