That’s OK; I, likewise, missed the part in what I wrote where I said that those words appear in ESR’s post.
I think he’s suggesting it, not saying it. And he comes pretty damn close to saying in so many words that Barack Obama “doesn’t love” America, which of course is far from the same thing as hating it but still a pretty serious accusation to level at a candidate for the presidency.
As for the stronger claim about hating, though, consider the following bits from what ESR wrote. (Please feel free to verify that the ellipses don’t misrepresent his meaning or tone.)
[...] a kind of anti-patriotism in which dedication to an imagined America-that-might-be produces actual, destructive hatred of America as it is and has been. [...] for this kind of anti-patriotism I shall analogously coin the label “chomskyism” [...]
But my choice of Noam Chomsky as an icon does reflect the fact that chomskyism is far more a phenomenon of the American left than of the American right. It is near impossible to imagine a conservative presidential aspirant refusing to wear a flag pin, or explaining that refusal as Obama did.
It seems to me that (1) ESR is defining “chomskyism” to mean actual destructive hatred of America, and (2) his comments about the significance of Obama’s not wearing a flag pin make no sense unless he’s taken to be saying that Obama was exemplifying “chomskyism”, and hence actual destructive hatred of America.
But no, indeed, he didn’t actually say it explicitly using the words “America-hater” or “freedom-hater” or any close analogue.
(I shall not comment further on the political questions at issue here. The actual point I was making was just that I don’t feel any obligation to believe what ESR says about American patriotism as compared with other sorts.)
Yeah, it seems like you’re going a bit far to connect the dots. ESR is saying that the “destructive hatred” is produced by “patriotism by dissent” “at its extreme”. He didn’t actually say that Obama has this extreme sort.
It seemed to me that he was just using the flag pin case as an accessible example of this “patriotism by dissent”. It didn’t seem to me that he was even saying anything was wrong with “patriotism by dissent”, other than noting that a lot of Americans seemed to disagree with it. Though he does suggest it’s a “pathology”, which would normally be a negative term.
In the comments, he even clarifies that he was not trying to call any particular person unpatriotic, and repeatedly says that he is trying to do an analysis of American patriotism. Given the sorts of stuff ESR has written on the philosophical side before, I’m inclined to believe him.
Whereas, given the sort of stuff ESR has written on philosophy and politics before, I’m not at all inclined to believe that he didn’t (alongside the theoretical stuff, which I’m sure he means sincerely) intend to insinuate that Barack Obama doesn’t love his country.
But I think taking this further would almost certainly get unproductively political, so I shall leave it here.
According to the article, patriotism-as-dissent is identified as un-American and as Obama’s theory. American patriotism is also conceptualized as loyalty-to-freedom, for example in the Franklin quote.
I missed the part where he was identifying Obama as an “America-hater” or a “freedom-hater”—I don’t see those words, or any analogues, in the post.
That’s OK; I, likewise, missed the part in what I wrote where I said that those words appear in ESR’s post.
I think he’s suggesting it, not saying it. And he comes pretty damn close to saying in so many words that Barack Obama “doesn’t love” America, which of course is far from the same thing as hating it but still a pretty serious accusation to level at a candidate for the presidency.
As for the stronger claim about hating, though, consider the following bits from what ESR wrote. (Please feel free to verify that the ellipses don’t misrepresent his meaning or tone.)
It seems to me that (1) ESR is defining “chomskyism” to mean actual destructive hatred of America, and (2) his comments about the significance of Obama’s not wearing a flag pin make no sense unless he’s taken to be saying that Obama was exemplifying “chomskyism”, and hence actual destructive hatred of America.
But no, indeed, he didn’t actually say it explicitly using the words “America-hater” or “freedom-hater” or any close analogue.
(I shall not comment further on the political questions at issue here. The actual point I was making was just that I don’t feel any obligation to believe what ESR says about American patriotism as compared with other sorts.)
Yeah, it seems like you’re going a bit far to connect the dots. ESR is saying that the “destructive hatred” is produced by “patriotism by dissent” “at its extreme”. He didn’t actually say that Obama has this extreme sort.
It seemed to me that he was just using the flag pin case as an accessible example of this “patriotism by dissent”. It didn’t seem to me that he was even saying anything was wrong with “patriotism by dissent”, other than noting that a lot of Americans seemed to disagree with it. Though he does suggest it’s a “pathology”, which would normally be a negative term.
In the comments, he even clarifies that he was not trying to call any particular person unpatriotic, and repeatedly says that he is trying to do an analysis of American patriotism. Given the sorts of stuff ESR has written on the philosophical side before, I’m inclined to believe him.
Whereas, given the sort of stuff ESR has written on philosophy and politics before, I’m not at all inclined to believe that he didn’t (alongside the theoretical stuff, which I’m sure he means sincerely) intend to insinuate that Barack Obama doesn’t love his country.
But I think taking this further would almost certainly get unproductively political, so I shall leave it here.
According to the article, patriotism-as-dissent is identified as un-American and as Obama’s theory. American patriotism is also conceptualized as loyalty-to-freedom, for example in the Franklin quote.