Posted on 10/30/2003 12:30:54 PM PST by .cnI redruM
Boston College professor Paul Lewis is an able writer and possessed of sharp wit; for instance, he coined the term "Frankenfood." His academic field of expertise is humor, but when Lewis wrote a caustic op-ed piece for the Toronto Globe and Mail last month, not everyone got the joke.
Titled "Can We Democrats Be Your Next Province?" Lewis playfully suggested that the states that voted Democratic in the 2000 election might secede and join Canada. But his tone was bitter and corrosive -- e.g., "We new Canadians will (shortly) acquire a national leader capable of producing coherent sentences in at least two languages. We will leave behind a US composed of increasingly polluted semi-tropical and desert states inhabited by citizens hell-bent on posting the Ten Commandments in public washrooms, installing a Star Wars defence system around fast-food restaurants, and generally doing what they can to bring on the Apocalypse."
Surprisingly (to him, not to me), Lewis was instantly vilified by dozens of right-wing Internet wackos, most of them apparently perusers of the website freerepublic.com. He received at least one death threat, and an ad hominem attack in Hilton Kramer's Frankenzine, The New Criterion. "It's a take no prisoners attitude that is not democratic in its instinct," says Lewis. "There is this disturbing quality of intimidation on the right now."
What could be more democratic than the people expressing their distaste for his sad attempt at humor by attacking the President and more than half of the people of this country who support him? Just another liberal fool who thinks free speech is a right that only they should have.
Here is my e- mail exchange with him.
Hi Alex.
You used the expression Right -wing Internet wackos to describe some people who peruse freerepublic .com Have you ever in your writings described people as left- wing whackos, left wing extremists, extreme left wingers, radical left wingers? Or don't they exist in your mind?
Local people like Barney Frank , Ted Kennedy etc. come to mind. Have you ever pegged them as being some form of leftist, or is name caling reserved for right-wingers only? - Tom
visit my website www.newenglandsharks.com
He answered promptly with this:
no i wont visit your website and yes i have called my friend jim braude and others "left-wing madmen" -- but you see only what you perceive to be slighting to you.
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