Bill Maher, Liberals and The Left

In my previous note, I wrote, "I have heard a number of Leftists, in response to observations like these, define their own positions to say that they don't support Radical Islam "but . . ." and by the time they are done it seems to me that they have contradicted themselves. But watch the Bill Maher clips. Can my favorite Leftist, Billy Blogblather watch the Maher clips and agree with them? I doubt it, and that is the difference. The Blogblathers still support Radical Islam."

BLOGBLATHER'S RESPONSE TO MY CHALLENGE:

I'm not sure what universe Lawrence lives in but it's surely not this one. I have time and time and time again proclaimed my belief that fascism is one of the greatest evils in the world. I have time and time and time again equated Radical Islam with fascism -- just as I equate Radical Christianity and Radical Judaism and Radical national movements such as ETA and the IRA and some groups in South America with fascism. Because I do not believe in the denial of the rights of Muslims in America nor endorse the wholesale slaughter of Muslims does it mean I support Radical Islam (by which I assume you mean supporters of terrorism). I did not support Radical Americanism especially not when it was murdering people in El Salvador and Nicaragua and Vietnam and Cambodia or any of the other countries we terrorized for years. Get your facts straight, Lawrence. I hate fascism regardless of what program it supports.

LAWRENCE:

I live in the same universe Blogblather lives in, but the one I would like to live in is one in which one responds logically to arguments one wants to disagree with. I challenged Blogblather to watch the Bill Maher clip I cited. He did not do that. He didn't respond to anything Bill Maher says. Here is another Bill Maher clip of equivalent import: http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/bill-maher-slams-islam-chris-matthews-loves-it-video/

Blogblather doesn't need to "assume" what I mean. He can watch the Maher clips. I applaud Maher for saying he is a proud Westerner and that he doesn't want to see Britain taken over by Islam. He doesn't want to see Western ideals disappear. He values Western ideals, and he mentions separation of church and state, equality between the sexes, protection of minorities, free elections, free speech, and freedom to gather. If Blogblather were to value these Western ideals as much as Maher does, then he would have to reject Islam insofar as it rejects these ideals -- and the only Islamic sect I know of which has no trouble with these Western Ideals is the Sufi.

As to Blogblather's use of the term fascist, someone from Ireland wrote, "In the Mike Leigh film "Life Is Sweet" there is a dysfunctional young woman who hurls the epithet "Fascist!" at anything that provokes her anger. There is a danger of trivialising "fascism" as a notion by over-applying it. It might be better to say that some of these groups share a fascist belief in using force to get their way; but this would not make them fascist anymore than this belief makes the Cosa Nostra fascist. Max Weber was no doubt on the right lines in suggesting a state, including a democratic state, is partly defined by its claim to a monopoly on the legitimate use of force [including its sanction of such force by others (say, by way of self-defence)]; and democratic states can only survive against violent, non-democratic attack by using force to get their (democratic) way. This does not turn a democratic state into a fascist one, unless we are to expand "fascism" to a point where its meaning is so wide that its application becomes vacuous and misleading."

I see something a little different, and it is an example of why I say that Blogblather supports Radical Islam. While saying that he doesn't, he puts it in the same category as "Radical Christianity" and "Radical Judaism" whatever they are. Saying that there is no difference between Radical Islam and Christianity or Judaism is to give it legitimacy it doesn't deserve. That legitimacy comprises "support."

Maher says that there was period in which Christianity was like Islam is today: "It was called the Dark Ages." There are huge differences between Islam and not only the other religions but Western Civilization. Islam does not support the ideals of the West. It can no more sign up to them than Blogblather can sign up to the comments made by Bill Maher.

Maher goes beyond the statements that got Juan Williams fired from NPR, but I suspect Williams would sign up to them. These two individuals I thought were on the Left now show evidence that they are in the traditional "Liberal" camp. The statements Maher made may be politically incorrect today, but they are core Liberal beliefs. You can't be a "Liberal" in the Western sense and reject what Maher says.