Claims/evidence. posted by Richard Seymour

Those familiar with the techniques of smear will know that the end has been reached when claims made against a person or party become mutually corroborative: that is, the prosecution becomes its own evidence. No smoke without fire, we wouldn't be trying this guy if there wasn't something in it, are you now or have you ever been...?

Dead Men Left has a fine piece detailing just such an instance, in which claims made by a Ben Virgo, 34, about suffering abuse from youths in Bethnal Green & Bow (who we are allowed to believe are probably Muslims, since they accuse Mr Virgo of racism) are invidiously linked to Respect's victory there. Whether the incident happened at all, or as relayed in the anecdote, it is a slender confection to link this to Respect's victory. Dead Men Left wonders if this was the same Ben Virgo, 34, who was found to be among a "rent-a-mob" group of Labour supporters who have been found stuck behind the Prime Minister and Gordon Brown in press shoots at a poster launch and had been involved in previous launches.

Similarly, an article in the Jerusalem Post (a sort of Washington Post for the Likudnics of the Republican right), cites 'worries' on the part of the Conservative Party, 'claims' by Oona King ex-MP, and maledictions from Labour sources as well as the former head of the Israel Society at the London School of Economics. Similarly, a certain philosopher-blogger cited Galloway's "unpleasant" victory speech in Bethnal Green & Bow, and his confrontation with Jeremy Paxman as evidence for the prosecution, as if the alleged unpleasantness was not itself a frame supplied by the election night commentariat, and as if the BBC had not arranged Paxo's absurd 'interview' to convoke an "unpleasant" exchange.

As others - Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein - have learned to their cost, once the stream of accusations, slanders, smears and hyperbole has exceeded a certain point, it acquires a regenerative aspect, capable of perpetual and effortless repetition. It becomes impervious to disproof or doubt, as one rebutted claim is replaced by another, and yet another until, with typical circularity, the original claim is returned to as proof of the rest. The appearance of solidity is thus given to pure gusts of air, and rhetoric that is as cold, empty and windy as its purveyors acquires the mould and fashion of substance.

(Update: Dead Men Left has more...)