| What finally pushed me over the edge to blog about this was this comment and self-response by vastleft in my diary Beyond Gaza--A One State Solution And More, which pairs a false equivalency argument with a denial that that's what he's doing. The false equivilency should be pretty obvious: instituionally biased reporting pretending to be objective that floods every channel of communications simply cannot be compared to individual political commentary on a mid-sized political blog using common context-free standards.
Here goes:
I'm not arguing for equivalency
In fact, I'm the sworn enemy of false equivalency.
But the fact remains that in lefty circles, you'd almost never get the sense that bad acts by Palestinians are deplored, or that they play a role in fanning the flames.
I am decrying two parallel forms of limited-context reporting and analysis, one on the the right (and in mainstream media and political circles) that is blind to the situation on the ground for Palestinians and one on the left that is blind to the situation on the ground for Israelis.
I make no claim that the crimes of both sides are equivalent. I am just frustrated that no one's reporting seems well-rounded and fair.
by: vastleft @ Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 08:41
To which I responded:
When A "Fact" Isn't Actually A Fact (0.00 / 0)
But the fact remains that in lefty circles, you'd almost never get the sense that bad acts by Palestinians are deplored, or that they play a role in fanning the flames.
We're arguing facts. You're arguing feelings as "facts".
Bit of a difference there.
But not before vastleft responded to himself:
See Glenn on how the MSM approach works (0.00 / 0)
(Which is indistinguishable from the right-wing and mainstream political view):
http://www.salon.com/opinion/g...
Now, look at the leftysphere and see how rarely Palestinian actions are scrutinized. Apparently their suicide bombs and rocket attacks are wholly benign and justified and play no discernible role in the ongoing strife. How often in a lefty blog do you see a photo of wounded or mourning Israelis? Do they not bleed? Or do they deserve it?
It seems that acknowledging the humanity of Israelis is off the table in our world, just as acknowledging the humanity of Palestinians is off the table in that other world.
To give a shit about the victims of Palestinian attacks is tantamount to treason in the left, and it's reliably and instantly contorted into being a rationalization for Israeli misdeeds. I used to admire my fellow lefties for their gift for nuance, but the handling of I/P issues and of the "death march" 2008 primary have given me pause.
by: vastleft @ Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 10:36
One just has to ask, what purpose would it serve to recycle images of Palestinian-inflicted violence against Israeli Jews that's been plastered all over the M$M? Vastleft seems to think it would show that we care about the victims. And the failure to recycle such images shows that we don't care. This is, to put it mildly, absurd. It is worse than that. It is a morally obscene accusation.
The reason that people post images in blogs are widely varied, to be sure. But one of the most common ones is to remind folks of things that the M$M either wants us to forget, or simply under-emphasizes. This certainly does apply to the Palestinian victims of Israeli state violence, and it certainly does not apply to the Jewish Israeli victims of Palestinian violence.
There, in the simplest of terms, you have a completely unbiased explanation for a "biased" appearance. It says absolutely nothing about biased attitudes, for the simple reason that there is no evidence of such attitudes.
Oh, sure there are some rare individuals who are biased to the point of being indifferent to Israeli suffering. There are some so disgusted with decades upon decades of this same wretched dehumanization of the Palestinian people that they have become desensitized and dehumanized as well. But these people are nowhere near the majority. They aren't even a significant minority. And the only way that false-equivilence advocates like vastleft can pretend otherwise is by jumping to totally unwarranted conclusions that take no heed whatsoever of the obvious differences between the nature of discourse in two totally different types of media.
Finally, there are very good reasons why a progress blogosphere with an over-representation of Jews (look at how we vote, hint! hint! hint!) should look "biased" by vastleft's context-free standards. In contrast to his feelings-as-facts, here are a few actual facts to keep in mind that help explain why certain sorts of discussions go on here and elsewhere in the blogosphere:
(1) We're Americans.
(2) Many of us are Jews.
(3) America supports Isreal to the tune of several billion dollars a year.
(4) As Americans we have both the influence (however small) and the obligaiton to participate in changing our country's policies, which support the murderous acts of the Israeli state.
(5) As Americans we have no such parallel influence over Palestinian violence.
(6) As Jews, we have the moral obligation to object to immoral acts done in our name.
(7) As Jews, we have no such moral obligation to object to immoral acts done against other Jews. In fact, the only way to have moral credibility in objecting to such acts is to concentrate the bulk of our attention on the immoral acts of other Jews. That way, when we do denounce Palestinian violence, we are not guilty of special pleading.
None of any of the above should be taken as a justification or excuse for devaluing Jewish life or Jewish suffering. And it's a hideoous slander to accuse Jews who care about other people--as the Torah instructs us--of not caring about our own.
Indeed, we care about others precisely because we care about our own. This is both because it is certain that violence done to others will come back to us, and because doing violence to others in itself does violence to ourselves--even when it is absolutely necessary. |
