Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Abusive

The ever-more disgusting Marty Peretz: "I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse." Take a guess on who "these people" are.

If Peretz didn't own the damn place, this is the sort of thing that would get one fired. What an embarrassment. (Incidentally, Alex Pareene is correct that if TNR's in-house critics can't weigh in on this, then what's the point of having them around?).
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10 comments:

N. Friedman said...

But, of course, Peretz does own The New Republic and, this being America, he has the right to his opinion.

In any event, he was not speaking in the noted comment about Muslims in general, as your comment ("Take a guess on who 'these people' are") slyly suggests. He was, instead, speaking about those involved with the Cordoba project. The entire paragraph in issue, from which you removed the context, reads:

But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.

Peretz's point was to note that those involved in the Cordoba project are not all that admirable and not to deny them Constitutional rights. Note he phrased his comment in a question. And, his point was that the class of bien pensant who have made that appalling project a liberal cause have done a serious disservice to liberalism, which they surely have done given the Imam's checkered record of "moderation" - as noted by Christopher Hitchens and others.

And, of course, the Imam has caused people who normally have the good sense to oppose anyone who supports the one state solution to elide that fact for reasons that are difficult to explain and do serious harm to the liberal cause - dividing liberal bien pensant from working class liberals and common sense liberals who analyze based on facts, not immutable and, in fact, deficient theory.

3:06 PM
joe said...

Knowing Peretz, that whole screed was just an excuse to write "Muslim life is cheap."

3:09 PM
N. Friedman said...

Joe,

You write: "Knowing Peretz, that whole screed was just an excuse to write "Muslim life is cheap."

Which, of course, appears to be how many in the Muslim regions treat Muslims which the takfiri adherents decide to target.

And, of course, the problem is not limited to Muslims treating Muslim life as cheap but also treating Christians, Baha'i, Jews and everyone else as not having lives with any value.

3:24 PM
joe said...

I know you like to change all topics to this one, but don't derail. The point here is that Peretz is well-known as a bigot. Even if we don't dispute what you write at all, he is still a bigot. I'm sure the likes of David Duke love to talk about "black-on-black-crime."

3:31 PM
N. Friedman said...

Joe,

He is not a bigot. I realize that, as with many around here, you think all who disagree with you are bigots but, frankly, you are way off base.

3:42 PM
joe said...

He's well-documented as a racist, and I actually withhold the bigot label an awful lot of the time because it doesn't encourage productive discussion and because it's too strong a word for every instance of bias. So I give the benefit of the doubt, except in very clear cut cases where words and actions are so insidious they must be confronted head-on. Not that I expect you to give me any credit for this as you go ahead and take the last word.

4:28 PM
N. Friedman said...

Greenwald says stuff that, in my view, does not check out. He misreads what Peretz states, being far too literal. Which is to say, the scholarship stinks.

6:25 PM
N. Friedman said...

Greenwald also does a number of Jeff Goldberg. Goldberg, however, noted that Greenwald does not really get things so perfect. Here is the link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/glenn-greenwald-meshuggeneh-updated/61815/

7:03 PM
N. Friedman said...

Correction:

Strike: "Greenwald also does a number of Jeff Goldberg."

Substitute: "Greenwald also does a number on Jeff Goldberg."

7:04 PM
N. Friedman said...

Joe,

Here is Goldberg's assessment of Greenwald:

Anyway, that's it. I might revisit the Glenn Greenwald psychodrama one more time, just for fun. But he's incapable of reason; incapable of fairness; incapable of understanding complexity. My friends in journalism who have been targets of his attacks warned me against trying to reason with him. They were right, and I was wrong, again.

7:12 PM

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