As Long as James Taranto is Writing for WSJ, I Fail to See Any Difference between It and “The Daily Caller”
By James Taranto is having fun with what appears to be Margaret Carlson’s genuinely-flawed article. If he had merely corrected her mistakes re: the VRA he actually might have written an informative column (which would have been an exciting first for him). But he couldn’t stop there. He had to keep going; he had to fly too close to the sun. Now he gonna get BURNED!
As you all know, one of my big bugaboos is that conservatives self-soothe by telling themselves that liberals only really care about racism, which doesn’t exist anyway, to…oh, I don’t know? Profit! Well, that’s not quite fair–in this case Taranto is making the case that liberals exaggerate racism to “sustain an illusion of the federal government’s efficacy.” And I think he may have us there. We do routinely talk about racism because we want to sustain an illusion of the federal government’s efficacy. NOT because an unarmed black teen was gunned down and his killer was not even arrested at first. No. It’s not because of things like that. It’s the first thing. Folks, Taranto has really got our number.
But let’s move on. I believe this is what is known as a “gotcha!” moment:
Even the appeal to emotion is misplaced in the case of one of the justices. Half a century ago Clarence Thomas was a black teenager in Georgia. He doesn’t need Hollywood actors to show him the oppressiveness of Jim Crow, and he certainly doesn’t need a person of pallor like Carlson to lecture him about it.
Surprised Emoticon, take it away!!! :O
Holy crap, James Taranto, did you just admit that maybe white people don’t know–or can’t know–what it’s like to experience institutionalized racism like black people can? Cuz, uh, if you’re admitting that, you may wanna, oh, I don’t know…go back and rewrite every column you’ve ever written.
BOOYA!