Success! Joe Klein Defines "Ideological Extremism."
March 3, 2007 -- 9:37 AM EST // // Post a Comment
Okay, so to his credit Joe Klein has issued an indirect response to the challenge that this blog threw down for him yesterday. Part of it, anyway. He's defined what he means by the term "left-wing extremist."
As you know, this challenge was prompted by the fact that Klein yesterday described Atrios as an "ideological extremist." This blog's goal was twofold: (a) to get Klein to explain why he thought this; and (b) to get him to explain what he meant by the term "ideological extremist." The larger goal was to get him to ditch his habit of attacking liberals -- and people whose opinions you'd expect to be generally in line with his own -- without detailing what specifically about their views he finds objectionable. After all, he is one of the nation's most visible pundits, and his opinions carry weight with mainstream audiences.
Now Klein has responded by offering what he calls a "partial list" of views one has to hold in order to earn the designation of "left-wing extremist." I think he was responding to my post, anyway; he didn't link to it, so perhaps he was merely responding to comments generated by it. At any rate...
A left-wing extremist exhibits many, but not necessarily all, of the following attributes:--believes the United States is a fundamentally negative force in the world.
--believes that American imperialism is the primary cause of Islamic radicalism.
--believes that the decision to go to war in Iraq was not an individual case of monumental stupidity, but a consequence of America’s fundamental imperialistic nature.
--tends to blame America for the failures of others—i.e. the failure of our NATO allies to fulfill their responsibilities in Afghanistan.
--doesn’t believe that capitalism, carefully regulated and progressively taxed, is the best liberal idea in human history.
--believes American society is fundamentally unfair (as opposed to having unfair aspects that need improvement).
--believes that eternal problems like crime and poverty are the primarily the fault of society.
--believes that America isn’t really a democracy.
--believes that corporations are fundamentally evil.
--believes in a corporate conspiracy that controls the world.
--is intolerant of good ideas when they come from conservative sources.
--dismissively mocks people of faith, especially those who are opposed to abortion and gay marriage.
--regularly uses harsh, vulgar, intolerant language to attack moderates or conservatives.
I think this represents progress of sorts. Now Klein won't be calling anyone a left-wing "extremist" unless he can demonstrate unequivocally that they hold "many" of the above ideas, or "tendencies," as he puts it. Right?
Meanwhile, efforts to get Klein to explain why he thinks Atrios is "extreme" were less successful, unfortunately. He wrote:
Sean Hannity is a ideological extremist and a bully. Atrios may or may not be an ideological extremist--I was wrong to say he was, since I don't know enough about him--but he sure is a purveyor of extreme and terminally smug rhetoric.
This is a bit disappointing, because yesterday's post below helpfully provided Klein with a list of Atrios' positions on about two-dozen issues, so that he could get to know the actual views of his target.
Incidentally, Klein promises a definition of "right wing extremism" next week. Stay with us.