The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Gareth Wilson:

"Shades of First They Came..."
That "first they came" quote is an accurate description of what the Nazis did to Niemoeller, but there are very serious problems in using it to argue against other tyrannies or atrocities. Because the Nazi pattern is not typical, and governments can be selective. "First they came for the Armenians, and I did not speak up, for I was not an Armenian. Then they came for the Kurds, and I said nothing, for I was not a Kurd. Then... well, nothing happened to me after that." Doesn't have the same ring, does it? As for the torture bill, I'd be hugely surprised if anyone reading this or anyone they know is ever directly affected by it. They will never, ever, "come for you". But surely you have more substantial objections to it than the direct effect on you and the people you know. And if it was exclusively applied to Sunni Muslims, that wouldn't make it any more morally acceptable, would it?

"Corporate America has in some cases sponsored decades-long propaganda campaigns—for instance, the one that puts forward the false claim that Social Security is broken and there'll be no money in it when you retire."

That's an amazing propaganda campaign, capable of convincing President Jed Bartlet himself.
Well, OK, just the West Wing writers responsible for that particular episode. But that's still pretty impressive.

"Those troops detained more than 30 people and found five caches of weapons on the operation's first day, but no significant firefights had resulted."

Seems OK to me. Could you explain again how this resembles My Lai?

Comment statistics for Gareth Wilson on the Making Light blog

Total: 3 comments. View all these comments on a single page.