Tim Blair is a paranoid moron
In a comment to my previous entry about Tim Blair’s hypersensitive reaction to a sheriff’s badge, he made the following accusation against me:
Actually, you know what is anti-Semitic, or at least insulting? Spelling “Semitic” — a proper noun — with a lower-case “s”.
Rob gets “Nazi” right, though.
This just proves Tim’s a moron. If you don’t believe me, have a look at who else spells it “antisemitism” rather than “anti-Semitism”:
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The Middle East Media Research Institute
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] -
The Simon Wiesenthal Center
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] -
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] -
The Institute for Jewish Policy Research
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] -
The American Jewish Committee
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] -
The Forward
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]
If Tim wants to call them “anti-Semitic, or at least insulting”, that’s his prerogative.
He really is scraping the barrel isn’t he?
No cap “M” for moron? Now I’m doubly insulted.
Speaking of my hypersensitivites, much thanks for including the full line in the post below.
It’s a slow news period and nothing for poor timmy to focus his left-v-right eye upon. Ergo, the dredging up of the hoary old ‘antisemitism’ chestnut. Pretty poor stuff, and just a tad late in the day. It’s already been done.
Careful there Rob, you’re giving us paranoid morons a bad name.
I’d think very long and hard before calling Tim Blair a moron; we’ve seen often enough that his “I don’t get the point” bit is an act. While I don’t personally find it funny, Tim *does* have a (presumably deserved) reputation as a rather humorous writer, and if he wants to oversimplify or deliberately miss a point to get a laugh, well, whatever else we may think of it, it’s got nothing to do with a lack of intelligence on his part. And really, who among us can honestly say they’ve never gone for a cheap shot like this one, either to work in a joke, or to try to score points against our opponents, or even because — as Niall theorises — it was a slow news day and we were bored?
Perhaps If I took it seriously, I’d have to ask myself whether my references to arabs, caucasians and others were also suspect? But I wouldn’t make such a big deal out of it.
When it comes to calling him a “moron”, however, that’s obviously an emotional, but absurd, use of the word.
Stop being so hard on morons, Rob. Morons can’t help being morons. The wilfully ignorant on the other hand, are another matter. I’ll leave it to you to decide which group Tim, who is on the verge of censoring my co-blogger Jack Strocchi from his comments, now that he has deviated from the pro-war camp, belongs in.
Jack’s in no danger, Jase. People only get banned for obscenity, etc. They can be as antiwar as they like.
I spell italian with a lower case I. I must be a self-loather.
Anyway Robbie C, could you put links to your good self, Citizen Edwards and Dave Melia on my log.
I only know two things about IT, and Jack just left town.
I agree. Moron is a bit rough. I’d go for ‘caricature’ myself. I think he’s a manufactured persona and much of what he writes is created to satisfy the demands of his fan base. — Which as we know is insane.
Oh rex! Just when i thought you had the xmas spirit, you not only spoil it with the “i” word, but use it without a capital!
Tim: “Jack’s in no danger, Jase. People only get banned for obscenity, etc. They can be as antiwar as they like.”
That’s not true Tim - I have been banned from your blog. I wasn’t obscene, though I was anti-war and Andrea doesn’t like me.
Just to continue with the moronic paranoia (hey, it’s what I do), you’ve also spelled “Semitic” with a lower-case s. Don’t go nuts; not accusing you of Nazism (things get taken literally here); just pointing out the potential for offense.
Seriously — I know you’re NOT anti-Semitic, and my earlier comment was a joke. I kind of hope your response was, too.
Anyways, here’s some discussion on the subject.
So I did. Ah well.
I kind of hope your response was, too.
Of course. No hard feelings, mate.
My preference for “antisemitism” goes along with Berenbaum and the AJC in the article you linked. There’s a good explanation here: What’s in a Hyphen?
Sadly, Rob, with the current [and seemingly increasing?] disintegration of language skills, before too long, very little of this will matter much any more.
my earlier comment was a joke
Would have to be the oldest cop-out in the book.
Merry Christmas Tim.
Well, it was a joke. Poorly executed, as usual, but a joke nonetheless. You know, the standard sort of crap you put in comments. Or I put in comments.
Merry Christmas, Zoot.
Tim may be sliding between the funny and the fulminaceous in tricky and unpredictable ways (the bomb in the bag is just a joke - KABOOM. That was the joke..) but a lot of his fans have very literal minds.
I am glad they are exercising their horrid little brain parts congratulating each other and screeching “oowah, Robbie made a big big fart” to the teacher over on Tim’s site because it gives them less time to irritate the rest of us.
Having come back from the fog of hatred over there, I need a big scotch.
O, and Happy New Year Rob. The man for whom the phrase “sock it to em” was really invented.
on a technical level how come since Jews are only 8% of the Semitic population it is anti-semetic when it only applied to jews and nto to palestinians for example?
Homer, that’s a point often raised in self-defense by antisemitic Arabs, but it’s a red herring. The term “antisemitism” (or even “anti-Semitism”) was coined by an anti-Jewish writer. It refers to a hatred of Jews, who are not necessarily Semitic — for example, most European Jews, who were the original targets of antisemitism. (Incidentally, that’s one of the reasons I prefer “antisemitism”: there is no such thing as a block of “Semite” people, and even if there was, the term was designed to target Jews.)
Poorly-executed or not, Tim, your last comment in this thread at least amused me.
But I am told I’m easily amused.
Now that Rob has alerted us to the fact that European Jews aren’t necessarily Semitic [and it is of course the European Jews who dominate Israel] we have a real worry. God’s real estate over the Palestine region clearly was with Semites. Does this mean we now find that the U.N. gave this area to imposters?
And there’s no such thing as a block [sic] of Semite people either? So I guess there’s no such thing as blocks of Caucasians, or Africans or Chinese or Melanesians or Polynesians or anything?
Isn’t life complicated?
But there’s always a silver lining. I guess if we don’t have races, it’s more difficult to have racism?