The Other McCain

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

Jill Filipovic Throws Me Some Traffic; Little Green Footballs, Not So Much

Posted on | February 16, 2011 | 32 Comments

America’s Favorite Feminist responds to this morning’s provocation by accusing me of promoting the narrative, “Brown people are savages who will go after pretty white women.” A near-miss there, Ms. Filipovic, but thanks for linking me. Meanwhile . . .

It’s really sad that he’s got nothing better to do. While I’m on the hook for whatever irresponsible things I’ve said, neither Jim Hoft nor Pamela Geller can be blamed for my rantings, nor can I be blamed for their rantings. But just out of curiosity, let’s see what they had to say, starting with Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit:

Lara Logan is lucky she’s alive.
Her liberal belief system almost got her killed on Friday. This talented reporter will never be the same.
Why did this attractive blonde female reporter wander into Tahrir Square last Friday? Why would she think this was a good idea? Did she not see the violence in the square the last three weeks? Did she not see the rock throwing? Did she miss the camels? Did her colleagues tell her about the Western journalists who were viciously assaulted on the Square? Did she forget about the taunts from the Egyptian thugs the day before? What was she thinking? Was it her political correctness that about got her killed? Did she think things would be different for her?

Now Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs:

This horrible story gets worse and worse. Worse still, CBS tried to keep the whole thing quiet and was forced to get in front of the story only when it became widely known that other media outlets were on to it. Who are they covering for?
And why? Because the false narrative the media is painting of what is going on in Egypt is patently false, and this brutal sex attack points to something else entirely.
The NY Post is the only news outlet reporting that the Muslims raping her were shouting “Jew, Jew, Jew.” Obama should make a statement addressing this horror and condemning the vile Islamic anti-semitism at the heart of Islam.

Let’s stipulate that there are a lot of unknowns at this time, and the reality of the situation may turn out to be diffferent than however Geller, Hoft or I currently conceive it. For example, my friend John Guardiano thinks Logan may have been raped by pro-Mubarak thugs, rather than anti-Mubarak protesters. We don’t know enough facts to judge the incident, and may never have enough facts to do so.

As for my own opinions, however, I disagree with Hoft’s assumptions about “political correctness” being foremost among Logan’s motives. Given what we know about Logan’s career, I’d guess that she was mainly motivated by an ambitious reporter’s desire to be covering The Big Story, to be Where The Action Is.

If you’re a foreign correspondent and there’s big news in Egypt, you want to be in Egypt. And I can relate to that. Hell, if anyone had offered to send me over there, I’d have been on the next flight to Cairo. (I’m pretty sure all the vaccinations I got for my 2008 trip to Uganda would cover me for any prevalent contagion in Cairo.) But I do not think it is “blaming the victim” to point out that there are obvious risks in sending a pretty blonde — and Lara Logan was once a swimsuit model, no less — into the midst of that Cairo mob.

With the clarity of hindsight, it’s easy to say that someone at CBS News ought to have foreseen the dangers, but Logan had been in tough spots before and escaped without injury.

Do ugly women get raped in Egypt? I’m sure they do. Do women less attractive than Lara Logan get sexually assaulted at Mardi Gras and NASCAR races and other stateside events that attract large unruly crowds? I’m sure they do. But generalizations are one thing and specifics are another.

CBS News had hired security to protect Logan and her crew, but it obviously wasn’t enough, and therefore a lot of people are questioning the wisdom of CBS assigning Logan to cover this particular story. The fact that Jim Hoft is attempting to articulate those questions — however imperfectly — exposes him to criticism, but Jim isn’t pro-rape or anti-Egyptian any more than I am.

Cairo is Cairo, mobs are mobs, rape is rape. A thing is what it is, regardless of what we call it.

Yet it is a telling characteristic of intellectuals to be more concerned with what is written about events than they are concerned with events themselves. Therefore the Thought Police patrol the Internet to make sure that no one writes the wrong thing about the news, because there are some questions too dangerous to be asked, because if people ever begin doubting the liberal worldview, the whole thing could unravel as quickly as the Mubarak regime.

Earlier today, Jill Filipovic sent me a Tweet: “Nir Rosen had the good sense to publicly apologize, retract and explain. You just keep going.”

Indeed, ma’am, I do “just keep going,” but I am not attacking Lara Logan, and neither am I attacking you. Rather, I am attacking the idiotic ideas of feminism, which always remind me of a famous quote:

“One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”
— George Orwell, “Notes on Nationalism” (1945)

Nor, I suppose, could any ordinary woman be such a fool.

UPDATE: Doug Mataconis calls attention to Debbie Schlussel’s shocking contempt for Logan:

How fitting that Lara Logan was “liberated” by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the “liberation.”
Hope you’re enjoying the revolution, Lara!

Also, Ace got his Isamophobic jones on today, and Glenn Beck discussed the Lara Logan rape story today on his TV show. Between Ace, Schlussel and Beck, they’re apparently trying to hog up all the hate the Left has to offer, leaving only crumbs and scraps for the rest of us. We might as well go back to blogging about Justin Bieber.

UPDATE II: King Shamus offers this analysis:

The mind magic on display here is a particular common species of progressive thought.  It’s the cognitive clash that happens when two or more of Left’s grievance groups are in conflict. In this case, it’s bed-wetting multicultural feel-goodism versus strident man-hating Vagina Monologuing feminist moral preening.


Category: Atlas Shrugs, Charles Johnson, Crime, Egypt, Feminism, Gateway Pundit

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