actually, i think that it's fairly clear that this delay in my ability to provide a source to demonstrate the historical fact that the populist (and, later, progressive) movement in the united states was a white supremacist movement (which is easily researched in real libraries, if you actually look it up) exposed the true depth of ignorance that exists on the fake left. this really isn't a point that should require me to post a doctoral thesis to back myself up on; this should be common knowledge in a country, and especially in a left-identifying movement in that country, that has a solid grasp of it's own history. so, what do you say when you find yourself in a situation where you're making an argument that you know damned well is grounded in truth, but that you're having difficulty locating a useful source to demonstrate, because there's such a thorough level of disinformation in the press about it, and the people that you expect to know better are just attacking your credibility, as a consequence of that disinformation?

this is what happened:

- i made a valid claim i knew was true (because i had read it in a hundred different places - chomsky, zinn, wiki articles, random internet articles, etc) but that i couldn't provide a clear, authoritative source for, at first - because i'm not an expert in the topic, and never claimed i was. i have degrees in math, computer science and law. in all my years at school, i took one course on byzantine history for breadth. my understanding of history is deep, but i'm a self-taught nerd, and i don't think that gives me less credibility - that's the fallacy of authority, and needs to be rejected by any sort of real or meaningful leftist, on it's face. you can only get so many degrees, in the end - there's only so much time, and only so much debt to incur.

- a lot of very stupid people decided that if i couldn't find a source immediately then i must obviously be making shit up, and therefore must be wrong. that's another fallacy, that the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence.

- these idiots turned up their megaphone and yelled their ignorance far and wide.

- i then found a good source (after some searching.) and posted it - and even had to do it twice because google censored it the first time, perhaps even as a consequence of the previous fallacies.

- but, no retraction was ever posted, anywhere. 

it's like i'm arguing with the editors of the new york times.

and, this is what calls itself the contemporary left - the blind leading the blind.