By any rational standard I am much farther to the left than any other liberal blogger of the past quarter century. (Meaning, I say "fuck" a lot.) But I flatter myself that I have the Intellectual Integrity to admit that Cliff May is by a long chalk the most persecuted person in the whole fucking world.

Why, the torture he’s endured is a hundred billion times worse than, say, waterboarding. See, according to Cliff May, waterboarding isn’t actually torture, and a government that uses it isn’t irresponsibly screwing around with the fundamental concepts of liberal democracy. Shit no! You want to fuck around with the fundamental concepts of liberal democracy, you act like those Nazis at the American Prospect.

[I]magine my shock to see on The New Times website an item saying: "Cliff May argued that torture is justified against Muslims because they’re Muslim"….

Imagine! Anyhow, to boil this down, May is mad at the NYT for relying on TAP’s account of this Corner post from last April, where he said:

Islamists believe their religion forbids them to cooperate with infidels — until they have reached the limit of their ability to endure the hardships the infidel is inflicting on them.

May’s defense, that he never said that all Muslims are Islamists, sounds nice until you figure out that there are never going to be any potential subjects for torture who aren’t going to be… Muslims assumed to be Islamists. Which basically means, if you have a guy you think is an Islamist, since he’s a Muslim, torture the fuck outta that guy, he’ll thank you for it. So what we have is just another reason to use torture first, dammit, if one that’s somewhat rococo, baroque, and stupid. Anyway, back to Cliff:

In this case, however, [The American Prospect] went beyond misrepresentation to encouraging violence – because anyone who actually does advocate torturing "Muslims because they’re Muslim" should be prepared for a dose of his own medicine.

Uh, yeah. No worries, Cliff — I’m pretty sure AQ recognizes your immense value to them as a paranoid hysteric, so you’re good. Also, only people who like to make fun of you actually read your shit, and I for one only ever bother to skim. I’m sure I’m not alone.

For the record, I am opposed to torture or even near-almost quite-kinda torture not because I’m a weenie, but out of morality. Or, excuse me, fucking morality. Oh, and out of the concern that some foreign government might want to play the sort of silly games that May frolics with, only in regards to American citizens.

But this is the best part:

This is more than an assault on me. It’s more than an assault on civil debate. It is an attempt to crush debate; to de-legitimize unwelcome arguments and to demonize those who make them. This is a way to say: Shut up or someone will shut you up.

This is the kind of irresponsible and thuggish use of media power that Krugman and Rich claim to decry. We have seen it many times before in many places around the world. But who would ever have expected to see it in The New York Times and The American Prospect, that "authoritative magazine of liberal ideas"?

Yes, that is exactly the problem with totalitarian governments — the pro-torture side always gets shouted down.

Check, please. Stop me before I mock again…


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