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The blogging of chance: how one thing leads to another
In reply to a comment by Ben W. on July 9, I spontaneously broached the question, “Is women’s political equality a good thing?” which led to a lengthy discussion. Some time afterward, I came upon an article by Hirsi Ali on Islam that was better than things I had previously read of hers, and I wrote about it positively. Meanwhile, Mary Jackson at New English Review, having apparently seen the earlier VFR discussion about women’s political rights, read my blog entry about Ali. But instead of noticing that I was writing approvingly of Hirsi Ali, she picked up on my reference to my past criticisms of Ali, and launched an attack on me saying that maybe I don’t like Hirsi Ali because she’s an “uppity woman” who wants the vote, adding that my views on all subjects should not be considered because of what I had said about women’s political equality. This astonishingly low-level PC reflex coming from what I had thought was an intelligent, conservative website made me reply at NER in my own defense, which led to a further discussion there. That in turn led Tom S. to write:
Your comments about New English Review led me to look at the website for the first time in many months. I once hit that site regularly, but quit when I decided it was a waste of time trying to make any sense out of it. Anyway, visiting NER, I read John Derbyshire’s most recent contribution…Reading the Derbyshire article led Tom to list Derbyshire’s liberal positions. And that in turn led Ian B. to write his longer essay on Derbyshire’s nihilism, which follows Tom’s post.
I have no larger point to make here. This is just about how one thing leads to another: how my unorthodox thoughts on women’s political rights led to Jackson’s attack on me which led Tom to read Derbyshire which led Ian B. to write his essay on Derbyshire’s nihilism. Email entry |