Saturday, August 7, 2010

Not Thinking About The Thinkable

I crossposted the 6 Aug 1945 piece, more or less, on the doctors' blog, Sermo. I'd have thought it relatively unremarkable, not particularly ideological, advanced by many wiser and more articulate than I. The comments, extending over dozens, dealt not at all with the existential issues posed by nuclear weapons, but with Truman's use of them at the end of World War II, and their deterrent role in the Cold War. Not a single comment addressed the issue I'd raised.

Then after a while, a few commenters went on to call me deluded, a supercilious asshole, ignorant of history, elitist, isolated from reality (like all liberals), living on another planet, unfit for the company of adults. Their actual words. Those who so commented offered nothing other than vituperative rhetoric in support of their positions. Other commenters have yet to take issue with them, or offer any support at all.

I oft comment there, usually from the left of the mean, and am generally accepted, even, sometimes, welcomed, even by those disagreeing with me. I've argued against Ayn Rand, Frederich, Hayek and Murray Rothbard with true believers. I've suggested that Obama isn't going to impose Stalinist tyranny, that national health insurance isn't necessarily a bad thing, that health care is a human right--distinctly minority opinions on that site. Mostly, in a manner cordial, respectful, even friendly. And nothing, but nothing, that I've written has been so summarily rejected and dismissed. Perhaps I am, indeed, living on a different planet.

I'm flabbergasted. I'd never, in a million years, have thought a priori that this post, more than any other, would occasion a vitriolic, dismissive response. I'm also a little disturbed. Maybe a lot disturbed.

No comments: