Quote of the Day

Chris Snowdon at James Higham's place:

Let me explain why I say I find it ‘annoying’. Firstly, as someone inclined towards the libertarian viewpoint, it’s annoying and slightly embarrassing to see the OoL site become a home to 9/11 conspiracies, New World Order paranoia and freeman on the land horseshit. The 9/11 thing is essentially a leftwing CT and I’m happy to leave it with Michael Moore and Gore Vidal.

Secondly, I resent the implication that anyone who is not a troofer should be viewed as a hapless dupe of the government. This is why I flagged up your misuse of the word ‘sceptic’. Regardless of whether you believe that you have looked into all this with in the spirit of critical thinking, that is not how you put it in your OoL piece when you said:

“These bloggers are natural-born sceptics and fiskers of hokum. And yet here they are, on this one issue, suddenly and unquestioningly taking the side of the very government who produced those other reports they’ve been so scathing about”

There is no acknowledgement here that the 9/11 CT might itself be hokum. Someone less emotionally involved in the issue might see fact that natural born sceptics don’t endorse the CT as reason to doubt it.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts on this sort of thing, with two important points emphasised and stressed: Higham can print what he wants at his blog and the OoL (which he co-runs). People should be allowed to write about whatever they like, particularly on sites they own and run. The second point is that others should be allowed to question those writings and theories for things like their flaws when it comes to advancing the cause of liberty without the assumption that they are being, in some way, irrational and/or unquestioning government stooges.

But enough of this. These sort of debates/arguments never end, they just get older and more bitter. And they require more time and patience than I have.