:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Monday, February 13, 2006 ::

Someone Else Writing Better Than I Can

When I first read the dissenting/rebutting editorial in today's Daily Illini, something bothered me about it. I couldn't put my finger on it, though, so I didn't blog about it. Elia Diodati of e pur si muove, though, has hit the nail on the head:

I’m really pissed off at the dissenting editorial.Not so much for its justification of the decision, but just the general tone of it. It seems to embody everything about Americans that rub us non-Americans the wrong way. That trying-to-be-ballsy look-at-me I’m-doing-it-because-I-can attitude is ridiculously shallow by the standards of many non-American cultures. Sure, America is the land of liberty and freedom, but freedom of action does not encompass the freedom from retribution. Why is it that so many Americans just do things because they can, without thinking too much about the repercussions? It’s not that they can that annoys me, it’s the candid and sordid lack of finesse when it comes to doing things. The tour de force method of argument here appears to little more than taking a sledgehammer to completely destroy the opponent’s platform.

In the context of the decision to publish the cartoons, the point is that the original editorial didn’t present the cartoons an academic tone of "Here’s what the fuss is all about. Do you think the responses of the Muslim world are reasonable?" but more along the lines of "Look at me, I published something controversial? What do you think?? rofl r0xx0rz"

Normally, at this point in the blog post, the blogger doing the exerpting goes on to add other little bits of insight. Thing is, I'm pretty sure I can't do any better than this, so I'll just let it be.

:: The Squire 10:44 PM :: email this post :: ::
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