The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Kathy Shaidle and ‘Casual Bigotry’

Posted on | April 6, 2010 | 52 Comments

Conor Friedersdorf wants Mark Steyn to “repudiate” Canada’s answer to the Tasmanian Devil after Steyn linked a post in which Kathy wrote:

[T]he nation’s ethnic makeup is different now, for one thing. Way more residents/invaders/settlers from “manyana” cultures. More illiterates, more people with no sense of history.

Is this untrue? Does the U.S. not, indeed, have more illiterates in 2010 than we had in 1960? Are there no such things as “mañana cultures,” where there is less emphasis on efficiency, punctuality, prudence? Is it not a fact that many illegal aliens are illiterate even in their own languages?

The facts may be in dispute, but apparently no argument is permissible. Freidersdorf condemns Shaidle for “casual bigotry against Hispanics and blacks,” and condemns Steyn for “uncritically pass[ing] along” her views to readers of the Corner. This assumes that readers of the Corner lack the discernment to decide for themselves whether they agree or disagree with Shaidle. Must Steyn include a disclaimer with every link to Shaidle? “WARNING: This person may occasionally say things I do not endorse.”

There is a baby-and-the-bathwater problem with Friedersdorf’s argument. Conor seems to be saying that anyone caught writing a potentially objectionable sentence is persona non grata from that moment forward, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of non-objectionable sentences they have written before or since. And anyone who quotes that person (“uncritically”) is presumed complicit in their thought-crimes.

Well, who could possibly be acceptable by Conor’s standards? This demand for Rhetorical Purity is only ever enforced against conservatives. Liberals can and do say objectionable things every day without being threatened with ostracism — liberalism being the virtue that excuses every vice.

To my knowledge, Kathy Shaidle has never driven off a bridge and left a girl to die in a submerged Oldsmobile. She is therefore a better human being than Ted Kennedy ever was.

And you can quote me on that.

UPDATE: In the Texas Hold ‘Em game of political incorrectness, Shaidle goes all in:

Wow, I’m more powerful than I ever imagined. Henceforth, I insist that you ALL refer to me as “the Mexican Whisperer”! . . .
And you Mexicans: what the hell are you doing reading my blog? That lettuce isn’t gonna pick itself!

WARNING: This person may occasionally say things  that result in reflexive coffee-spew.

Category: Kathy Shaidle

Comments

52 Responses to “Kathy Shaidle and ‘Casual Bigotry’”

  1. Sgt. Joe Friday
    April 9th, 2010 @ 5:18 pm

    I used to read the “Beyond Borders” blog that Freidersdorf wrote when he worked for the LA Daily News-owned Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. He’s a well meaning young man, given to making observations to the effect that he thinks illegal immigration should be curtailed, so that we can let in more legal immigrants, apparently unware that nearly all the problems associated with large scale, low quality immigration are the same regardless of whether that immigration is legal or not. This outlook is of course hopelessly naive, and as is the case with most naive young people there is also a dose of sanctimony and self-righteousness that goes with these opinions.

  2. Sgt. Joe Friday
    April 9th, 2010 @ 12:18 pm

    I used to read the “Beyond Borders” blog that Freidersdorf wrote when he worked for the LA Daily News-owned Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. He’s a well meaning young man, given to making observations to the effect that he thinks illegal immigration should be curtailed, so that we can let in more legal immigrants, apparently unware that nearly all the problems associated with large scale, low quality immigration are the same regardless of whether that immigration is legal or not. This outlook is of course hopelessly naive, and as is the case with most naive young people there is also a dose of sanctimony and self-righteousness that goes with these opinions.