It is becoming ever apparent that the far-left’s historic support for issues like gay rights and women’s rights was nothing more than an insincere wedge issue to attack the conservative establishment at the time. As the establishment becomes increasingly liberal – to the point where gender and sexuality issues (which were once controversial) are now mainstream – so what was once convenient to this left has become less convenient. Indeed, sometimes it is downright inconvenient.
This is precisely why leading SWP figure (at the time) Lindsay German infamously stated that gay rights would not be a “shibboleth” when it came to forging alliances with reactionary religious groups (who, conveniently, were anti-establishment at the time).
This is precisely why we see more and more examples of women and gay people being smeared when they criticise the treatement of women and gays in the Middle East or in Socialist countries.
A recent example was the shameful character assassinations of the women who brought charges of rape against Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. Assange, idiotically, was considered by the idiot-left as being ‘one of them’. The fact that he colluded with far-right figures was overlooked because conveniently – there’s that word again – he ‘stuck it to the Americans’ (which was useful in the struggle against ‘imperialism’).
So it should be no surprise than that the same idiot-left now calls into question the validity of claims by a Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidy, who burst into a press conference to tearfully tell her story of being assaulted and raped by Gadaffi’s militia.
Russ Baker, a columnist and frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, writes on his blog:
As reprehensible as Qaddafi’s regime is, it is important to be on our guard against psyops–disinformation efforts designed to sway public opinion. The Pentagon and CIA, as well as agencies of many other countries, have extensive operations focused on this objective. In this light, we might consider this story that Qaddafi militia members raped a woman…
For one thing, as awful as rape is, it is hardly uncommon anywhere in the world, and the fact that this story would get so much attention—and generate such a strong response—has to be viewed with restraint. It may not be true, and even if it is, why would it get this much publicity at this particular moment, given the norm of brutality under Qaddafi (and many other rulers around the world.)
He urges us to view her claims “with caution”. I suppose the security services men who grabbed her and dragged her out of the building were part of the ‘psy-ops’ pantomime too, handsomely paid by shadowy CIA agents.
Certainly, her dramatic claims are inconvenient to the far-left, so she is a probably, hysterical, or a liar and her claims must be heard “with caution”. Hmmm. It’s amazing how easily left wing commentators can sound like right-wing judges.