#5486: PaulH — 08/24  at  08:44 AM
It's an odd post, because it doesn't seemt to make an actual point, it's just pure flamebait. But I thought I'd make a bit of a reasoned response, and I like this site better so I'll do it here

Yes, black people are annoying. As are white people, tall people, short people, blonde people, brunette people, red-heads, ectomorphs, endomorphs, hirsute, clean-shaven and body-arted (or not) people. Saying that {insert group name here} people are annoying is not in itself a bad thing, except that it invites the interpretation that it's some aspect of their groupness that is irritating. And unless that groupness actually defines the annoying behavior (e.g. 'people who put make-up on in cars' as opposed to 'women') that's offensive.

So yes, black people may be annoying. But it's because they're people, not because they're black.

#5487: PZ Myers — 08/24  at  09:42 AM
Exactly. So why make the post about black people at all?

#5488: Kip Manley — 08/24  at  10:06 AM
It's called defining downward: if one takes Dean at his word, and pegs "open-minded liberal" as being where he's standing, we all suddenly become the demonic post-modern relativist communist scum they say we are, by comparison.

But really, this is an old rhetorical trick: reclaiming "liberal" by pretending the root it shares with "libertarian" means that true, proper liberals are pretty much that: libertarians; us poor-coddling limousine-riding wine-sipping ass-fucking cultural elite liberals are a perversion of that old and glorious term.

#5490: PaulH — 08/24  at  10:13 AM
Paul - that was my very badly made point! Either it is so meaningless as to be not worth making, or it's flamebait.

#5492: PZ Myers — 08/24  at  10:18 AM
That figures.

So if I call myself "conservative", that makes modern Republicans into bizarre old relics so remote from human sensibilities that they don't even truck with this crazy "multicellularity" fad?

#5493: Kip Manley — 08/24  at  10:24 AM
Pretty much. (This is why "reactionary" is such a useful word.)

The counterpoint to Dean's trick, of course, is to note the damage he's done to the concept of "libertarian"...

#5499: Abiola Lapite — 08/24  at  11:07 AM
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What's most amusing about Esmay's little post is the self-congratulatory air about it, as if he were some pioneer boldly gone where no lesser man had the guts to tread.

When all is said and done, though, it's hard for me to muster much in the way of outrage about what he's said, as it isn't as if I hadn't already pegged him for what he was a long while back. Familiarity breeds indifference ...


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