Hi Frank,

I’m sorry, but I’m gonna kill all links to American web sites or
blogs in the next installment of Shutterclog. Your country has turned
fascist and you and your fellow Americans have allowed it to happen.

So excuse me if I can no longer take your blog seriously…

Niek

http://www.niekhockx.nu/ [UPDATE - content at this address may ironically not be safe for work, if you work in the US where Ashcroft draped the nude breast of the statue of Justice because he and his repressive ilk find beauty intolerable. -fp-]

I’m sorry you feel that way Niek. I certainly haven’t been doing enough to stop it from happening, but many American bloggers and web publishers are working hard every day to turn the tide of fascism. I have two books to review on my desk right now. One is Cross-X and the other is The God Delusion. Neither speaks directly to the political/economic realities of global fascism, but each addresses a facet of mindfulness and concern that I think will be valuable to illuminate. So while I understand your principled exclusion of American web-links, I hope you will find a way to survey Listics from time to time and make personal use of anything valuable you may find here.

There are dozens and dozens of American sites that don’t deserve the boycott… off the top of my head (and with some concern that I will leave out someone close to me and be embarrassed by it): The River, Mystic Bourgeoisie, One Good Move, PRWatch, Tom Matrullo, Kombinat, UFOB…

Hell, that’s a small sample of mindful and aware American bloggers that I read during each month. (UFOB remains mysterious, and if they’re a canuck conspiracy, my apologies since I deliberately tried to leave the Canadians like Moffatt - who shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush - out of my quick-links. And I left out the artists and the poets, arguably a stupid omission… people like Ray. And I left out the techies, from Shelley to Dean and in between… mindful and aware politically but not publishing darts aimed at the heart of the fascist beast. And I left out a raft of personal and professional and personal/professional people publishing on the web from Grace Davis to Jeneane Sessum to Ronni Bennett to George Kelly to Jon Lebkowsky to Tamarika Jacobson… and I left out all kinds of friends who I believe would help me hide a body or get out of town in the dark of night… some named above and others like jr and Winston and Ken who probably wouldn’t want to discuss it, but whom I feel I can trust on so many levels.

I can appreciate the need for people to take a stand against American fascism, and your boycott is a good one, a personal statement that says “when they turned away from freedom and democracy I stood up.” But I refuse to take it personally. I’ve been making these gestures myself for the last five years (and of course on and off since Vietnam when I began to understand some of the terrible choices global corporate capitalism forces on its flagship states). I think you know that. And on one level I am terribly disappointed because people offshore like you and Golby are people I think we will need to count on when things get even darker.

So cut off our links if it helps you draw a clear bright line against the fascist evil that has replaced American democracy, but don’t cut yourself off from us.