Comments of the Week: Are There Any Heroes Left?

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking in Reno, Nev., in February when he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. (Evan Vucci / AP)

We’re back with another edition of Comments of the Week, and in keeping with the general mood that’s predominant in much of the country, the Truthdig comment boards were also a zone in which a number of issues were hotly contested and closely dissected.

It’s been a rough few months — or as some of you would say, years, even decades — and it’s not as though the end of the presidential election cycle will usher in a fresh wave of optimism, despite what campaign sloganeers would have voters believe.

Still, some commenters held in high regard a few figures and/or topics that made news last week. In fact, one contributor, il corvo, went so far as to call certain activists in North Dakota heroes (while according due respect to Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman, whose response to the arrest warrant issued for her was the topic of this news item):

Our latest “Live at Truthdig” guest, wrongfully convicted and recently freed Angola prisoner Gary Tyler, drew a large viewing crowd to our Facebook page, as well as a number of supportive comments in that thread for Tyler himself. The mass incarceration issue will continue to get coverage on the site, and we’d agree with Cloudchopper here in terms of the necessity to keep that conversation going in the midst of a personality-driven election season:

Back to the subject of these, our bleak times. Several commenters seemed to think that the title of Chris Hedges’ latest column, “Donald Trump: The Dress Rehearsal for Fascism,” contained an error — in that the fascism Hedges warns about has already arrived in the United States. A reader writing under the alias Redacted offered a concise remark about the U.S. mainstream media’s role in serving the interests of the powerful:

Also speaking of the media was JJG, who posted the following under the Eric Ortiz article, “WikiLeaks Should Be Applauded for Removing the Mask of U.S. Power,” in response to an ongoing discussion on that comment thread about how Julian Assange and his controversial operation ought to be evaluated. JJG’s comment is just one of many along the same lines and traffics in gray territory — not overtly celebratory, but cautiously laudatory:

Finishing off our review of the week’s noteworthy commentary is this from Shoes4Industry, who summed up in the fewest words what several other commenters were essentially saying about the subject of this Bill Boyarsky article; someone who used to be talked about quite differently on this and other forums. But what a difference a few months and a Hillary Clinton endorsement has apparently made for Bernie Sanders:

–Posted by Kasia Anderson