Political Commentary

What Do They Want?

5 Comments

A rainbow hole? An African-American hole?

This is as ignorant and stupid as the complaints about the use of the word “niggardly.”

Actually, now that I think about it, it’s also as dumb as complaints about my proper use of the word “fascist.” A subject on which Jonah Goldberg has some further thoughts today:

People say fascism means brutality, therefore liberalism isn’t remotely fascist. It works as a debater’s trick, and it’s certainly a source of real opposition to some of my arguments, but it doesn’t work as an actual argument in the true sense of the word.

One can use the same “argument” about Communism. “Communism is about brutality. Liberals aren’t brutal. Therefore liberalism has nothing to do with Communism.” The only difference here is that for reasons discussed at length in this space and in my book, the man in the street doesn’t equate Communism with brutality to the same extent he equates fascism with brutality, even though Communism is just as brutal as Fascism. I think that’s a problem that needs to be combated rather than surrendered to.

I simply don’t think the woeful state of popular ignorance should be considered a powerful argument against the accuracy of historical truth.

Nope. As he says, if that makes the job harder, so be it.

5 thoughts on “What Do They Want?”

  1. Actually, the term “white hole”, analogous to the physics term, for government at any level is quite a good one; the outward flow being an uncontrollable flood of regulations, legislation and useless paper destroying all in its path.

  3. That the left-side of the political spectrum uses the framework of “sensitivity” as a means to silence opposing views is definitely the pot calling the kettle “Oxidized-American”

    Happy Friday All!

  4. No, this is much, much worse than someone being offended over “niggardly” which is, after all, an unusual word with a really strange etymology. “Black hole” is in wide use and its meaning is directly related to its very specific scientific meaning. Moreover, “stingy” is a better word than “niggardly” anyway. “Black hole” is genuinely useful.

  5. I recall reading in a book that the term black hole originally offended French scientists, because colloquially in french the term already referred to a certain part of human anatomy. They opposed its use on grounds of obscenity.

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