The Great Boy-Intellectual 9/11 Chin-Stroke-Off
"I’d suggest we start round two by addressing Michael’s question of whether one effect of 9/11 is a permanent counterterror 'archipelago' that, to state the obvious, is not a natural friend of liberal politics, democracy, or perhaps some other goals of the reaction to 9/11."
—Okay, I know our official position here is pro-words, pro-dialogue, pro-length and pro-ideas, but sometimes don't you just want to choke a bunch of eggheads? Here's an endless panel discussion of intellectual boy handwringing about 9/11 that is the very definition of OH GOD CLOSE TAB CLOSE TAB. That being said: "But surely intellectuals, including, if I may say so, Michael [Ignatieff] and [Paul Berman], are complicit in that government mendacity." OOH, DANG, Ian Buruma! More like IAN BURNUMA, AM I RIGHT? He said mendacity! Anyway, the intellectual condition: how is it? It's REAL USELESS.
But what about ze Kurds!
@Matt Langer: Cool it. You're whey off base.
@Matt Langer I don't think we want to ferment any more international conflicts.
Oh, the poor tortured intellectuals and their earnest incomprehension. Take a cue from Balk…you're all going to die.
@dado Did Balk get a writing credit on Colbert last night?
I wonder what other words Ian Buruma learned from Tennessee Williams.
@keisertroll Oh oops, you did what I did, only earlier and much more gracefully!
When I started in college I was planning on a physics major; this plan lasted exactly long enough for me to learn that I wasn't that good at physics. For the rest of my time in college (and grad school), I would walk from my dorm to the English department past the science labs and engineering buildings, knowing that I had a day's worth of this sort of bullshit waiting for me while the people in the buildings I was walking past actually did real work and invented things, rather than arguing about whether Walter Benjamin had been presaged by Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia or some other complete bullshit, ultimately leading to exactly the sort of claptrap above.
This almost drove me to join the Coast Guard just so I could actually _do something_ again, until I learned that I'm also not that good at swimming and don't like being cold.
@Astigmatism As a grad student in history, I get past this conundrum with a few things: writing non-academic stuff (cause publishing is so great and definitely not in peril! right? RIGHT?!), a healthy dose of DIY, and lots of alcohol/a bleak view on existence.
"Stroke-off" is definitely the mot juste.
Thanks a lot, Choire. Now I'll have Billy Squier in my head all day.
@hockeymom Just replace "The Stroke" with "Everybody wants you" and you're golden.
Do we get to tell the "where we were on 9/11" stories yet?
@brent_cox Too soon
@brent_cox I'm terrified of this, because lots of the comments are going to be something along the lines of "My fifth-grade class had just started to learn about algebra" and I'm going to feel old and maybe just die.
@Astigmatism "…even in the womb, I could tell it was the death of irony."
@brent_cox I would be thumbing this so hard if I could.
@Astigmatism Ahhh yes I was talking about 9/11 with the only friend i made in grad school, and she was an undergrad, and she was saying how she was in middle school at the time. My mind was blown.
"David, do you recall now your own thinking on 9/12?" NNNGGNNGGGHGHG
@jfruh Totally dude, I was all "Holy shit, that was some crazy fucking shit."
@jfruh OH GOD RIGHT? Haha. I recall my own thinking on 9/12, but it's way too lewd to repeat.
But I visit The Awl specifically *for* the chin-stroke-offs! This new anti-intellectualism isn't going to affect Yakkin' About Baseball, is it?
@skahammer LONG STORY. MORE ON THAT LATER.
@Choire Sicha Later? Is The Awl now Rookie? I CANT WAIT TILL NEXT TUESDAY.
@skahammer What this 9/11 article needed was more jokes about the kinds of sauces various al-Qaeda leaders enjoy.
@jfruh "And when I come back, we'll slather these ribs in Al Qaeda Al Queso dippin-aise, guaranteed to make you say 'Ay, man, I'll Zawahiri that'"–Guy Fieri.
@Choire Sicha: Christ, Number Two, I was just joking around before — but now I'm really scared. Raposa's conducting a vigil outside the offices of Greenlight Capital, isn't he? Mets fandom is safe only for the stoutest mental constitutions.
No hablo ingles.
I didn't read the long form because the quoted sentence didn't make any sense whatsoever one bit at all.
@Annie K. Thank you.
Mendacity. What do you know about mendacity? I could write a book on it…Mendacity. Look at all the lies that I got to put up with. Pretenses. Hypocrisy… Boy, I've lived with mendacity. Now why can't you live with it? You've got to live with it. There's nothin' to live with but mendacity. Is there?
I decided to put the quote at the beginning into my handy-dandy B1FF filter just to see what would happen:
"D00D!!!! I'D SUGG3S7 W3 START ROUND 2WO BY ADDR3SS1NG K1BO!!!!'Z QW3STCHUN 0F WH3TH3R 1 3FF3CT 0F 9/11….
Arguably, this makes more sense. Or at least no less sense.