Angelina Jolie and the Left

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Angelina Jolie was recently voted the Most Admired Woman in the World in a poll conducted by YouGov in over 23 countries.

Syrian refugee: Angelina’s support gave me hope, especially
when she called Kim Kardashian a witless bimbo after Kim
misinformed people about Syria on Twitter.

There are many reasons for this, She is beautiful. She is a great actress. She is one half of a top Hollywood super-couple. But what makes her outstanding, what I have no doubt has rightfully won her the honor of being named the Most Admired Woman in the World has been her humanitarian work as a Special Envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency and much of that work has been focused on the crisis in Syria.

Given that so many people around the world admired Angelina Jolie for this work, maybe the Left should consider how those people are likely to view the despicable track record of the Left as the world has watched more than 200 thousand people be murdered and millions made refugees by their own government.

I told them that since I’ve arrived here, all I’ve seen on CNN or NBC was news about the Malaysian airplane over and over. With all due respect for it, I think there are much more important things going on in the world – like Assad’s using chemical weapons dozens of times in limited doses during the past few weeks, barrel bombs destroying what’s left of Aleppo and Syria, or how about how Bashar fulfilled his promise that he made in the middle of 2011 and turned Syria into a new Afghanistan, or how Hizballah and Al​-Qaeda are getting more experienced and stronger, while both of them are fighting side by side against the free Syrian army, above and below the radar.
- Syrian refugee mhamou on State Department interview 14 April 2014

Over the past three years I have spilled a lot of ink explaining in detail why the Left is so wrong on Syria. Why it has been a mistake to all but ignore it. Why it is shameful to remain silent while barrel bombs rain down on hospitals, schools and apartment buildings. How their slogan "Hands off Syria" under these conditions could be read as giving Assad license to continue his slaughter without interference. Why anyone objectively reading Left literature in the past few years could reasonable conclude that, on-balance, the Left was in Assad's corner.

All of these arguments have spoken to the question or right and wrong, the moral argument that it is right to stand with the people under the heel of a dictator and wrong to stand with that dictator. Today's argument is more of a marketing argument for those who care less about the morality of their position: Perhaps its time to consider how this stand that the Left has taken on Syria, being almost as silent as the mainstream media about the suffering of the people and speaking out forcefully only when Assad was threatened, will play with a public that is much better than that. Perhaps it is time to consider just how far the Left has gone in poisoning the prospects for building a revolutionary movement from people who really care about other people.

The Left's despicable line on Syria may be one that is its old guard is comfortable with but I don't see where it has won the Left any new recruits. Today's message to the Left on Syria is that you have been selling crap and marketing it in a way that will take the Left decades to recover from.