[lbo-talk] I say banana, you say bikini (was: those exotic Iranians)

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Thu Jul 2 07:33:43 PDT 2009


On Jul 2, 2009, at 8:41 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
> [Ws:] I clam no knowledge about the current situation in Iran, and
> as you probably noticed, I remain silent on the subject. I only
> commented on someone else thread observing a propensity of certain
> elements of the chattering class to embrace rural utopias.
>

Woj,

these comments about other people and the emotions behind their words and actions can only go so far before it turns contentless or dangerous: for one thing in its typical use, this sort of argument ignores the substantive issue at hand, second in the act of intra- group gotcha both parties deny the remote individual or group their own preferences and choices. To exaggerate a bit, it is as if you quote Shockley's racism to demonstrate that transistors do not work. I am no genius, but I feel this trend pervades leftist analysis, including in Biology (for an example. I highly recommend Bueller's critique of SJ Gould, in Adapting Minds).

--ravi



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