Robert Fisk

[Gordon Fitch]

Yoshie Furuhashi:
>>> I don't expect you, Brad, & Luke to respond to an attack on your
>>> person by a mob of the oppressed in the manner that Robert Fisk did,
>>> if you find yourself in a like situation.  You are entitled to your
>>> own feelings.  It seems to me, however, that there is no reason you
>>> should act as if you were cheated just because Fisk didn't respond in
>>> a way you think he should, e.g., equating an Afghan mob with a mob of
>>> white supremacists.  What's the beef, really?

Gordon:
>I suppose Fisk's work is damaging to the repute of the imperial
> >enterprise, therefore Fisk must be neutralized; but a detailed
> >attack on his work would involve the further exposition of
> >the very material which renders it offensive.  Therefore, it
> >is preferable to seize on a purely rhetorical offense, to wit,
> >the excessive use of a common hyperbole ("If I was him Ida ...").
> >If you don't like the message, and can't stop the messenger,
> >you can deplore the shape of his hat.  Anything to get off
> >the repulsive subject.

Bradford DeLong:
> No. As best as I can interpret it, Fisk's 'tude justifies--calls 
> for--excuses--legitimizes the relatives of those killed in the WTC 
> terror attack fanning out across New York and killing anyone of 
> Middle Eastern descent they can find. I think that this is a bad 
> 'tude for anyone to hold.

This is awfully much to make out of a vulgar, hyperbolic,
philosophically self-contradictory expression of sympathy.
I have to wonder what you make of such homely utterances as
"Drop dead!" or "Fuck you!", yet I hesitate to ask.

-- Gordon