Oh, please. Is there any chance we could put this loony stuff on the shelf for the duration?
Not loony. Look at that Pew poll. I can go out on the sidewalk here and almost instantly find a bunch of people who will tell me the US had it coming on 9/11/02. They had it coming,they say. Well, they didn't did they?
And even larger numbers who think the terrorist activities are the result of US economic policies. But mostly the policies don't fit the conclusions drawn to justify the terrorism.
And large numbers who will deny that US policy about Iraq is driven by anything other than oil. Which on the face of it is absurd, and on deeper examination is more absurd.
People, not just on my sidewalk, but all around the world hold these beliefs which are anti-American. [see Pew poll].
So, the question, John, is how did this very large number of people all around the world get to these error containing beliefs? Harris calls them the "left" (but I don't really care what you call them) and finds the source of the belief in a marxist trope which has been in circulation for 150 years. And which was in error, in marxist terms, a hundred years ago and now.
Is he wrong to be looking there? Opposition to status quo in the West has usually been couched in socialist terms, after all.
My answer to Bill was flippant,
Message 18303276
I sometimes fall in love with bizarre images but, I don't think what I said was fundamentally wrong. If it is, I'd like to see someone grind it up and spit it out. |
