Here’s an interesting weblog post by Lt. Smash criticizing a Tom Tomorrow comic about warbloggers who support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I think Tom Tomorrow’s argument is ridiculous, but not for the reason that Lt. Smash does. I think it’s pretty clear that Tom Tomorrow is making fun of what might be called armchair warriors (the left, though, seems to prefer the “chickenhawk” pejorative — more on that in a moment).
Also, it really bugs me to see how casually people will post e-mail correspondence to the web, apparently without a second thought. Lt. Smash posts e-mails responses from Tom Tomorrow, apparently without bothering to inform Tom Tomorrow that he was doing so, much less asking for permission to reproduce his responses,
(Wish “LT Smash” had been upfront enough to let me know he was posting our entire exchange as it occurred; I would have been more careful about typos.)
I guess I’m in the minority on this, but I think publicly posting a private e-mail exchange without at least notifying the sender is just plain rude.
The thing that is so noxious about Tom Tomorrow’s comic and the whole “chickenhawk” nonsense is that it is simply the Left’s version of the “love it or leave it” nonsense you sometimes hear from people on the right.
The right winger in effect says “how dare you criticize anything America does — if you don’t like this country you should shut up and leave it.” To which geniuses like Tom Tomorrow add “how dare you support any of America’s wars — if you think war is so great why don’t you shut up and enlist.’
The point of both arguments is to shut down any meaningful debate or discussion by implying that the individual in question is being hypocritical by the very act of voicing an opinion. IMO, these are the most noxious of arguments, especially since they are usually directed at non-elites. The “love it or leave it” is often used as invective against individuals who join protests against U.S. actions, and Tom Tomorrow directs his invective at individuals who in their spare time opine in favor of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, frankly, the Left’s embracing of this sort of nonsense is more disappointing. The Right has always had a retrograde element that has no use for free speech (the folks who today imply that criticism of the president is akin to aiding the terrorists.) But the Left usually gives at least lip service to free speech and an emphasis on bottom-up democracy. But when the rabble dare offer opinions that conflict with the Left’s agenda, all of a sudden sharing your views warrants being labelled vile words like “chickenhawk.”