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Philip Greenspun’s Fatwa Against Jimmy Carter
Comments(3)
I’ve long enjoyed Philip Greenspun’s technical work – he was one of the pioneers of Web technology, and his use of scripting in building Web applications (think AolServer, way back in the day) foreshadowed a lot of what we see with today’s frameworks.
A little while ago he wrote a blog post entitled “What does Jew-hatred look like when it goes global? Jimmy Carter“. I read this post several times, trying to figure out his logic. I couldn’t figure it out – he seems to say that it’s easier to hate Jews that you don’t know, and therefore Carter is a Jew-hater. He reaches this conclusion without having read Carter’s book.
The first few comments on the post character-attack Carter, labeling him irrelevant, incapable, etc. None of these folks have read the book either.
I left a comment, a respectful one I thought, asking Philip to better explain his logic. How did he make the leap from “it’s easier to hate a Jew you don’t know” to Jimmy-Carter-is-Global-Jew-Hatred. I would quote you the actual comment, but he has since erased it, so I don’t have it.
This is all pretty surprising to me – I always naively assume smart technical people are generally smart and that they take a considered, logical approach to the world. Here Philip, an emminently smart guy, seems to take a very extreme position without much explanation. To top it off, he removes a comment that questions his position.
This reminds of another case of people engaging in character-attacks and name-calling over a book without actually having read it. Think back a few years to Mr. Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. Everyone was in an uproar, and some idiots called for his head. I remember talking to people about it, and everybody had an opinion, but nobody had read the book.
It is ridiculous, of course, to compare Philip’s blog post to the fatwa against Rushdie, but I figure if Philip can call Carter a Jew-hater in the title of his post without apparent cause, I can call him an intolerant Mullah with no apparent cause.
[I just wrote a longer comment, then inadvertently nuked it by clicking Firefox's new 'close tab' button. Sigh.]
I can’t say that Greenspun’s rash comment surprises me — he’s known for that — but it does make me sad that he’s willing to take such an unreasoned approach. Reminds me of science fiction authors who write open-minded stories but espouse their own narrow or bigoted views when speaking.
Removing your comment does surprise me, though. You’re known for reasoned, thoughtful statements, nothing that would qualify for moderation. I see that his guidelines include “The least valued comments are reviews of the posting, good or bad,” but a call for critical thinking about the post should not be included in that category.
Chris, here’s life saver: you can reopen the most recently closed tab by pressing Ctrl-Shift-T. (Cmd-Shift-T for Mac users.)
Jimmy’s biggest criticism of the U.S. is that the media doesn’t allow debate to occur, whereas in Israel itself, plenty of healthy discussion occurs at all levels; that’s good, since the future of Israel relies on those decisions. U.S. media is so far from the reality of Israeli life, that they can continue to push a very narrow perspective on how the conflict should be solved, without introducing different views. Sounds like Greenspun is one of the faithful with strong “convictions”.
As Jimmy has said, and Clinton, the biggest problem in the world today, is thinking in absolute truths; (thankyou Bush). The sad part is that the U.S. influences Israel so strongly, that they have made some terrible decisions (i.e. Lebanon), and the creation of this giant wall isn’t going to help. Israel is on a path to its end, unless they can get back to the 90’s where they were employing over 50% of the palestianian population. Free trade = economy = jobs = peace. Maybe the Messiah will finally show up and give everyone a job.