Quote of the day—Alan M. Dershowitz

This hypocrisy of this double-standard — by political leaders, media pundits, academics and ordinary folks — is shameful, but done not only without shame but with self-righteousness. It was similar during the McCarthy era of my youth. Now as then, the “cause” — anti-Trumpism today, and anti-communism back then — were seen as so righteous that any means, no matter how unfair, is justified in achieving the end. Outright wilful lying is justified by anti-Trump zealots in the interest of getting rid of Trump.

Alan M. Dershowitz
February 12, 2020 at 1:00 am
Demonizing Defense Lawyers: The True Road to Tyranny
[Calling it tyranny will not be sufficient to stop such acts. Tyranny is their goal. It’s going to require prosecutions, convictions, and stiff sentences.—Joe]

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5 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Alan M. Dershowitz

  1. What compels a man to compare anti communism to Trump Derangement Syndrome? Could he think of no other comparison?

    Destroying communism would have been a worthy and laudable goal. I’m not so sure that Trump is as evil, despicable and dangerous to the world as communism, but if so then Dershowitz had better explain it.

    It is said (regarding deception) that all is fair in love and war. I don’t agree, at all, but the point is that lying to an enemy is an ages-old, common, accepted practice. Misinformation is seen as not only desirable but even highly commendable if it helps to achieve victory.

    Whether one is seen as a “hypocrite” then, or a dispicable liar, or a skillful tactician or even a Great Hero of the Ages can depend entirely on which side the observer has allied himself with.

    That having been established, and you all know it to be true, Dershowitz’s comment seems to reveal more than a little bit of confusion.

    And the left has a new name for the process of lying to win. Although it’s very new, it no doubt predates the memories some of your readers. That new term is “Borking”, so named after their misinformation campaign against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

    Politics is almost entirely all Borking all the time. Always has been, always will be, ’till the end of the world, until Kingdom come. When will we stop trying to prove it, stop pretending to be distracted by the sheer novelty of it, stop pretending to be surprised by it, and start doing something about it?

    We’re like a crew of firefighters spending all their time trying to prove that fire is hot and that, furthermore, hot fire can be dangerous! When can we take it as simple and obvious fact that fire is hot, and that it is dangerous, and get on with the business at hand?

    Or have we become too comfortable with our roles as trumpet blowers? Maybe we just want to be professional trumpet blowers for the rest of our lives, and do nothing else. So “reporting” on that which is centuries (indeed; millennia) old, as though it were a new development, is what we do, but is it out of confusion or desperation? Maybe we’re unsuited as soldiers in this war, and are therefore desperately clinging to our roles as messengers, thinking it safer and more convenient than the toil and deadly dangers of participating in the conflict.

    “Breaking News! Investigators Find the Sun to be Bright!”

    It’s shocking, isn’t it? Who knew?

    Maybe it’s all that we can do. Like waking up every morning in the movie Groundhog Day to the same tune, re-living the discovery, anger and frustration phases of living under a system of lies, deception and mass coercion, then going to bed afterward, and discovering it all over again the next day, never doing anything to overcome it.

    Politics is like two football teams on the playing field, but we act as though we don’t understand any of the rules. “Hey!!!” we keep saying, “those guys keep hitting us and taking away our ball!!!! And they’re all big, and strong, too, almost as if they’d been planning for this!!!!”

    Well no shit, Sherlock.

    And yes, if we criticize their team, by even so much as calling it a team, we’ll be accused of being “conspiratorial”. Just accept it, don’t be distracted by it, and move on appropriately.

    They’re already to the point where speech, they say, is violence, therefore what you say can be righteously met with violence because what you said was violence.

    And while we’re pondering over whose deception is righteous and whose deception is evil, the authoritarian side is several OODA Loops ahead of us.

    • It’s being compared because of the process and violations of rights are the same. It has nothing to do with the moral character of the parties being defended.

      It does not matter whether the accused is an actual murderer or an innocent person. It is still a violation of their rights to be tortured into a confession.

  2. I agree with the trial ,conviction, and stiff sentences. But first we have to have a court of competent jurisdiction to hear the case in.
    As we see the differences in Roger Stone and Andrew McCabe. It’s a big party. And we ain’t in it.
    Justice has not only taken off the blindfold. She threw away her balances. Decided to change her gender. And has been taking steroids. And the only thing left is her/it’s sword. If you don’t believe me. Go ask the Hammonds, Randy Weaver, or Lavoy Finicum.
    Justice. Delivered properly. That would be wonderful to behold. But.

  3. It does seem strange that he would compare anti-communism with anti-Trump when what we need today is some anti-communism.

  4. Comparisons of present day political machinations to “McCarthyism” are inherently flawed from the start, because McCarthy was RIGHT, there WAS a widespread attempt at communist infiltration of the Federal government. Everything Trump has been accused of has been a lie from beginning to end.

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