WE are not assuming anything, or at least I’m not, because I know better than to think that it’s wise to draw any conclusions from such radically incomplete information.
Many people are shocked to see a Donald Trump button from the 2016 campaign in my office on the wall near my desk, a gift. I don’t feel the need to worry about what ignorant people might conclude about me from it. Similarly, a friend went to Germany recently, and while there went to the town of Trier which turned out to be the birthplace of Karl Marx. So now I have a portrait of Karl Marx and the word Trier on a magnet on my refrigerator at home. So?
That's not happening. There's very real reasons why people preserve their anonymity when writing about politics. Please count how many people's businesses and homes have been targeted in our community in the last 20 years. Do you run a business with employees who depend upon you? Do you lead any community organizations that are vulnerable to government inference? Political retribution is not limited to just radicals and weirdos on the internet, for 100 years there have been multiple divisions of our government focused on finding blackmail on dissidents and concocting ways to extrajudicially harass them.
Meanwhile, consider the opposite - and I mean this with sincere respect: I enjoy your writing, but I have no idea who "Richard Cheverton" is, it's not like your personal name comes attach with in a whole bunch of personal integrity and deep rooted history. I'm not friends with your friends, I don't do business with you, I've never shaken your hand, I doubt our spouses know each other. If you began authoring a bunch of falsehoods would that impact me? I don't even know if your pen name is your legal name, nor have I ever asked or cared - do you think someone looks you up on LinkedIn before believing what you write? Plenty of shitbag liars use their own legal name when spewing lies - so in my mind there's no evidence you or anyone else has more innate trust in what's written because there's a name attached. Your ideas and writings are what carry your integrity and merit on their own, with your pen name simply showing the track record of your ideas and writing.
More to the point: I do have platforms where I write under my own name. On those platforms I don't throw jabs at the kleptocratic aristocracy, this allows me to infiltrate and maintain relationships with the kleptocracy. My nonprofit benefits from public grants (which is a legit nonprofit, not some scam), my business contracts with every municipality you can think of, my rolodex is the whose-who of IT leadership in public and private organizations, I've got family that are elected officials and party fundraisers, and I have an award on my wall from Kate Brown thanking me for my political activism. Separating your professional life from your political commentary is a good idea. It's done me zero harm.
Do you have five hours to spare? There's an excellent introduction to Richard Cheverton on the podcast Rational in Portland.
The episode is titled "Richard Cheverton on the death of investigative journalism in Portland." In a wide-ranging discussion recorded on February 1, 2023, Mr. Cheverton and host Kris Olsen discuss his career in journalism, his views on the state of journalism in Portland and his opinions on a host of other topics of great interest and concern.
Here's the link from Apple podcasts, but the episode is available wherever fine podcasts are found.
I have Mao pins and a bust of Lenin at home, but that doesn't make me a commie. It makes me a collector of communist material culture. I picked up the pins in China in 1980 and Lenin in Estonia in 2017. If that makes me politically suspect, I'll add that I've also been to Iran and Cuba. Heck, I'm originally from Venezuela and a dual citizen, so God knows where my actual loyalties lie, right?
No, I'm just an increasingly moderate Democrat and a senior citizen from an expat family and I enjoy travel off the beaten path. My stopover at the airport at La Habana took place when I was a toddler in the late 50s on the way to or from the states.
But enough about me.
A journalist would have asked Kafoury and Nosse in an open-ended way to explain what the images in question mean to them and reported their responses. A reporter would also have probed their answers and published the results. Even a cub reporter would know to interview other sources and mention whether or not they found other corroborating information.
Instead we get this kangaroo court where insinuation replaces evidence and guilt is established by association instead of facts.
The critical problem with the right's 21st century version of a Red Scare is the absence of actual Reds. Shitbag woke kids reciting stupid slogans don't count.
I'm curious about the axe in the picture of Greg Kafoury's office. It looks like a labrys axe, which was a symbol of radical feminism back in the Eighties--I mean Mary Daly's radical feminism, that era. Do you know anything about that?
No idea, but that would track. On the website I linked to, his company's website, it explains that there's a picture of Greg Kafoury shaking hands with Fidel Castro.
Funny, what you call his “Bolshevik” propaganda is the reproduction of an old advertisement for selling paper towels from probably the 30s — “Are your washrooms breeding BOLSHEVIKS? Workers lose respect for a company that doesn’t provide proper facilities” is the headline on the poster as I recall, pitching the paper towels as higher quality (and more economical too! Only need one or two. Write for a free carton . . . ). It’s a reminder that anti-Communist hysteria has a long history in this country.
WE are not assuming anything, or at least I’m not, because I know better than to think that it’s wise to draw any conclusions from such radically incomplete information.
Many people are shocked to see a Donald Trump button from the 2016 campaign in my office on the wall near my desk, a gift. I don’t feel the need to worry about what ignorant people might conclude about me from it. Similarly, a friend went to Germany recently, and while there went to the town of Trier which turned out to be the birthplace of Karl Marx. So now I have a portrait of Karl Marx and the word Trier on a magnet on my refrigerator at home. So?
Nice rant--but I've gotta say I really distrust any writer who hides behind a nom de plume.
Come out, come out--wherever you are...
That's not happening. There's very real reasons why people preserve their anonymity when writing about politics. Please count how many people's businesses and homes have been targeted in our community in the last 20 years. Do you run a business with employees who depend upon you? Do you lead any community organizations that are vulnerable to government inference? Political retribution is not limited to just radicals and weirdos on the internet, for 100 years there have been multiple divisions of our government focused on finding blackmail on dissidents and concocting ways to extrajudicially harass them.
Meanwhile, consider the opposite - and I mean this with sincere respect: I enjoy your writing, but I have no idea who "Richard Cheverton" is, it's not like your personal name comes attach with in a whole bunch of personal integrity and deep rooted history. I'm not friends with your friends, I don't do business with you, I've never shaken your hand, I doubt our spouses know each other. If you began authoring a bunch of falsehoods would that impact me? I don't even know if your pen name is your legal name, nor have I ever asked or cared - do you think someone looks you up on LinkedIn before believing what you write? Plenty of shitbag liars use their own legal name when spewing lies - so in my mind there's no evidence you or anyone else has more innate trust in what's written because there's a name attached. Your ideas and writings are what carry your integrity and merit on their own, with your pen name simply showing the track record of your ideas and writing.
More to the point: I do have platforms where I write under my own name. On those platforms I don't throw jabs at the kleptocratic aristocracy, this allows me to infiltrate and maintain relationships with the kleptocracy. My nonprofit benefits from public grants (which is a legit nonprofit, not some scam), my business contracts with every municipality you can think of, my rolodex is the whose-who of IT leadership in public and private organizations, I've got family that are elected officials and party fundraisers, and I have an award on my wall from Kate Brown thanking me for my political activism. Separating your professional life from your political commentary is a good idea. It's done me zero harm.
Do you have five hours to spare? There's an excellent introduction to Richard Cheverton on the podcast Rational in Portland.
The episode is titled "Richard Cheverton on the death of investigative journalism in Portland." In a wide-ranging discussion recorded on February 1, 2023, Mr. Cheverton and host Kris Olsen discuss his career in journalism, his views on the state of journalism in Portland and his opinions on a host of other topics of great interest and concern.
Here's the link from Apple podcasts, but the episode is available wherever fine podcasts are found.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/richard-cheverton-on-the-death-of/id1579198261?i=1000597667547
I have Mao pins and a bust of Lenin at home, but that doesn't make me a commie. It makes me a collector of communist material culture. I picked up the pins in China in 1980 and Lenin in Estonia in 2017. If that makes me politically suspect, I'll add that I've also been to Iran and Cuba. Heck, I'm originally from Venezuela and a dual citizen, so God knows where my actual loyalties lie, right?
No, I'm just an increasingly moderate Democrat and a senior citizen from an expat family and I enjoy travel off the beaten path. My stopover at the airport at La Habana took place when I was a toddler in the late 50s on the way to or from the states.
But enough about me.
A journalist would have asked Kafoury and Nosse in an open-ended way to explain what the images in question mean to them and reported their responses. A reporter would also have probed their answers and published the results. Even a cub reporter would know to interview other sources and mention whether or not they found other corroborating information.
Instead we get this kangaroo court where insinuation replaces evidence and guilt is established by association instead of facts.
The critical problem with the right's 21st century version of a Red Scare is the absence of actual Reds. Shitbag woke kids reciting stupid slogans don't count.
I'm curious about the axe in the picture of Greg Kafoury's office. It looks like a labrys axe, which was a symbol of radical feminism back in the Eighties--I mean Mary Daly's radical feminism, that era. Do you know anything about that?
No idea, but that would track. On the website I linked to, his company's website, it explains that there's a picture of Greg Kafoury shaking hands with Fidel Castro.
Funny, what you call his “Bolshevik” propaganda is the reproduction of an old advertisement for selling paper towels from probably the 30s — “Are your washrooms breeding BOLSHEVIKS? Workers lose respect for a company that doesn’t provide proper facilities” is the headline on the poster as I recall, pitching the paper towels as higher quality (and more economical too! Only need one or two. Write for a free carton . . . ). It’s a reminder that anti-Communist hysteria has a long history in this country.
Indeed - thanks, here's a link to the Bolshevik ironic propaganda: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/11/09/is-your-washroom-breeding-bolsheviks/
Are we also assuming the picture of Che is ironically placed?
Gee, I dunno. Why don't you ask the guy?