- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I do regret that. Somewhat to my own surprise, however, I find that I value being a lucid and rational boor.
Ondelette, your points are very good, but I think there are times when the statement "you aren't making sense" has to be made. Part of the reason I find Howard Kurtz and others like him infuriating is the blank-eyed fuzziness they adopt as a way of avoiding rational argument. Yes, it has frequently been my experience that "right wingers have a greater need for external certainty and dislike/fear ambiguity." It has also been my experience, however, that nonsense -- bad, imprecise, and obscure writing -- is frequently used in the service of this dislike/fear of ambiguity. George Orwell, I believe, wrote an entire essay about it.
I will apologize to bebop (whose feelings I really should have considered) but I'm afraid I'll just have to scroll past his or her messages. If I want to read mandarin prose or obscure references I'll stick to Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. When it comes to online comments, however, I prefer clarity. In fact, I consider it of vital importance in any discussion of an important issue.
