> I realize that the patronizing attitude that many Europeans take towards
> intellectual and political life in the U.S. might excite skepticism in
> some quarters, unless you spend some time here, you probably have no idea > how stunningly idiotic the public discourse can be.
What unites both patronizing Europeans and self-flagellating Americans is the notion that the refinement of a discourse says anything about its content.
I don't know if anyone over in the States has been following the Thilo Sarrazin controversy in Germany (I only know that Yoshie, ever the cosmopolitan internationalist, has posted some stuff at MRZine), but Sarrazin is about as vile and nasty a racist as can be imagined. Credulous American intellectuals might be impressed by a German civil servant saying the things he said, whereas a kook like Glen Beck has the wrong habitus, but in the end, a racist asshole is a racist asshole.
And I agree with the piece that appeared in Jungle World today stating that it's hard to imagine an employee of the Federal Reserve getting away with what Sarrazin has been getting away with. And Sarrazin also supposedly has the support of one in every two Germans
^^^^^^^^ CB: Ok. We can include y'all. How about how stunningly racist the discourse of white people worldwide can be ?