Do You Have to Let It Nordlinger?
Once again, it’s time for Nordlinger Watch! This time, our esteemed columnist prints a letter from a Texas expat who hasn’t quite settled in to Tree Town (the bracketed notations are Nordlinger’s):
Dear Mr. Nordlinger,
I know you’re from Ann Arbor, and I was wondering if you had any tips for coping. I moved here about a year ago from Texas for graduate school and have had a tough time with the liberal idiocy. I’m sure they mean well [that’s where he’s wrong], but it’s almost like they lack critical thinking skills for the issues they rant about. [Almost?] Here’s a little example:
Every day from 5 to 6:30 there’s an anti-Bush rally by the post office. Sometimes I walk by on my way home, and I invariably see signs that say, “Democracy, Yes, Theocracy, No.” Recently this was combined with their shouting about how we need to leave Iran alone.
Nordlinger’s advice: “With his eye, and ear, for irony, I think he’ll do just fine.” It’s true, A2 may have many fine qualities, but a keen awareness of irony can’t really be said to be one of them.
It seems that one of the most popular, but tedious, conservative forms of argument is to take an anecdote involving one, often anonymous, person and then to declare that person to be representative of liberalism in general.
I would suspect that the grad student from could, if he spent about 5 maybe 10 minutes trying, find in almost any bar, coffee house or classroom building near or on campus someone able to make an anti-war argument based on the lack of WMD, the potential of the US presence as an occupier to a creating rallying cause for terrorists, and the costs in deaths and casulties to our troops (and to Iraqis) being disproportionate to any benefit.
That, however, would be harder to mock, or perhaps even refute.
posted by PeteM on November 5th, 2006 at 10:09 pmI don’t know that you can say it is exclusively a “conservative” form, i think it’s just popular across the board. for instance (here i go with an anecdote) juliew over on AU is using her anecdotal experience from the U to explain why she is against Prop 2. most subjective statements, like why aaio, or why i like/dislike affirmative action, or why i like/dislike AATA are going to be based on personal experience, and it is only natural for a person to assume that if they have had that experience (like julie’s or anonymous norlinger guy), then others have had similar experiences. And frankly, I think anecdotal evidence is harder to refute b/c it isn’t based on any sort of measureable facts. it is much easier to mock, though.
posted by tim on November 5th, 2006 at 10:57 pmwho are these yahoos to harp on the lack of critical thinking skills?
to wit, iran’s government is democratically elected.
posted by peter honeyman on November 5th, 2006 at 11:36 pmi think any critical examination of iranian politics would reveal that it isn’t very democratic at all. any candidate for the “democractically elected” presidency has to be approved by the guardian council, which is appointed by the supreme leader. the supreme leader is elected by the assembly of experts, a group overseen by the guardian council. this establishes a closed loop of three bodies that make many crucial policy decisions for Iran. the president isn’t in that loop. I wouldn’t call that democratic.
posted by tim on November 6th, 2006 at 1:12 amlet’s see you direct your “critical thinking” stones to the 2000 election glass house.
you know what i’m talking about.
posted by peter honeyman on November 6th, 2006 at 1:11 pmThis guy is bothered by liberals, so he moves to Ann Arbor. He may want to do a little more research before his next move. Just to get him started, I’ll suggest that if he’s bothered by potatoes, he should cross off Idaho.
posted by kjc on November 6th, 2006 at 4:34 pmYou know I’m such a fool for you.
posted by Heidi on November 7th, 2006 at 3:05 amWhat happened to all the other responses that were here???
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on November 7th, 2006 at 12:59 pmWell, I mistakenly deleted at least one while getting rid of spam, but I just recovered it…I think that’s the only one.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 7th, 2006 at 1:14 pmI always knew AAIO was part of the liberal media that hides the truth from the American people.
posted by Dave on November 7th, 2006 at 1:47 pmhttp://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061107/NEWS99/61107006
posted by Mcfo on November 7th, 2006 at 4:30 pmLooks like Ann Arbor can’t even open the polls on time. I’ve met City Clerk Jackie Beaudry, and think she otherwise does an excellent job.
-Mike
Irony is dead!
It’s very difficult to be ironic when Texans leave their bubble of right wing theocracy, known as Bush-Jesus Land, and come to a place that lets them know there’s more to the world than the Lone Star State. What does Tex expect? Just another clueless student, I guess.
There’s no irony when I say that whenever I visit Texas it seems like a foreign country.
posted by mucho gusto on November 8th, 2006 at 10:36 amMy only experience with Texas was a trip to metropolitan Dallas for a few days. I couldn’t tell a whole lot about the state from that, but I do know it was the ugliest, boringest mess of strip malls and brown dirt as I’ve seen everywhere. And it was funny crossing from one ‘burb, which had a dry ordinance, into the next ‘burb, which had a gigantic Clem’s Liquor Emporium smack in the middle of one of the strip malls.
Texans can’t seem to make up their mind if alcohol is the devil or the savior.
posted by Dave on November 8th, 2006 at 1:41 pmWhat makes the rally cry logical is that both premises– “No Theocracy” and “Leave Iran Alone”– apply to American policy. Any critical thinking skills should be able to detect this coherence.
posted by toasty on November 8th, 2006 at 6:29 pmYeah, somehow I don’t think invading Iran is the best way to secularize the middle east.
posted by Ben on November 8th, 2006 at 10:26 pmI do think there’s a tendency among some elements of the left to see criticism of Iran’s government as bordering on xenophobia or anti-Muslim sentiment.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 8th, 2006 at 10:45 pm