American power

Saturday, March 31, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Shelley Powers: "To the Chinese, freedom is a threat. To the right wingers, criticism of the Catholic Church was a threat. To some folks in Missouri, the fact that I continually bring up issues related to Johnson's shut-ins is a threat. Exactly how do we define a level of 'threat' in this new Gestapo? Is it in the eye of the beholder? Kathy feels afraid, and therefore it is our duty to hunt down this perpetrator and bring him or her to justice." 

In the last week I've defended three people who made a hobby of humiliating me, and I did it with pride, like Nixon going to China, I oozed credibility, as they deserved protection from a mob that was angry, justifiably, at humiliation, and not knowing where to direct the anger, aimed at three reasonably pathetic and defenseless people. I called this a Chorus of Cowardice, and I stand by that description. 

Shelley Powers, someone who treats me poorly in her tirades and taunts about the evils of powerful men, whose caricature of me might be the little suited capitalist in the Monopoly board game, tears to shreds Tim O'Reilly's poorly thought out call for more mob justice. I totally agree with everything she says in this piece (assuming she doesn't edit it to spite me). It's what being American is about, tolerating all kinds of speech, especially stuff we don't agree with and don't like.