Joe: "You made a valiant effort to disprove Woody and Steinbeck (and me), but I don't buy your argument yet."

My argument is The Grapes of Wrath is shelved under fiction and Mudcatters invented the rest in circular reporting and gossip. You've admitted that much, twice. We're good.

Unless mental illness or substance abuse are involved, nobody dies of starvation or famine in the U.S. and the system Steinbeck, Guthrie and you champion has killed untold millions. That's big truth behind this folk history.

It doesn't meet any kind of standard for reliable. Caveat emptor.