Reply #17: There's an essential difference

[NV1962]

between criticizing the inherent ingenuousness of large swaths of the American electorate, unwilling to assume the possibility that their President is a deceitful, dull and zealous incompetent, and resorting to equally blasé and sterile stereotypes that not only miss his presumptive point entirely, but are a tragic showcase for the trans-Atlantic disconnect that is wreaking havoc, not to mention a sad reminder of that biblical expression about casting out the splinter from thine eye.

I suspect that this Pearce person essentially can't distinguish the fantastic pictures in his head from reality, in which case he should rather pursue an education to alleviate his condition instead of foisting the inevitably subsequent delusions on the generally well-educated readership of The Guardian. He would do well by acquainting himself with a dictionary, for example by looking up "prejudice".

Not in the least because that stubbornly ignoramus bigot is factually and politically illiterate enough to confuse Cohen's equally incoherent rants concerning "the Left" with what made G.W. Bush a sadly viable candidate for the highest office in the USA - not once but twice.

The fact that some Americans were devious and malevolent enough to mislead a considerable slice of their population -- who deliberately opted to believe them over the many, many cautioning voices coming from professionals in the national security business on both sides of the Atlantic -- can in no way be read as an excuse to portray the cretin-in-chief as exemplary of the nation. Doing that is beyond illiterate, plain stupid.

Instead, I point the rhetorical gun the other way: if "the left" were left with no alternative but making do with the likes of Edward Pearces engaging Nick Cohens, God help us. That'd be about as satisfactory a description of reality, as is Pearce's hopefully well-intended but at any rate horribly misguided attempt at throwing populist red meat before an insulted audience. I can't suffer such colossally useless fools that well.