Yesterday I reacted to a diary from WB Reeves Leaving America. The wording in his diary triggered some straight words from my side, which were not taken all too friendly by the diarist.
The issue he addressed has been obviously an issue in my personal life for reasons more important than a general feeling of solidarity as a "disgruntled progressive in spirit" German, who likes some disgruntled US progressives.
Obviously as a foreigner and German expatriate, who was not raised and educated in the US and has little knowledge of local culture and history of the US, I don't count myself as someone who belongs to the group of "leftist US-raised progressives, or DFH for that matter" (though I love them all). It didn't escape my consciousness, that those have gotten at least sometimes some disdainful acknowledgements here at DK. It was always hard for me to understand why. That's where being a foreigner comes into play. I don't understand a lot of what's going on here.
As such a low-level non-educated outside observer I frankly admit that the tensions between those diverging groups I was able to sense here from time to time have puzzled me. And yesterday my puzzled mind caught up with me and got my mouth making some noise I rather would have liked to not have made.
With regards to yesterday's diary and my comments and WB Reeves responses, I would like to give some apologetic clarifications.
WB Reeves started out in his introduction with this sentence:
Few things strike me as more politically pathetic than ostensible Progressives who respond to a political defeat by nattering on about leaving the US.
I think that the wording "pathetic" and "nattering" rubbed me the wrong way and triggered finally my reaction. I first read through the beginning comment thread and at one point got upset because in my mind he was a bit insulting to another commentator. So a rather unpleasant back and forth between him an me resulted.
At one point he asked me if I had read his diary and I answered:
Actually I did read your diary - and regret it/nt
So, without going into details of the exchange any further, let me say that I still regret having engaged in this diary, but that I really
regret to NOT have read other diaries from WB Reeves.
My main question was about the motivation the author might have had to write this diary. I did not recognized the author's handle, didn't remember anything what he had written before, just read this diary as a single standing "thing" without any context of knowledge about the author. This is something that happens to me way more often than to any regular American educated reader here. Unfortunately.
As the exchange between the author and me didn't get out of my mind, I started this morning to read some of his latest diaries. To say it up front, I was puzzled and then embarrassed and then regretful not having known about his life, his work and where he was coming from. I wouldn't have expected that background of the author from the current diary I was unhappy with.
So, let me at least apologize for my lack of knowledge about WB Reeves and not recognizing him as who he is. From what I read (including some of the links he gave in his previous diaries about his work) I only can say that I have utmost respect for this past work, at least as far as I am able to comprehend it from an half-hour reading of his material here.
Clearly his previous diaries explain to me the one question I had, ie what are his motivations to be that enervated with "pathetically nattering progressives". I can put this now in context and make sense out of it.
In that sense, I am sorry for not understanding why WB Reeves is sensitive about people questioning motivations of other authors, which amounts pretty much to questioning their integrity and good faith. I regret that it happened. I imagined WB Reeves coming from another corner of the political spectrum. I should have checked before making those assumptions. My apologies for that.
May be it would help us all to always remind ourselves that most readers have not all the background of an author's history and view points, don't remember or recognize what an author has written before, mix up author's handles etc.
Also it might help to remember that emigrants and immigrants have a lot of different reasons and come from different walks of life. They read here too. Not every immigrant to the United States "gains", some "lose" as well. The same is true that not every emigrant "gains" something in the country he goes to, some "lose" as well. For many immigrants or emigrants it actually is a "re-patriation" and the question for those, ie. if they should re-patriate or not, has often no easy answers, yet they might feel "in spirit" very much as a leftist progressive in the realm of American politics. Rarely are those understood by those, who never were exposed to them or their experiences personally. (TranslatorPro's and Karmsy's comments in a way show how difficult it is).
So, I hope WB Reeves accepts my explanations and apology. I might want to add though that it's in your declaration of independence that all Americans (and its immigrants and emigrants) have a right to "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", even those Americans who are nattering disgruntled leftist progressives. And it says nothing in the declaraiont of independence of where you are allowed to pursue your happiness.
Me, I pursue my happiness right now and .. go fishing with my dog at the lake around the corner. :)