On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Bradford DeLong wrote:
> Nope. There is a difference between saying that one understands the
> sources of murderous, indiscriminate rage and saying that one would
> join in such murderous, indiscriminate rage. To say that if one were
> in their shoes one would join the lynch mob--one would chase innocent
> strangers with intent to beat and possibly kill them because of the
> color of their skin--is to say something extraordinary about one's
> own personality and moral identity.
>
> Brad DeLong
Gordon's already pointed out the problem with this, but it bears repeating: if Robert Fisk was in "their shoes" in the sense that we're talking about, he would no longer be Robert Fisk. The only logical proposition that can be extracted from Fisk's argument is the tautologous claim that, "If I were a member of the lynch mob I would've acted as a member of the lynch mob." Such frivolty requires no response regardless of its rhetorical gloss.
-- Luke