Thursday, March 22, 2012

Nicholas Kristof, "Politics, Odors and Soap": The Stench of a Self-Described Liberal

In his latest New York Times op-ed, "Politics, Odors and Soap"
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/opinion/kristof-politics-odors-and-soap.html?_r=1&ref=opinion#), Nicholas Kristof describes for his readers a new book, which, he says, "demystifies" for him the morality of the right:

"'The Righteous Mind,' by Jonathan Haidt, a University of Virginia psychology professor, argues that, for liberals, morality is largely a matter of three values: caring for the weak, fairness and liberty. Conservatives share those concerns (although they think of fairness and liberty differently) and add three others: loyalty, respect for authority and sanctity.

. . . .

Another way of putting it is this: Americans speak about values in six languages, from care to sanctity. Conservatives speak all six, but liberals are fluent in only three. And some (me included) mostly use just one, care for victims."

Kristof mostly cares for victims?

What do you say of a man who is married to an investment banker, but sings paeans to Occupy Wall Street?

What do you say of a man who is preoccupied with Palestinian victimhood, but refuses to write about the oppression of Copts, Kurds and Baha'is in the Muslim Middle East? Kristof also remained silent earlier this month when more than 300 missiles, rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israeli kibbutzim, villages and cities. Yes, Nicholas, rocket fire out of Gaza at civilians is a war crime.

What do you say of a columnist who has nothing to say when Mohamed Merah guns down four innocent people, including little children, at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France? But why should we only blame poor Nicholas? In fact, all the other "liberal" columnists from The New York Times , who had probably hoped that this abomination was perpetrated by the extreme right, are ignoring the story like the plague?

Nicholas would have us believe that his morality focuses upon "care for victims." I would refine this vain, self-righteous attempt at glorifying his raison d'être by observing that Kristof appears concerned with only certain kinds of victims, whose stories resonate with the "liberal" mindset.

Morality or hypocrisy? You decide.

[For more about Kristof and double standards, see: http://www.jsantisemitism.org/essays/GrossmanJSA210(4).pdf]

2 comments:

  1. Jeff, your important blog ought to be published by The New York Times - your comment is forensically accurate. But it would not suit their agenda, and the columnists of the NY Times do not deserve such attention. They have decided on the agenda and filter events before they even start to write. Their blinkered opinion is mere prejudice (literally pre-judice). They do not report. Real events do not conform to their weltanschauung.

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  2. There is nothing to decide here. He's a patented, traditional antisemite - one of those who go well beyond their antisemitic "duties" at/for the NYT.
    Yes, I think they all conspire to turn me into a conservative - a very difficult task, but yesterday after listening to Brian Lehrer on NPR promoting ... Jimmy Carter (I missed most of Carter, but heard/read listeners comments) I was almost ready.
    Then in the afternoon, they had a program on illegal immigration from North Africa to Israel and Israel's new policy. The lady "journalist" informed the "liberal" crowd that the immigrants, originally from Uganda or Somalia or similar places, cross the porous Israeli border with EGYPT. Nobody asks the obvious question why they don't stay in Egypt.
    It's hopeless and I ready to use the phrase "the evil left."

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