Really?

[james_davis_nicoll]

"leftist SF critic James Nicoll"? Leftist?

Comments

[0jack]

...I have no words. LEFTIST? WHAT.

[eagle]

Of course you're leftist. You're Canadian.

You are at least not European, thus making you not a communist.

[ironjeff]

Does this mean you only critique Leftist SF?

Having seen you post regarding politics, I'd say you were left-of-centercentre. I also see nothing wrong with this.

[bcholmes]

You sound insulted by the label. Is that a correct assessment of your reaction?

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

Sans context, I am going to speculate wildly that the author of said epithet is from my country.

Are you a Galtian superman? No? Then you're leftist.

[dsrtao]

You might recall the Witchfinder who held all Southerners in contempt, and by deduction was standing at the North Pole?

By USAn standards you is a dirty commie.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

You would prefer "rabid leftist"? "Card-carrying communist"? Tell us the proper form, and we'll use it . . .

[nelc.livejournal.com]

How would you describe yourself politically, in your terms and in terms a stereotypical USian might understand?

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

Was it that weirdo whose nym reflects an apparent desire to turn the US back to the days of Jim Crow, illegal contraception, and the Federal hounding of homosexuals to suicide (all in the name of small government, of course)?

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

You believe that in certain cases the municipalization of garbage collection is a good thing, and thus also the Gulag and stacking the skulls of your enemies into pyramids as part of your worship of the Almighty state. Duh.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Please. Even in Canada, you're left of centre. Lord knows how far red-shifted USAmericans think you are.

[sahdwholurks.livejournal.com]

Second all the 'foreign = leftist' comments. Heck, just claiming that going to the doctor in Canada doesn't require you to pass a Utility to the State Test marks you as a Communist to plenty of (willfully clueless) Americans.

[refugee50s.livejournal.com]

How, sir, would you describe yourself?

[refugee50s.livejournal.com]

I'll note that your commenters are pretty free with labels like "Republican", "right of right wingers", and so forth.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Is that a bad thing?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I have the impression that James' political views are on the left of center. And the recent project on sex balance in publishing, for example, can be viewed as leftist social engineering (however, that project isn't SF criticism, at least as I understand the term; it's not about individual stories and how and why they do or don't work. It's political activism about the SF field, which is something different.)

However, doesn't "leftist SF critic" mean more than that? To me it implies a critical apparatus significantly constructed on political principles; which is not what I find James deploying.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I take it some took offense to the "everything's worse with libertarians" tag on your LJ?

-- Steve's fighting a rising tide of Bircherism here in London (ON) that threatens to halt the sapping and impurifying fluoridating of municipal water. WTF, people, really; WTF?

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

Well, from what I gather one of your criticisms of the CPC is that they're not communist...

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Half a dozen words got this many responses?

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Well, based on the previous entry on the blog of the person who referred to you that way, you could have been called a "commie shit nozzle." I'd personally prefer "leftist SF critic."

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Totally off topic...

I wish that the timestamp showed on all replies when they were collapsed, like on this thread. That way I could more quickly see which ones were new replies. That would be neat.