{"id":78820,"date":"2016-09-05T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=78820"},"modified":"2016-09-02T16:32:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T15:32:34","slug":"reading-between-the-lines-dialoguing-with-text-to-squeeze-out-truths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/reading-between-the-lines-dialoguing-with-text-to-squeeze-out-truths\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading between the Lines: Dialoguing with Text to Squeeze Out Truths"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Sep 2016 – <\/em>William M. Brasch\u2019s diatribe against Trump and his “extreme right-wing supporters” (presently at LA Progressive<\/em>– link below*) merits a point-by-point rebuttal of its mis-statements and hyperboles that add to the confusion, anger and resentment in our bizarre, “democratic” (but media-controlled and campaign-financed) political process.<\/p>\n

Let’s try to transcend our Controllers\u2019 (as Huxley called them) love of journalistic monologues, and the logical fallacies of ad hominems<\/em> and broad-brush painting.\u00a0 Let\u2019s practice a critical dialogue with the text here\u00a0 (the kind one learns in Grad School, say, when dealing with a poem by Yeats).\u00a0 Let me state from the start that I am neither a partisan for Trump nor Clinton.\u00a0 As a student of Literature and Literary Criticism, I like Derrida\u2019s \u201cdeconstructionist\u201d theories about the relationship (often obfuscated) between text and meaning; as a journalist, I seek Truth.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start here: regarding Trump’s concerns about admitting Syrian refugees to the US, Mr. Brasch writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cHis solution is to issue an unconstitutional moratorium against Muslims who wish to migrate to the U.S.”<\/p>\n

Frankly, I haven\u2019t heard of such a Trumpian trope, but I\u2019m pretty sure the power to issue such a \u201cmoratorium\u201d does not lie with the US president\u2014no matter how emboldened.\u00a0 Mr. Brasch then complains about Trump\u2019s complaints that we do not know enough about those people we are admitting into our country:\u00a0 he writes:<\/p>\n

\u201c…we do know about \u2018them\u2019 because the vetting process for admitting persons to the U.S. is about two years; the U.S. in fiscal year 2016 plans to admit only 10,000 Syrian refugees.”<\/p>\n

In fact, according to an article in the Washington Post<\/em> (January 13, 2016):<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States already plans to admit 85,000 refugees from around the world in the fiscal year that began in October\u2026. The total allotment is 15,000 more refugees than in the previous year and includes 10,000 Syrians \u2026 under a special [UN] vetting process that typically takes 18 to 24 months. The ceiling for refugees is even higher for 2017, when it will rise to 100,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the dire state of American cities, high youth unemployment, and an especially perilous life for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans, why wouldn\u2019t we want to be very careful about who crosses our borders and takes up residence next door?\u00a0 As a matter of fact, \u201cvetting\u201d is what I and millions of Americans have been subjected to as we made our way through the mazes of education and careers.\u00a0 We used to call the process \u201cgrading,\u201d and reviewing a resume!\u00a0 Sometimes we would \u201cvet\u201d potential mates.\u00a0 We called that \u201cdating\u201d!\u00a0 I recently renewed my driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 The officious clerks reviewed my driving record, I submitted various proofs of residence and identity.\u00a0 No one called it \u201cvetting,\u201d but they might as well have.<\/p>\n

(Some argue that the US has a moral obligation to admit the refugees from Syria, etc.\u00a0 Perhaps we do; but I think we have a far more serious moral obligation to terminate our imperial aggressions that have caused millions of deaths and dislocations around the world since the latest version of our \u201cgreatest generation\u201d fought the latest version of our \u201cwar to end all wars\u201d!)<\/p>\n

Mr. Brasch continues his cataloguing:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extreme right wing denounce President Obama for attending an elementary school in Indonesia where, they claim, he was indoctrinated to anti-American propaganda and became a Muslim. \u00a0For the past 12 years, the right wing has referred to the president as Barack HUSSEIN Obama. What they don\u2019t emphasize is that the Founding Fathers were adamant that there is a separation of church and state, and that no one religion is included or excluded from persons running for any office.”<\/p>\n

How smoothly he glides from \u201cextreme right wing\u201d to the merely \u201cright wing\u201d!\u00a0 One wonders, Is the \u201cextreme left wing\u201d the same as the mere \u201cleft wing\u201d?\u00a0 In terms of \u201cemphasis,\u201d it is also worth noting that many, if not most, of our \u201cFounding Fathers\u201d were so \u201cadamant\u201d about the \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d because they did not want Quakers and other religious \u201crevolutionaries\u201d protesting those wig-haired gents\u2019 \u201cright\u201d to own and trade slaves!\u00a0 Long after the fervor of 1776 subsided, octogenarian Ben Franklin rose in Congress on his crickety, arthritic legs in support of the Quaker Resolution against slavery.\u00a0 (The Resolution was soundly defeated.)<\/p>\n

Mr. Brasch continues his foray by reminding us of the controversy at the Democratic Convention when a distraught and angry mother and father, who had lost their son to war, challenged Trump about his knowledge of the US Constitution:<\/p>\n

\u201c [While] some of Trump\u2019s advisors claimed the Khans, who are Muslims who emigrated from Pakistan, could have been terrorists\u2014Trump himself didn\u2019t rebuke them for their comments\u2014”<\/p>\n

Of course, we cannot know whether Trump did \u201crebuke\u201d his advisors in private.\u00a0 Mr. Brasch appears to be discomfited by the lack of a public \u201crebuke\u201d or apology.\u00a0 In fact, Trump has shifted his \u201cadvisors\u201d and \u201csurrogates\u201d quite a bit, especially in recent weeks and months.\u00a0 I have not heard that Hillary has \u201crebuked\u201d any of her advisors, including Huma Abedin, for their poor judgment.\u00a0 One wonders with Job: \u201cWhere is the place of understanding?\u00a0 Where can wisdom be found?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unrebuked, Mr. Brasch carries on.\u00a0 Concerning Steve Bannon\u2019s recent appointment as a Trump \u201cadvisor,\u201d Brasch informs us of:<\/p>\n

“Steve Bannon, who had been CEO of Breitbart News, an extreme right-wing online news site that promotes white nationalism and opposes immigration of individuals who would be part of minority cultures in the United States. \u00a0Bannon\u2019s ex-wife, Mary Louise Piccard, accused him of anti-Semitism during a child custody fight in 2007.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems that we are to take accusations of \u201canti-Semitism\u201d made in court during a child-custody battle 9 years ago as proof positive of irredemption.\u00a0 , the \u201cextreme left,\u201d or \u201cjust left,\u201d or the other On the other hand, apparently, for the \u201cextreme left\u201d or \u201cjust left\u201d or simply the other guys, accusations of infidelity and sexual addictions made by Hillary\u2019s principal aide, Huma Abedin, against her sexting husband, former senator Anthony Wiener, should not reflect on Hillary\u2019s judgment or on her \u201cextremely careless\u201d handling of national security emails.\u00a0 One wonders if any \u201crebuking\u201d has occurred?<\/p>\n

Undaunted, in regard to this fuzzy charge of \u201canti-Semitism,\u201d Mr. Brasch continues:<\/p>\n

“\u2026.most Jews are liberals who are willing to stand up for the rights of all minorities and are strong advocates of social justice.\u00a0 They see in Trump personality traits that remind them of more than four millennia of anti-Semitism from numerous rulers, demagogues, and masses who believed their own problems were caused by Jews and other minority religions and cultures.”<\/p>\n

Talk about ad hominems<\/em>, broad-brush painting, poisoning the wells, etc.!\u00a0 As a half-Jew I declare that in my extended family and among my colleagues, I have known fools and sages, bright stars and dull bulbs, \u201cliberals,\u201d \u201cconservatives,\u201d and \u201cextremists\u201d!\u00a0 The argument here is a glaring red herring!\u00a0 What \u201cpersonality traits\u201d can possibly associate Trump with \u201cfour millennia of anti-Semitism from numerous rulers, demagogues, and masses?\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Four millennia?<\/p>\n

So, it appears we have an \u201cextreme right wing\u201d \u201canti-Semitic\u201d Steve Bannon advising Mr. Trump.\u00a0 Oddly, there is no mention of Hillary Clinton supporter Madeline Albright, who, as Pres. Bill Clinton\u2019s Secretary of State informed reporter Leslie Stahl that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as a result of the POTUS embargo on medicines entering Iraq was \u201cworth it.\u201d\u00a0 (Someone might want to inform Mr. Brasch that Arabs are also Semites and that much of the \u201cfour millennia\u201d of suffering was actually about Arabs suffering at the hands of other Arabs, as well as Christians and Jews.)\u00a0 As for \u201cpersonality traits\u201d that remind us of the worst of our species, what to make of Hillary\u2019s demonic laughter when she commented upon the sadistic, sodomizing killing of Libya\u2019s Qaddafi: \u201cWe came, we saw\u2026 he died\u201d?\u00a0 (Our language-swords cut both ways!)<\/p>\n

Mr. Brasch concludes:<\/p>\n

“Hillary Clinton said Trump \u2018is taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankly, I am much less concerned about the \u201ctake over\u201d of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party (which in my mind together form the \u201cRepublicratic Party\u201d) than I am concerned about parboiled journalism of half-truths.<\/p>\n

Let us have education committed to how to think above what to think, and let us have journalists committed to ferreting whole truths out of the miasma of half-truths and distortions; let us encourage dialogue between informed citizens, and we may begin, finally, to revere the gifts bequeathed to us by generations of men and women who struggled for light out of the darkness, for perdurable peace beyond constant wars.<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* https:\/\/www.laprogressive.com\/trump-race-card\/<\/a><\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

Gary Corseri has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including,<\/em> TMS (Transcend Media Service)<\/a>, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and<\/em> Counterpunch.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on<\/em> PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere.\u00a0 He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, and he has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.\u00a0 Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frankly, I am much less concerned about the \u201ctake over\u201d of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party (which in my mind together form the \u201cRepublicratic Party\u201d) than I am concerned about parboiled journalism of half-truths. Let us have education committed to how to think above what to think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}