Man oh man. What is it with right-wingers and hypocritical racist derp? It's truly amazing. Fresh off of Bret Stephens' salvo in the WSJ comes copy-cat racist David Brooks in the NY Times:
"It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients."
People, this is what used to be said about African-Americans in the US. About women in the US as well. They didn't have the "mental capacity" or "mental ingredients" to be allowed to participate in self-governance.
It's pure bigoted, racist, right-wing derp.
Rupert Murdoch and Carlos Slim better get their shops in order.
Not only is this derpy and racist, but, as I noted in the Stephens case, highly hypocritical.
We underwrote and supported 30 years of Mubarak destroying civil society and opposition politics. We underwrote and supported the Egyptian military for longer than that.
Any problems Egypt is having with self-governance are partly our fault. And that part is not tiny.
13 comments:
During the "Arab Spring" coverage I noticed something that I am also seeing now. Most commentators about Egypt literally know nothing about Egypt. They have not spent any time there, they don't know the language, they have not studied the history or culture, they could not read an Egyptian newspaper, and they have not spoken to any Egyptians. Yet they know what constitution and leaders should guide that country.
Yes, they lack the mental ingredients necessary to be hypnotized, so they are noticing they aren't getting what they wanted. Unfortunately, they are like Occupy Now, smart enough to notice something is wrong, but dumb enough to want more big government. Public school propaganda is powerful stuff.
So, this guy doesn't have to be racist, much like the people who put the stats together and keep finding Asians are smarter than everybody else don't have to be into the Japanese. Ideally, though he should be poking fun at democracy rather than the people. Give me a monarch who understands Mises over the mob, who understand nothing, any day.
“Right-wing derp?” Sounds left wing to me.
You are being really, really ugly Angus: Brooks gave ZERO indication that he thinks race is the problem. EVERYTHING in the post was about the embrace of radical Islam. You are simply shouting "Racist!" with zero evidence against anyone who disagrees with the democratic utopianism you apparently embrace.
I haven't read the article, as that would require me to read a David Brooks article, so I'm just going to take the quote you experted, and attempt to read it charitably, out of context.
The phrase "basic mental ingredients" could be taken as referring to the acquired inventory of knowledge and skills required to build and preserve the institutions and culture of a democratic system governance.
Such a claim need not be based on racialistic premises; some of early hypotheses that were proposed as to why Eastern and Central European countries with a living memory of more liberal institutions appeared to be having an easier transition to the post-communist era would be analogous.
A shared understanding or belief in advantages of liberal, capitalist institutions and orders may be necessary for their preservation. Where such orders are kosmically evolved, they may supervene on culture, but they are still conceptually separate, and liberal institutions can be grafted on to cultures with no liberal tradition of their own, with different levels of success (e.g. Japan, in the Meiji period, and post-war).
"It's pure bigoted, racist, right-wing derp."
Why 'Right Wing'? There are racists on both sides of politics. I agree that it is racist but you seem to associate racism with one side of politics. That's much the same as attributing an inability to have stable politics with being Egyptian.
@ SFW it's right wing, because David Brooks is a right winger. It was right wing the last time because Bret Stephens was a right winger. If left wing people F***K up, I'll gleefully rip them too.
Well I'm in Australia and am not familiar with the politics of the people you are referring to. All I can say is that you seem to be taking a cheap shot at some peoples politics. I am uncomfortable with the whole left/right wing thing. After all it's common to identify the Nazis with right wing politics when they were a Socialist organisation. Nazi does stand for 'National Socialism'. The way you present your post seems to equate a particular side of politics with racism. Intended or not that's how it seems, in essence no better than those who you are critical of.
Two sentences before the one's you quoted, Brooks writes:
...there are large populations across the Middle East who feel intense rage and comprehensive dissatisfaction with the status quo but who have no practical idea how to make things better. The modern thinkers who might be able to tell them have been put in jail or forced into exile.
So when he uses the phrase "mental ingredients," he's clearly talking about ideas, attitudes, culture. He clearly does not mean "Egyptians are too stupid to figure this whole democracy thing out because of their racial defects or limitations," which appears to be the view you're ascribing to him.
Given his cheerleading for the Iraq War, you can make a decent case that the hypocrisy charge fits, so why not leave it at that? I guess because saying "I just don't like David Brooks very much" doesn't make for a very good blog post. Well, neither does throwing gratuitous and clearly innacurate accusations of racism around.
David Brooks ain't right wing. The last right wing columnist at the NYT was Safire, and he's gone. Brooks is what the NYT wants to present as a conservative writer. Hardly a purist of conservative thinking. That said, I agree with earlier posters that you're misrepresenting his comments anyway.
The paternalistic consideration of whether a group is even capable of democratic thinking is classic liberalism, regardless of whose column it appears in.
Man oh man, what is with Angus and his ad hominem attacks on conservatives?
If you read the piece, esp. the preceding paragraph, the context clearly shows that Brooks is saying that the Middle East is lacking in pro-democratic ideas, NOT that Egyptians are dumb.
Of course, if you are a bored blogger with anti-conservative leanings, it's easy to just take the last line out of context and make it look like something it's not.
Angus you stated in the above comments the following -" If left wing people F***K up, I'll gleefully rip them too."
Well have a look here at this blatant racist behavior, I would genuinely like your view on it. I really would I like your posts and when you leave your personal political feelings out of things you can be very perceptive. Here's the item - http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/documents-obtained-by-judicial-watch-detail-role-of-justice-department-in-organizing-trayvon-martin-protests/
"Man oh man, what is with Angus and his ad hominem attacks on conservatives?"
They require no thought, so they are an easy way to get some hits.
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