Sunday, January 14, 2007

I notice ...

... that The Inquirer gave Chris Hedges, author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, a soapbox from which to preach: Extremism: Radical preachers offer a magical world for battered believers.

I happen to be one of those people who takes umbrage at casual playing of the fascist card. Especially when, as Jon Wiener points out in this L.A. Times review, Hedges himself "endorses the view that 'any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law,' and therefore we should treat 'incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal.' Thus he rejects the 1st Amendment protections for freedom of speech and religion, and court rulings that permit prosecution for speech only if there is an imminent threat to particular individuals."
How much you want to bet that Hedges would not say this about radical Muslims? Of course, Hedges himself would seem to be advocating intolerance and persecution. Perhaps he should turn himself in.

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