Peeve Farm

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Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

Brian Tiemann
Silicon Valley-based purveyor of a confusing mixture of Apple punditry and political bile.

btman at grotto11 dot com

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Saturday, May 8, 2004
21:30 - Who's calling whom simplistic? http://www.denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/05/Campaignendorsements.shtml	(top)
Steven Den Beste links this article that seems to capture the highest concentration of jaw-droppingly dumb European man-on-the-street pronouncements that I've yet seen. I've heard all these arguments before, but just not all in one place. Where do they find these people? Or do they actually represent the way the European populace thinks? I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, because I like giving The People the benefit of the doubt. But it's becoming difficult. Let's see here: "The thing that Europeans cannot understand is how you can vote for a liar," said Peter Schneider, a German essayist and novelist. Great. Good. I sure hope most Europeans are better capable of understanding the generally accepted definition of lie than this guy is�and can distinguish deliberately misleading others by contradicting known facts from making statements based on available information which later turns out to be incorrect. By his standard, Rutherford lied when he said that electrons were studded throughout an atom like currants in a currant bun, and Copernicus lied when he said the Sun revolved around the Earth. Gotcha. Noted. I guess this is that "nuance" thing we keep hearing about. "The idea that you have a leader of the U.S. who's not interested in listening to his allies is important in the way people perceive Bush." So Bush should have "listened to our allies" and obeyed their wishes that we not attack Iraq, overriding the popular opinion among Americans? What is he�President of the United States, or Governor-General of the American Protectorate of the Global European Hegemony? Listen: if 80% of the American public and their elected officials say we go to war, we go to war�and that's true whether a Bush or a Clinton or a Kerry is sitting behind the big desk. European opinion does not trump our own when it comes to the actions of our government. Nor are Europeans thrilled about the American values they feel Bush has encouraged, in which anti-Europeanism is applauded as a virtue, people boycott French wine to protest France's position on Iraq, and Kerry is ridiculed by Republicans for being able to speak French. Okay, look: I don't know if Europeans have some kind of FrancoTV channel where they can watch re-enactments of Bush standing at a podium issuing proclamations such as "My fellow Americans: I order you to all stop buying French wine and cheese, and cancel your upcoming French vacations, because it is important for you to support your government's position against the French," but sooner or later they're going to have to come to the understanding that Bush is not responsible for Americans boycotting France. Americans are. It's us. We make these decisions. On our own. We elect the government; we issue the commands; we decide where to spend our money and who deserves it. Bush could go on prime-time TV and tell all the country that supporting the French economy is the duty of every red-blooded American citizen, and we would not change our minds. We'd probably change our president. Maybe our error here is that in attempting to use economic influence on the popular level to retaliate against France, we're misinterpreting French diplomatic positions and governmental actions as the will of the French people. Maybe the French people don't deserve to be deprived of American tourists' dollars and trade monies, because they don't agree with their government. It would be just like us to make that kind of mistake, wouldn't it? Unless, of course, they do agree with their government. In which case, <Snake>Bye!</Snake> And if they're lashing out at Bush because they see him as an extension of the American People, but believe politicians are meaningless shills that can be safely attacked without betraying their real hatred�of the Americans who elected him�well, then they'd better not complain when we treat the French People as an extension of their government, to be treated with commensurate revulsion. Perhaps the real battle lines here are between the American People and the European Rulers: between two entirely different and mutually incomprehensible systems. But then, it always has been thus, hasn't it?