Today our hero wrangles with the ungainly topic of the ever-rising tide of "Islamophobia" (scare quotes because dumb words like "Islamophobia" nauseate the Ydiot):
Josh Marshall and a couple of his correspondents make several worthwhile points about the apparently odd fact that anti-Muslim sentiment seems more mainstream in 2010 than it did in the immediate wake of 9/11. But something that I think they underplay is not just the departure from the scene of George W Bush but the extended economic doldrums we’ve been in starting in the last year of his administration.And that's a clever little argument our hero makes, except for the fact that Josh Marshall's post offered absolutely no evidence of rising anti-Muslim ire. Nor did his earlier post on the same topic. Both are musings of the "Hey, if this happened to be the case, and I kinda think it is, why would that be so?" variety. That sort of idle speculation has no business being taken seriously by even half-serious journalists (who should instead rely on real facts, those tricky things!).
But we're talking about Matt Yglesias here, so it's no surprise what happens next: Our hero takes Marshall's made-up trend and certifies it as "fact" -- and so it shall be, across an Internet-wide series of tubes, heard and reheard in a million tweets the world over, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Did you read Marshall's post? I'll repeat the key quote for you:
ReplyDelete"Given what the climate was like in the months after 9/11, I imagine it's hard to say that reflexive hostility towards or fear of Muslims is on the rise. But in a series of stories we've been following in recent weeks, I'm wondering if public expressions of various sorts of Islamophobia are now more socially acceptable. To put it more bluntly, perhaps fewer anti-Muslim bias crimes but maybe more politicians saying that Islam isn't covered by the first amendment or that new mosques shouldn't be built because any mosque or Muslim community center is a probable base of terrorist recruiting? "
I read both of his posts on the topic. And weak anecdotal evidence doesn't constitute a trend -- but my complaint isn't about Marshall's "wondering" about a few "maybes." My problem is with our hero declaring such navel-gazing "fact."
ReplyDeleteThe Ydiot
This is ridiculous. You're attacking Yglesias over a single word choice that's irrelevant to the substance of his post. If he had said "likelihood" instead of "fact", would you be satisfied?
ReplyDeleteAnd, BTW, it is easy to find evidence of rising Islamophobia. Talking Points Memo had a story about a series of campaigns against Muslim houses of worship. Maybe these campaigns are not new, but I certainly don't remember them being embraced by mainstream Republicans during the Bush Administration.
We shall not apologize for demanding evidence of trends! This is how phony reality is constructed, by the way: One person issues a "maybe," the next person says "yes," and then everyone else works on "why." Sometimes it's worth checking to see if you're full of shit in the first place. Try it sometime!
ReplyDeleteThe Ydiot
Sometimes it's worth checking to see if you're full of shit in the first place. Try it sometime!
ReplyDeletePhysician, heal thyself.
I read the post and I do not see any concrete evidence either. Nor did I see any real empirical evidence in the linked post.
ReplyDelete