perfidy

Ministry Crony Mapgirl alerts us to some idiocy on the Washington Post website. For once, the craziness does not begin with the headline, but rather at the comments. In this well reasoned opinion piece, Post columnist Jefferson Morley wonders just what the hell South Korea is thinking. Given the existence, just to the north, of a madcap and goofy - yet nuclear armed - police state, Morley makes the point that we can reasonably accuse the South Korean government of hiding its collective head in the sand. All well and good.

But commenter Gene is oblivious to the reasoning Morley deploys, or the links to actual South Korean websites and other evidence of responsible journalistic practice. Gene sees the headline "What, me worry?" and only one thing pops into his sad, strange little head. God dammit, that man's a racist for saying "What, me worry?"

While I believe that journalists have the editorial freedom to write what they want, I believe that using a title written in racist tone like "What me worry" is overstepping the boundary.
Surely, a good jounalist can write good articles without resorting to stereotypical remarks.
If the jouralist is bitter about the Korean government's lackadasical reaction to this issue, he can state so in his article.
Such immaturity only speaks on his character.

Racist you say? Well, geez, Gene, I always thought that that was an Alfred E. Newman quote. You know, from Mad Magazine. But notice the careful tactics of the modern race card player. He begins every ridiculous claim of racist intent with a statement of principle. Then the smooth segue into "while wholeheartedly approving of the principle of freedom assembly, three people is just over the line!" And then, the rote condemnation of stereotype. And then, missing the point by saying that, "if the author wanted to say that, why didn't he do it where no one would hear?" And finally, the closer, a personal attack.

All to typical. I feel like I'm missing the boat here. There are players out there, and they're monopolizing the game. I want to be a player. So from now on, if anyone says something I even mildly disagree with, I'm going to accuse them of racism. No matter what they say. I only hope that I can do it with the panache of master player Gene. Genius!