Last year, a longtime FB friend made a disgrace of himself on my wall & his own proclaiming ardent support for Assad & repeating several times in the most insulting way that my opposition to Assad was evidence that all white people with “Christian ancestry” are incapable of political thought. A guy who doesn’t recognize a brutal dictatorship may be too obtuse to notice that the pro-Assad Hands Off Syria Coalition is majority white as are the best-known Assadists on social media. Skin color, of course, isn’t the issue. Identification with or opposition to a fascist regime is what the debate was about. Two can play that paltry game & I could have responded by saying, quite correctly, that he would never speak to me like that were I a credentialed academic of either gender or any nationality. But when someone stoops that low politically, I’m not interested in engaging further & instead I just dumped his ass. It’s not ad hominem I objected to; that’s one of my favorite tools of debate with scoundrels. It’s stooping to guilt-baiting which is a very different thing & after over 50 years in politics something that rolls off me like water off a duck’s ass.
Today, he’s circulating an article which specifically cites the authoritarian regime of Assad & its policy of arresting & executing journalists. And our man never thought to insult & abuse the author who is an academic. I rest my case against another Assad supporter.