Saturday, February 05, 2005
Juan Cole catches a moron
The most frustrating thing about being an American these days, and interested in public affairs, is that half the people getting air-time and page-space are morons writing fiction from a conservative view. The educated left and the Bush right don't just disagree about values, or the implications of different policy choices, or the seriousness of different problems: the Bush right actually doesn't care what reality is. They don't care what demonstrably happened lst week, last year, or last decade. They don't care when they are caught taking opposite positions from year to year on important issues. They don't care if everything they say is soon proved wrong; they just move on to new works of fiction.
But they are very good at propoaganda. They would make Goebbels proud, any day of the week. They are especially good at audacious propaganda, of the form, when committing sin X, accuse you opponent of being the only one committing sin X. If you are simply making up history from whole cloth, say the Democrats are unmoored from reality. And define reality as whatever your red state followers believe, which happens to be what you tell them to believe, which happens to be pure fiction---so accusing Democrats of living in their own world is really accusing of them of staying in the real world, while the right drifts off into dreamland.
I've seen this meme a lot lately, and find I have zero patience for it. I refuse to take anyone who pulls this sort of trick seriously. When some one just makes up their "facts", then attacks their opponent for disagreeing, you know that they aren't just stupid, but liars and, quite probably, up to no good. (Social Security is a great example, but a bit painful to talk about right now.)
So it's nice to see Juan Cole catch an uber-moron and liar, Jonah Goldberg. Cole asserted that the 1997 Iranian elections were more democratic than the 2005 Iraqi elections. This is not just arguably true, it is very important. The 1997 election in Iran produced a massive mandate for a reformer (Khatami) eager to reach out to the US. It gave me and many Iranians I knew great hope for the future of that country. It was the best thing to happen in the Middle East for many years.
And things were getting better, until Bush came into office and pulled the rug out from under Khatami. You see, President Khatami had legitimacy, a mandate for democratic reform and renewed trade with the US, but he had an institution enemy in the Revolutionary Council. The Council tried to undermine Khatami by heightening conflict with the West, and forcing Iranians to take sides. If Bush had said "Khatami is great, and we're going to help him every way we can. If he want renewed diplomatic relations and a trade agreement, even an aid package, he gets it,", it would have boosted Khatami, given his supporters a sign that their voices made a difference, and kept Iran on the path to democratization.
Instead, Bush refused to talk with any Iranians, then labeled the country part of the "Axis of Evil", even though it had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda, and even though Iran had been making strides for years towards the kind of state we ostensibly wanted it to be. Progress stopped overnight.
Jonah Goldberg, it turns out, doesn't know anything about the 1997 election. Yet he writes about the Middle East, and Iran in particular, and says "[Juan Cole] absurdly declared that the 1997 Iranian elections were much more democratic (Iranian candidates had to be approved by the mullahs)."
Cole decimates this point, and takes the time to note that Goldberg is has been persistently moronic on Iraq. My favorite part is that Goldberg appears to admit in his reply that he doesn't know anything about the 1997 election. It seems he just though "Iran=undemocratic", a simple equation that ignores, of, the last decade of political history there.
And these are the guys who want us to start a war with this country. As with Iraq, their information is a decade old, and badly mistaken.
If there is a war with Iran, I want these men in the first Humvees over the border. And they can pay for their own armor.
But they are very good at propoaganda. They would make Goebbels proud, any day of the week. They are especially good at audacious propaganda, of the form, when committing sin X, accuse you opponent of being the only one committing sin X. If you are simply making up history from whole cloth, say the Democrats are unmoored from reality. And define reality as whatever your red state followers believe, which happens to be what you tell them to believe, which happens to be pure fiction---so accusing Democrats of living in their own world is really accusing of them of staying in the real world, while the right drifts off into dreamland.
I've seen this meme a lot lately, and find I have zero patience for it. I refuse to take anyone who pulls this sort of trick seriously. When some one just makes up their "facts", then attacks their opponent for disagreeing, you know that they aren't just stupid, but liars and, quite probably, up to no good. (Social Security is a great example, but a bit painful to talk about right now.)
So it's nice to see Juan Cole catch an uber-moron and liar, Jonah Goldberg. Cole asserted that the 1997 Iranian elections were more democratic than the 2005 Iraqi elections. This is not just arguably true, it is very important. The 1997 election in Iran produced a massive mandate for a reformer (Khatami) eager to reach out to the US. It gave me and many Iranians I knew great hope for the future of that country. It was the best thing to happen in the Middle East for many years.
And things were getting better, until Bush came into office and pulled the rug out from under Khatami. You see, President Khatami had legitimacy, a mandate for democratic reform and renewed trade with the US, but he had an institution enemy in the Revolutionary Council. The Council tried to undermine Khatami by heightening conflict with the West, and forcing Iranians to take sides. If Bush had said "Khatami is great, and we're going to help him every way we can. If he want renewed diplomatic relations and a trade agreement, even an aid package, he gets it,", it would have boosted Khatami, given his supporters a sign that their voices made a difference, and kept Iran on the path to democratization.
Instead, Bush refused to talk with any Iranians, then labeled the country part of the "Axis of Evil", even though it had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda, and even though Iran had been making strides for years towards the kind of state we ostensibly wanted it to be. Progress stopped overnight.
Jonah Goldberg, it turns out, doesn't know anything about the 1997 election. Yet he writes about the Middle East, and Iran in particular, and says "[Juan Cole] absurdly declared that the 1997 Iranian elections were much more democratic (Iranian candidates had to be approved by the mullahs)."
Cole decimates this point, and takes the time to note that Goldberg is has been persistently moronic on Iraq. My favorite part is that Goldberg appears to admit in his reply that he doesn't know anything about the 1997 election. It seems he just though "Iran=undemocratic", a simple equation that ignores, of, the last decade of political history there.
And these are the guys who want us to start a war with this country. As with Iraq, their information is a decade old, and badly mistaken.
If there is a war with Iran, I want these men in the first Humvees over the border. And they can pay for their own armor.
