Black Lists, Ours And Theirs - Hate Mail

I was well into my 50s by the time my state didn't, in effect, give legal protection to a de facto employment blacklist against me because I'm gay.  In most states I still can be discriminated against in a legally protected de facto black list.  The Republican-fascist Supreme Court says I can be.  So, cis- straight White Boy, don't start telling me about black lists.

But race, gender, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation are not the same thing as political ideology.

And I never was a Stalinist or a Maoist.  Personally, I would have no problem with someone choosing to not employ a Nazi or an admirer of Mussolini or Franco or Jair Messias Bolsonaro or Rodrigo Roa Duterte - especially to teach children -so I don't understand why I should be that worked up over people not wanting to employ people who supported Stalin more than a half a century ago.  Do you think there's something wrong with people not choosing to hire someone who thinks the Kim regime in North Korea is something we should emulate, a model for America?  I am guessing you would have no problem with someone discriminating against someone like that.

I think the issues involved in the 1950s - 60s era blacklisting of Communists are a lot less cut and dried than we were all brought up to believe.  Especially that of Stalinists even as Stalin was still alive and murdering people.  I would love to ask Victor Navasky if he thinks it would be wrong to choose to not hire people who were big fat fans of various members of that list of fascist and modern Marxist dictators I list above.  I'd love to press him on why that's different.  If he thinks that it would be tolerable to have a Duterte or Kim regime supporter teaching children on the basis of some principle, he can take his principle and stuff it back where it came from.

I think religion is an interesting matter to put into the mix because I'm sure there are plenty of staunch opponents of that ancient black list who would have no problem with discriminating against people on the basis of their religion.  The old case of Scientific American and Forrest Mims III would be interesting to consider.  I suspect that there aren't many of those staunch opponents who wouldn't approve of his blacklisting.  However, religion is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act, for as long as the Republican-fascist Supreme Court doesn't totally destroy it.