Letters to the Editor
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I think I finally understand SHAM
All of this anti-cult stuff only makes sense given the context of Bay Area politics. It's exactly the kind of reactionary overcompensation David Brock writes about in Blinded by the Right. I sympathize--really, I do.
Hence the suspicious exclusion of all cultish Right wing groups, of which there are at least as many as on the Lefty side--and they definitely wield MUCH more raw power than New Agers. Money. Government. Corporations. The VAST majority of churches. The frickin' military. Neo Cons. The list goes on and on.
I get sick of how much people in SF and Berkeley swallow the snake oil of much of the nutritional supplements industry--but only here could you pretend that New Agers are the power players of America.
Try telling the thousands of innocents killed as "collateral damage" that the Neo Con cabal is less dangerous than yoga and acupuncture teachers.
The Bay Area does not represent the norm in US. It's exactly the opposite of most of the country. SHAM can claim that "everyone" is looking at Christian and Rightist cults like Dominionism, only because they're not the power bloc in the Bay Area. But Dominionists get much more of a free pass in the media than New Age wackos. In reality, for whatever reasons SHAM gives, he's just attacking people that aren't on his political side of the fence.
Also explains the anti-Chinese slant of his targets--referring here to the shameful racist column in the Asian Times recently.