> Denying that the U.S. is the most benevolent world power
> in the history of the planet is indeed akin to denying that
> the Holocaust happened in the sense that it's so beyond
> debate that it's pointless to begin laying out evidence in
> support; the effort only dignifies the irrationality of those
> who would deny it. To deny it, in essence, is to deny that
> real world exists, that the past really happened - which
> perhaps excuses postmodern intellectuals, who deny such
> things on a regular basis.
> To be sure, America clawed its way to world-power status
> and left in its wake a trail of bloody victims. As is the
> case with all world powers, America is even now a
> blundering, big-footed Gulliver walking among
> squeaking Lilliputians; a certain degree of squishing
> comes with the territory.
> Concede American benevolence - concede, in other
> words, what cannot be denied by a reasonable
> observer - and the epistemological underpinning of
> radical politics crumbles to dust.
But that's the whole point of anti-anti-American scoldings, isn't it? Concede American benevolence, or you're willfully ignorant to the point of Holocaust denial.
-- Shane
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