[Vision2020] Questions for No. Weatherman

[Paul Rumelhart]

Chasuk wrote:
> Note: This message was accidentally sent to you offlist.  Please
> ignore that one and respond to this one.
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 18:00, No Weatherman <no.weatherman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I understand that YOU believe Wright is not a black-separatist
>> anti-Semitic America-hating racist pig and I presume you understand
>> that your view is the minority view.
>>     
>
> Let me also do a little clarifying:  I know that I might hold the
> minority view, but that's okay.  The majority might have the power,
> but that says nothing about truth.
>
> The majority believe whatever makes them feel good, or whatever is
> easiest to digest.  They possess few, if any, critical faculties.  I
> don't think I need to substantiate these claims.  On this, we probably
> already agree.
>
> Wright today and Wright yesterday are undoubtedly different persons.
> We all are.  Perhaps Wright's ideas have evolved malignantly over the
> years, and that's what Obama now repudiates.  I conjecture that if
> Wright  had been the man then that he is today, they might not have
> become friends.
>
> If you and I had been friends for 20 years, and you suddenly and
> publicly announced your support for something truly heinous, I
> wouldn't reject you as a friend, but -- if I were a serious contender
> for President of the United States -- I might have to disassociate
> myself from your beliefs.  I still consider this cowardice, but
> sometimes I am a coward.
>
> Of course, I may be wrong, and you may be correct.  Wright may be a
> black-separatist anti-Semitic America-hating racist pig, and this is
> the "person" of whom Obama speaks.
>   


I think you can sum up the above, which is one of the concepts that the 
far right needs to work on, as: "nuance matters".  Drawing an arbitrary 
line and calling one side "good" and one side "bad" helps nobody.

Paul