Robert Naiman wrote: > You're deliberately misunderstanding me, which is typical.
I don't know. Your statements give me more and more of the vibe that "hey, I'm the expert here, so I can't be criticized. So shut up." It's like going to the local city council meeting to testify against real-estate developers who want to building housing in the flood plain. The developers say: "Have you ever met a payroll? We know much more about housing issues than you do! We're job creators." Logic teaches us that appeal to authority is fallacious. I'd guess that goes double when one appoints oneself as the authority. > My point is that progressives who have years of experience working on > these issues should have more weight, all other things being equal, > than those who do not. Though practical experience is obviously important to political issues, that is not the whole story (as I've said before). It's not the _person_ whose opinions deserve more weight. No, it's the _experience itself_ that deserves greater weight. After all, who is it who defines who is a "progressive"? who defines who is an "expert"? That is, it makes total sense to say "in my experience, pushing Congress to accept the nomination of generally right-wing politicians to Cabinet posts has been a very productive tactic in the effort to defend Palestinian rights" (though this assertion might not be true). It doesn't make sense to say "I'm experienced, so I must be right." > For example, all other things being equal, my opinion should have more > weight on the question of the political impact of the fight over the > Hagel nomination than the opinion of Jim Devine, because I have worked > on these issues since 1983, and Jim Devine has not. I won't speculate about why Robert makes matters so personal. What's the point? I never said anything about Robert Naiman. That kind of crap simply launches flame-wars. All of my points have referred to actual political positions (e.g., endorsement of Hagel) not to the person who embraces them. The exception occurs when insults are thrown. BTW, I don't see how pushing Hagel helps Palestinians. In fact, perhaps I've been asleep at the switch, but as far as I can tell Robert has never presented an argument about why fighting the appointment of Brennan would be less politically productive than pushing Hagel in those terms. Please explain. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
