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The Ugly Conservative Tactic of Brutally Attacking Individuals, Even Kids, Instead of Ideas
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/ugly-conservative-tactic-brutally-attacking-individuals-even-kids-instead-ideasOne of the more unfortunate trends of the 21st century is the increasingly ugly right-wing strategy of singling out individuals—usually those who have somehow offended them by having liberal opinions—and subjecting them to grotesque smear campaigns and a deluge of abuse. Recent examples include Michelle Malkin's smear campaign against a 12-year-old who testified in favor of SCHIP; the bizarre multi-year campaign to discredit climate scientist Michael Mann; and the relentless haranguing of feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian. The goal often seems to be to “take out” the target by making the price of continuing to speak out in public so high that they quit entirely.
These kinds of harassment campaigns aren’t just immoral, but illogical. For one, the targets seem to be chosen almost at random. Plenty of people agree with Sarkeesian about video games, but she gets exponentially more abuse for it than most of her comrades. The malice conservatives aim at their targets would suggest that they think by eliminating the person, they can somehow take out the ideas the person promotes, but there’s no reason to believe that. Climate science will still be around if Mann retires tomorrow. Sarkeesian’s feminist videos are good, but if she quit making them, there are plenty of other smart women critiquing sexism in video games. No matter how successful Malkin may be at publicly humiliating a sixth-grader, she can’t change the fact that millions of children get necessary healthcare coverage through SCHIP.
So why do they do this? Michael Mann published a paper titled “The Serengeti strategy: How special interests try to intimidate scientists, and how best to fight back” that examines this question for the January edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Using his own experience as the punching bag conservatives hit when they want to take potshots at climate scientists, Mann argues that attacking individuals while leaving the larger group intact doesn’t seem to make sense initially, but there is a purpose to it.
“This is a classic ad hominem attack, consisting of innuendo and obfuscation, often focusing on irrelevant items, whose net effect is to direct attention away from the merits of an argument and instead to the character of the person making it,” Mann writes. “This approach appeals to feelings, emotions, and prejudices rather than intellect—exactly the point when the attacker is on the wrong side of the facts.”
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