An Unwieldy But Useful Coinage
Last week, Oliver Kamm posted a long and careful discussion of whether Noam Chomsky is an anti-Semite and concluded that he is not, though he (Chomsky, not Kamm) goes out of his way to defend anti-Semites and attack their opponents. If someone who deplores Communism in a perfunctory way and spends all his energy attacking anti-Communists is properly described as an “anti-anti-Communist” (1,010 hits on Google), surely Chomsky is an anti-anti-anti-Semite? It’s too bad that the human mind draws the line at double negatives, and finds triple negatives way too confusing.
I guess this post makes me not only an anti-anti-Semite, for despising the Faurissons of the world, but an anti-anti-anti-anti-Semite as well, for despising the Chomskies?
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I’ve seen this exercise done before and had the same reaction. Which is when all is said and done, channeling Galileo and conclude: But he still is an anti-semite.
Comment by Robin Roberts — Tuesday: February 22, 2005 @ 12:11 AM GMT-0500
It is tempting to take issue with you, solely so that I can declare myself to ne an anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-semite, but alas, I agree with you, so I cannot.
Comment by Phil — Tuesday: February 22, 2005 @ 1:24 PM GMT-0500
On Chomsky — how many NON-antisemites have 1) written a preface to a book by a Holocaust denier, 2) repeatedly accused Israel of genocide while never criticizing Arab treatment of Jews, and 3) said there is no problem with antisemitism in the US today? Does anyone other than me see a pattern here?
Comment by Barton Paul Levenson — Thursday: January 19, 2006 @ 10:11 AM GMT-0500