Monday, January 02, 2006

They Do Have, and Link to, Interesting Articles, BUT...

...one thing that is frustrating about WorldNetDaily is the fact that some of its writers, including Joseph Farah, like to cloak their opinions in just enough vagueness so that they can be interpreted in very bloodthirsty ways, but they also have plausible deniability.

For example, this piece by Barbara Simpson is to some extent correct, in that we need to recognize that it is dangerous to bring alien cultures into the U.S. unless we can determine that they are compatible, and in that we should not hesitate to point out that Islam and particularly Arabs seem to be a major force behind terrorism, not only in the world, but specifically they seem to be the source of the terrorist threat currently facing the U.S.

On the other hand, because she shies away from discussing actual policies, even in vague terms, it is easy to interpret lines like
We cling to a utopian image of how to behave and ignore the rats chewing on our toes – and they won't stop there. The only way to end it is to kill the rats.

as advocating that we simply kill all of the Arabs in the Middle East. So is that what she means or not? Maybe she just wants us to kill the "terrorists."* But exactly how broadly is she defining the term?

That is all.

* The "scare quotes" are not because I deny that there are a lot of Muslims who are terrorists, or because I deny (I don't) that "terrorist" is a meaningful designation; it is simply to indicate that I am talking about whomever she defines as terrorists, and I don't trust her designations.

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