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What's the actual deal with Cornell West?
(hexbear.net)
Serious question. I'm vaguely familiar with him as a political commentator on the left, but the more I see of the guy, the more I think he's just a liberal.
The way to tell if an intellectual is going to knife you is simple. What do they do outside of the university? Do they organise at grass roots level? Are they cadre in a political org? Or do they just posture at every election and protest to sell books?
There are some exceptions like how Chomsky had bad takes while being legitimately involved in material work, but Chomsky is at least consistent in his bad takes, he doesn't betray his own stated values at a moments notice. (He's always walked an inconsistent line of electorialism vs anarchism, for instance)
Yeah this is a good metric. Cornel West has mainly just done speeches his whole life. He's been involved with DSA too, but mainly as a distant advisor role. He was famously at the Charlottesville thing as a counter-protestor and there was some kind of violent confrontation where some antifa defended him, which is pretty cool honestly.
I don't know what to make of West honestly. I've read his books and from those alone you'd think he's got it figured out. Clear and concise condemnations of structural racism in the US and where it comes from. But from his interviews and speeches he sounds more vague, more fuzzy, less capable of presenting a coherent plan or message.
I still want to like him because he was instrumental in my own development. I read his books as a teenager and they stuck with me, but he's frankly a relic of a bygone age. He's stuck 30 years ago when the moment's long since passed him.