From: revpk@cellar.org (Brian 'Rev P-K' Siano)
Newsgroups: soc.men,soc.women,alt.censorship,sci.skeptic
Subject: Robert Sheaffer's Loyalty Test
Date: 16 Aug 92 19:34:50 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system


     I just received the following Loyalty test in Email-- from Robert
Sheaffer. In case anyone was under the delusion that McCarthyism was
Dead, I guess you'll benefit from my sharing it around.
 
> 
> I'm curious about this. Here's a little quiz for you to take:
> 
> 1. Do you believe that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were spying for
the
>    Soviets? (Note: this is *not* the same question as: "Should they
>    have been executed?").
> 
> 2. Do you believe that Alger Hiss passed on government information
to
>    the SOviets, in violation of U.S. law?
>  
> 3. Do you believe that John Reed accepted money from the Soviets for
>    help him promote Communism in the U.S.?
> 
> 4. Do you believe that Armand Hammer accepted money from the Soviets
>    to help the U.S. Communist party, starting with Lenin himself?
> 
> 5. Do you believe that Gus Hall regularly accepted secret funds from
>    the USSR?
> 
> 6. Do you believe that I.F. Stone accepted secret funds from the
USSR?
> 
> 7. Do you believe that the USSR and its east European satellites
were
>    secretly funding and training "anti-imperalist" terrorists that
>    were attacking Western interests?
     And if the above weren't silly enough, Sheaffer adds the
following:
> 
> Scoring: give yourself one point for each "yes" answer.
> 
> 6-7:  You have swallowed some bitter medicine, but you are a better
>       person for it. You realize that you have been deluded for many
>       years, but you detest falsehood, and are willing to stand up
>       and proclaim the truth, even when it hurts.
> 
> 4-5:  You have learned many lessons from the events of recent years,
>       but you still are afraid to face reality squarely in the face.
>       Have a cup of strong coffee.
> 
> 2-3   You have learned something from the events of recent years,
but
>       your Blind Faith in Leftism keeps you from facing up to the
>       full extent of how badly you had been deluded. Study some of
the
>       recently-declassified Soviet archives (which are now available
>       via FTP, by the way).
> 
> 0-1   You are still living in Left-Looneyland, where successful
people
>       are nasty and bad, you still believe "blessed are the poor."
There
>       is no point in worring your tiny little brain about any of
these
>       things, because you don't *care* what the facts are. Just
continue
>       to dream on in your private little universe, but please be
>       careful not to misrepresent it as having anything to do with
>       Planet Earth.
> 
> So, what's your score, Brian?
> 
 
     Okay, now that you've seen this, I can explain just _why_ this
gem of psychotic thinking got sent my way. Sheaffer sent me email
claiming that journalist I.F. Stone had been in the pay of the KGB. 
The charges were originally made in _Human Events_ magazine by Herbert
Romerstein, a former HUAC counsel and head of the USIA's Office to
Counter Soviet Active Measures, and author of the book _Communism and
Your Child_.
 
     Romerstein charged that Stone was recruited onto the KGB payroll
by Oleg Kalugin, their top US operative. in 1956. Problem is, apart
from Kalugin, all of Romerstein's sources are anonymous-- and Kalugin
has explicitly denied that Stone was a KGB agent. In the August 3/10
issue of _The Nation_, Stone biographer D.D. Guttenplan asked Kalugin
if Stone was a KGB employee. "It's not true," Kalugin said. "I did not
recruit him, and I did not pay him money." Stone's own writings attest
to his independence-- his visit to Moscow in 1956 convinced him that
the USSR was a dictatorship under which there was no freedom (see the
anthology _The Haunted Fifties_), and he'd earned the condemnation of
extreme Leftists who wouldn't admit the conditions of life under
Stalin. In other words, the story has no solid merit-- and it seems
especially cowardly to accuse Stone only a year after his death, when
he can't reply.
 
     Sheaffer replied that Romerstein contacted Kalugin who, according
to Romerstein, "said nothing to contradict my original article."
Considering the ambiguity of this-- when it shouldn't have been any
trouble to get Kalugin to state explicity Yes or No-- it seems likely
that Romerstein sn't being especially forthcoming with us. It also
seems likely that Sheaffer is being especially trusting of a former
KGB official and a former HUAC functionary. (The possibility that
Kalugin might be feeding Romerstein a line to stay within his good
graces, to ensure some kind of livelihood while his own country goes
kerflooey, doesn't occur either to Sheaffer or Romerstein. And after
the precedent of Werner Von Braun!)
 
     At this point, Sheaffer was reduced to citing Stone's yearly
vacations on the QEII as evidence that he was getting paid off by
somebody, because-- believe it or not, he actually believes this makes
sense-- struggling journalists don't make that kind of money. (The
fact that "I.F. Stone's Weekly" was a one-man operation with a
circulation of 50,000 doesn't seem to mitigate against this.) Sheaffer
also wishfully adds that since thousands of KGB files are being
declassified now, it's only a matter of time before the evidence
against Stone is found. (Why they haven't been found already is a
question Sheaffer won't address.)
 
     (Considering the hunts that followed the opening of the Stasi
files in East Germany, and the amount of misinformation in _any_
police and government files about people, a rational person would
express caution on seizing upon anything in anyone's files--
especially the KGB's. I recall a massive file on Albert Einstein's
very brief visit to Hollywood that the FBI cobbled up, and their
willingness to include details that were either fabricated or from
unreliable sources. And considering that the prosecution of the
Communist Party is being conducted by former CP officials-- including
Boris Yeltsin-- one should be wary of taking anything as gospel truth.
 
     (I also wouldn't put it past anyone to pull an MJ-12 routine and
forge documents incriminating Stone, or Chomsky, or anyone else who'd
make a convenient target-- how better to get in the good graces of
influential American officials? And it doesn't seem likely that
Sheaffer would question such documents-- especially when QEII trips
are evidence of Communist Payoffs.)
 
     Still, I'll be charitable to Sheaffer for backing down and
admitting that some things aren't known yet, and that 'time will solve
the matter.' But then he includes I.F. Stone in the above list of
known traitors and ideologues as though it's already decided, and he
expects only evidence favoring the Stone=KGB charge.
 
     But I'll give Sheaffer my answer, publicly:
 
     "The very idea of demanding that I answer a test of your own
devising to 'prove' my reason and my loyalty is an openly fascist
conceit. It is precisely the sort of intimidation that the McCarthies,
the Hitlers, the J. Edgar Hoovers and the Stalins of the world thrive
on. One might just as well ask blacks to 'prove' their intelligence
before voting. Or demand that workers properly denounce Communism
before they're hired. Or have prospective neighbors pass an ideology
test before allowing them to move into one's neighborhood. Or force
women to pass a test for maternal fitness before allowing them to have
children. Or have the school's teachers prove that they're not Secular
Humanists or homosexuals. Or-- well, the list goes on and on, of
course.
 
     "I could just as easily create a similar questionnaire, skewed
the other way-- but I recognize what such tests represent, and I won't
encourage that.
 
     "The fact that you'd even seriously consider such a test speaks
volumes about your outlook, Robert. I'll cast my vote for liberty,
anti-authoritarianism, and the unfettered exchange of ideas-- and
simply reply, 'Take your Loyalty Test and stuff it.'"
 
     "Love and kisses, Brian Siano."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian "Rev. P-K" Siano                                  revpk@cellar.org
"What? They have BIGGER DICKS?! _BOMB THEM!!!!_"
                        Our Leaders, paraphrased by George Carlin
Newsgroups: soc.men,soc.women,alt.child-support