Another Poseur Alert

As Atrios likes to say, "time to convene a panel on blgger ethics." It's nice to see our home state getting a little action in this department. We won't bother defending Steve Gilliard; he's more than capable of defending himself against the racism charge - which initially came from none other than "classical liberal" Andrew Sullivan.

What we will do is note how eff'ed up Sullivan's sense of racism is. Below are some examples of Sullivan's racial calculus at work:

• It is not racist to champion a book which uses erroneous statistics and faulty reasoning in an attempt to prove that black people are stupid - nor is it racist to insist that the book is "still important" even after it's most basic claims are debunked by experts in the relevent fields. Quite the contrary; this is an act in defense of "free inquiry" and "intellectual honesty".


• It is not racist when, in a nationally syndicated comic strip read by millions, a black man mocks black people. On the contrary, it's really great! It is especially great when a culture Sullivan doesn't like is mocked, becuase they deserve it for being so stupid(see above).


• When one black man with politics that don't match Sullivan's mocks another black man - one that's in a position of power and influence and shares Sullivan's politcs - then it's time to take umbrage.

Would it be cynical of us to assume Sullivan only cares about racism when it's something he can use to bash his imaginary "left" and thereby stroke his own ego? ARE YOU EFFIN' KIDDING ME? This is exactly how Sullivan operates - his instincts are those of a self-preserving phony. Notions like "racism", "free inquiry" and "intellectual honesty" are just so much putty to be molded to suit his ideological preferences and stroke his ego.