New rant from Lileks - hope you will make an exception for Lileks as well. He came out very well in the First Annual Warbloggers Awards.
>>Three Varieties of Dissenter, Examined
By JAMES LILEKS
c.2002 Newhouse News Service
There are three distinct kinds of dissenters today.
1. The hysteric. Guess who made this statement: "I am literally comparing Bush and his cronies to Hitler, only Hitler had a smaller vision."
A Saudi cleric? Saddam Hussein? Osama bin Laden, speaking via Ouija board in the breakroom at Al Jazeera?
No. It's Patch Adams, a wacky doctor who heals the sick with madcap clowning. Robin Williams played him in a movie, so learning that Patch Adams called George W. Bush Hitler Plus is like learning that Mrs. Doubtfire believes there was a massacre at Jenin.
Dr. Adams, wearing two-toned hair to underscore his latent clown solidarity, made the remark on a panel at the University of Pittsburgh. Is he right?
Well, they're quite similar. Hitler was a vegetarian paganist totalitarian who wanted a thousand-year reign built on the skulls of non-Aryans. Bush is a meat-eating Christian who will leave office in six years. A toss-up who's worse, I guess. If it helps, consider the reactions either might have to criticism.
Hitler: Who iss dis Patch Ahdams? Who iss dis Juuuuden zat he can zay dis? I vant him found! I vant him dead! I vant voto-grafs of hiss shotten-up body on zis desk by noon tomorrow! AM I KLAR? KILL HIM! KILL HISS VAMILY!
Bush would say he's sorry Adams feels that way, but he understands that Patch Adams is a pretty good beer, and back in his wild days he might have enjoyed a cold one or two. Does he make an alcohol-free version? No? Well, he oughta, if it's as good as people say. Oh, that's Sam Adams beer? Well, fine.
Note to Dr. Bozo: There's a quick way to see if your nation's leader is worse than Hitler. Criticize him loudly in the news media. Using one's index finger, probe back of head for bullet hole. Nothing? You might want to rethink your rhetoric.
2. The Euro-poseurs. Susan Sarandon recently appeared on a panel discussing the war and dissent. "When you have a guy who thinks the best act is to blow himself up, along with others, you have to ask, `What leads to that?"' she said. "And is the response more violence? A cowboy shoot-'em-up?"
Deep, man. Never mind that American filmmakers haven't made more than two non-ironic postmodern cowboy movies in the last quarter-century. If you want to sound like a European, attuned to the sophisticated nuances of international politics, drag out the cowboy analogy. Insist that Americans are rootin' tootin' Colt-totin' lunatics looking for a fresh continent to scalp. When the military drops blankets for Afghan refugees to help them make it through the winter, intellects of Sarandon's stripe will sneer the linens are probably infected with smallpox.
It's harder to be a Euro-poseur today, since the term could also mean one who burns synagogues or assassinates free-market gay-rights politicians. Which leads us to:
3. The baying pack. At San Francisco State University recently, a peaceful pro-Israel demonstration was beset by angry pro-suicide- bomber demonstrators. No doubt they were acting out of Frustration and Despair -- rent is high in the Bay Area, and it's often cloudy. According to the director of the Jewish Studies program, the mob shoved students against a wall and shouted, "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job."
The mood on campus had been set by some subtle posters that showed a dead baby and the words, "Slaughtered according to Jewish rite."
Imagine that pro-Israel demonstrators roughed up some Palestinians and passed out fliers of Israeli body parts with the logo "Slaughtered according to Arafat's specifications." (That flier wouldn't be analogous to the Palestinian version, since it would be a factual account of the situation.) The rally would have been a national story. The Council on American Islamic Relations would warn of "pogroms."
But the San Francisco State event had no national resonance. Mere "campus hijinks," perhaps. Youthful high spirits. Hey, you know what it's like to be young, full of sap, and lookin' for Jews to rough up. Give 'em a break.
When people are beating up Jews on American soil, the problem isn't Bush the Extra-Hitler Cowboy. Anyone on the hard left see that? No, didn't think so. There are more important issues to confront. Did you know Starbucks is going to use genetically modified beans in their global expansion strategy!
To the barricades!
(James Lileks can be contacted at james.lileks@newhouse.com)<<
newhousenews.com |
