Krugman Plays The Hate Card
posted at 10:41 am on June 12, 2009 by Legal Insurrection
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Paul Krugman proved, once again, why he has no credibility. In a column in today’s New York Times, titled “The Big Hate,” Krugman blames conservatives for the shooting at the Holocaust Museum and of Dr. George Tiller because conservatives have had the audacity to harshly criticize the Obama administration and late-term abortions.
Krugman picks a few pieces of sentences from various commentators to argue that conservatives are “winding up” domestic terrorists. True to form, Krugman ignores any evidence that cuts against his argument, such as that the museum shooter had a history of violence dating back at least to 1981, and was a neo-Nazi who hated conservatives and Fox News.
Krugman also places blame on these same commentators for the shooting of Dr. George Tiller. Yet there has been no evidence that the shooter was motivated by what anyone else said. The fact that someone may have criticized Tiller, even harshly, does not logically establish evidence of causation. Mixing up mere association (i.e., both the killer and commentators criticized Tiller) with causation (the commentators caused the killer to act) is a common logical fallacy of which Krugman must be aware.
While Krugman places the blame on conservatives for the museum and Tiller shooters, Krugman fails to consider the implications of his own logic. Since Krugman has been one of the harshest critics of the Bush policies (as continued by the Obama administration), then using his own logic Krugman himself is “winding up” the next Islamist terrorist attack. Or maybe Krugman wound up the last Islamist attack, just days before the museum shooting, when a convert to Islam upset over U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan killed an Army recruiter.
Will Krugman accept the responsibility he seeks to impose on others? Don’t count on it. The best thing about playing the “hate card” is that consistency is not required.
Cross-posted with updates at Legal Insurrection Blog
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Von Brunn was apparently associated way back when with the Liberty Lobby, a fringe group that spouted hate toward Jews and blacks back in the 1960s. (I grew up Jewish and vividly remember my father bringing home some of the Liberty Lobby literature to show me that anti-semitism and bigotry existed.) These fringe groups have never been a part of mainstream conservatism. To blame modern conservatism for Von Brunn would be like blaming Tom Friedmand for ELF eco-terrorists torching housing developments and SUVs because he writes about the environment.
rockmom on June 12, 2009 at 12:04 PM
So will Krugman take the blame for the next time something like this happens as he’s obviously peed-off these nuts by calling them “conservatives” (like the guys at the Weekly Standard) these guys hate?
andycanuck on June 12, 2009 at 1:41 PM
Wow, give a guy a Nobel prize and they blow all the winnings at the horse track. Stop branching out Kruggie and stick to what your really bad at.
Americannodash on June 12, 2009 at 2:36 PM
you’re not your
Americannodash on June 12, 2009 at 2:40 PM
If Krugman is correct, then it seems that Saddam Hussein really was responsible for 9/11, and that we were right to go into Iraq after all. Come on, Krugman, stand up and say that Saddam deserved the death penalty for “winding up” Osama Bin Laden and the gang.
dcman98 on June 12, 2009 at 4:20 PM
So, then, did the hippies “wind up” the Manson Family? Or maybe the Kennedys “wound up” the Irish Republican Army . . .
loneloc on June 14, 2009 at 12:24 AM