Wednesday, August 18, 2010

If It Wasn't For Sneer Quotes, Some People Would Have No Way To Communicate

Heh. Timing is everything. A drive-by commentor on this post was mega, double, enraged by my criticism of libertarians: why, didn't I know, libertarians were totally super critical of liberal pandering to thugs? Then, wouldcha'believe it, Samizdata commented, apparently approvingly, on Alex Massie's Allahawful pay-no-attention-to-the-jihadist-behind-the-curtain article.

About Massie's article no more need be said than to repeat my original point: when exactly did we decide that putting sneer quotes round words counts as an actual argument? Equally though, I'm wondering whether those of us on the right might not have been suckered in to arguing over the minutiae with professional hair splitters like Massie when the honking great elephant in the room is THEY WANT TO BUILD A MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO!!!!

I'm thinking that the whole 'wanting to build a mosque at site of a brutal Islamic terror attack' pretty much kills the 'moderate' thing stone dead. Still, for anyone still struggling with the whole concept, gay Chicago democrats explain it better than most of Britain's Certified Rightists.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Waaaay wide of the mark. If you can't quote a libertarian approving of some nutter being let out on early release who then goes on to kill someone, be graceful and concede defeat (which is EXACTLY what was being discussed in the earlier post/comments) instead of looking like a ranting lunatic lashing out at all and sundry.

You're usually a very, very good blogger but this...is...unedifying.

Anon2 said...

There's a saying: get three Jews together and you got four opinions. That joke applies in spades to Libertarians.

Under Jonathan's article there is barely a supporting word for him and he's hardly been ambushed by "drive by" conservatives.

So quite what is proved by your citing Samizdata I'm at a loss to say.

Anonymous said...

If you just take the bald facts as presented in the media, it seems innoccuous:

"NYC muslim wants to build a mosque at Ground Zero."

But when you add in the rest, it takes on a very different cast:

"The Gulf Arabs whose generous funding of Al Qaeda led to the murder of 3000 US civilians, and the destruction of the WTC, are being solicited for funds to build a triumphal mosque on a site where debris, aircraft parts, and human remains, settled on 9/11. The donors can probably afford it, because the US courts disallowed a class action lawsuit by the bereaved relatives, against the paymasters. They have never been made to pay a penny in compensation."