The learning curve in politics can be a rocky one. Sometimes you have to learn from fools what you stand for & what you won’t. Years ago I knew a socialist fellow who was pretentious about his intellectual achievements so as to make others feel small. Done in by elitism, he went on to a respectable academic career writing tripe in defense of US wars & particularly odious crap in defense of Israeli apartheid. Advanced degrees couldn’t save his ass from the fatal flaw of thinking he was better than others & wanting to suck up to the status quo.
He’s now a regular cornucopia of rightwing rubbish who can’t or won’t distinguish fact from propaganda. Periodically, when I survey pro-Israeli walls, I include his to get the latest & came across an article titled “Pew Poll: 63 Million Muslims Support ISIS in Eleven Countries.” Well isn’t that an alarming statistic–even though it’s transparent baloney with the cachet of a Charlie Hebdo piece.
Is it possible our fellow got all the way through to a professorship in an elite university without the research skills considered de rigueur to an honest 7th grader? The article he posted dated November 2015 is from a blog called “The Gateway Pundit” run by a disreputable rightwing creep & notorious liar named Jim Hoft, a Tea Party activist often cited by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, The Drudge Report, FOX news, & the Breitbart tabloid. The source would have sent up red alerts to any serious intellectual or even an emeritus hack who wants to cover his ass.
It took just five minutes to find the Pew Research Center report (from November 2015) titled “In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS.” What did it lose in translation from English to English filtered through the evil-eye of propaganda?
Sycophancy is a slippery slope. You start out wanting to be somebody & treating those you deem inferior in a contemptuous way. You end up a hack, a man who sings for his supper. A regrettable fate for a better man but in this case, his due.