'Moonbat Central'. posted by Richard Seymour

The salubrious Mr Kampf has found a new venue. Joining the host of bloggers at the conspiracy site, Discover the Network, he now writes for the gloriously named 'Moonbat Central' (http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/moonbatcentral/2005/03/chomsky-in-edinburgh.html).

If I were to use the methods Kamm does in the above article, I might note the following lunatic tics: standard citation of Cold War polemic against Noam Chomsky, in this case a letter by the grotesque Samuel Huntington* (although what is untypical is that Chomsky's rebuttal immediately follows, and casually annihilates Huntington's case); the habitual invocation of scholarly standards that, to date, have eluded Kamm; the usual uncharitable reading of every possible fact or circumstance surrounding the material he is discussing (The Gifford Lectures are intended to “contribute to the advancement of theological and philosophical thought”, but Chomsky is instead using the occasion to advance his political opinions...); the casual misreading of the text (Chomsky, Zelig-like, is said to select targets according to audience, which could be true, although the example Kamm offers doesn't offer much to support the claim, particularly once you've read the article he is parsing); the slovenly reference to a "historical record" which his opponent has failed to excavate, but over which he exerts excruciating mastery.

Etc. Much more interesting, though, is the fact that this 'Militant Liberal', this strenuous capitaliser of the abstract, this tabloid journalist, in attaching himself to the orbit of the Moonbats, has acquired a fan club - one neo-Nazi, it seems. (See link). Naturally, I'm shocked, outraged, dazed, bewildered etc. Whatever my reaction is, it certainly doesn't involve me pissing myself with laughter at the gauche ineptitude of an amateur bibliophile and polemicist so desperate for venues to pursue his Chomsky-stalking that he will even involve himself with nutter conspiracy theorists and discarded Cold War witchfinders.

One last thing. A suggestion for Mark Kaplan's "Notes on Rhetoric" :

Historical Record. Your opponent is invariably unfamiliar with it, while you master it with matchless facility. Allude to it wherever possible, encourage your opponent to acquaint himself with it. So much the better if you have a cache of slightly obscure references that you can dispense, especially if these bear only tangential relationship to what you are discussing. In particular, when called upon to explain the relevance of the reference, explain that you are not about to spoon-feed your opponent and advise him to get off his flaccid fundament and do some independent reading. It will, you can assure him, be its own reward.

*Aside from his part in the imperial subventions in Vietnam, Huntington's political sympathies are peculiar. Apartheid South Africa, for Huntington, was a "satisfied society", in which "the people for some reason are not protesting".