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December 03, 2003

What Are Words For?

Roger Simon has decided to utilize a new dichotomy to describe people's political views: pro-fascist and anti-fascist (guess which side is pro-war). This strikes me as roughly as useful as the 'anti-idiotarian' and 'objectively pro-Saddam' arguments that have been tossed around the blogosphere in the past, which is to say, not at all. (And I must plead guilty to having used both at times in the past; my hands are by no means clean here.)

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that those who are opposing the U.S. intervention in Iraq are, in fact, pro-fascist. Other than giving those of us who support the war an opportunity to revel in our moral superiority, how does that label advance the argument? It's nothing more than ad hominem; we're going to hit the other side with a nasty label and hope that it sticks and therefore discredits their arguments. It's certainly not going to encourage dialogue between the two sides, an objective I have always considered one of the more important goals in the blogosphere. It's designed instead to speak to people's feelings without advancing the arguments one iota. It's hard to see an advantage to that.

I supported the war in Iraq, and I still do. It is my hope that my arguments on this site may help to convince those who do not support the war to reconsider their position. But I'm not going to pull out some blanket label to smear those who disagree with me simply because it's convenient or because it might make me feel morally superior to them. The purpose of this site is to try and advance discussion, not to preemptively shut it down. The pro-fascist/anti-fascist meme should be shut down before it begins.