By John Ballard
Glen Greenwald get's it exactly right.
The principal reason the Williams firing resonated so much and provoked so much fury is that it threatens the preservation of one of the most important American mythologies: that Muslims are a Serious Threat to America and Americans. [...] For most NPR critics, the real danger from Williams' firing is not to free expression, but to the ongoing fear-mongering campaign of defamation and bigotry against Muslims (both foreign and domestic) that is so indispensable to so many agendas.
He follows it up with a devastating quote from Williams himself, circa 1986: Common sense becomes racism when skin color becomes a formula for figuring out who is a danger to me.
Pot. Kettle. black beige, er, something or other....
Beyond the general need to ensure that Americans always fear an external Enemy, there are multiple functions which this specific Muslim-based fear-mongering fulfills. The national security state -- both its public and private arms -- needs the "Muslims as Threat" mythology to sustain its massive budget and policies of Endless War. The surveillance state -- both its public and private arms -- needs that myth to justify its limitless growth. Christians who crave religious conflict; evangelicals who await the Rapture; and Jews who were taught from birth to view the political world with Israel at the center, that the U.S. must therefore stay invested in the Middle East, and that "the Arabs" are the Enemy, all benefit from this ongoing demonization.
Beyond that, nationalists and militarists of various stripes who need American war for their identity, purpose and vicarious feelings of strength and courage cling to this mythology as desperately as anyone. Republicans gain substantial political advantage from scaring white and Christian voters to shake with fear and rage over the imminent imposition of sharia law in America. And political officials in the executive branch are empowered by this anti-Muslim fear campaign to operate in total secrecy and without any checks or accountability as they bomb, drone, occupy, imprison, abduct and assassinate at will. Add that all together and there is simply no way that NPR could be permitted to render off-limits the bigoted depiction of Muslims which Juan Williams helped to maintain.
(Post titleTweet credit.)
I think NPR was set up here. I'll repeat what I said below:
ReplyDeleteI think Williams knew exactly what he was doing and wanted NPR to fire him. He's not getting any younger and hasn't done anything of any real merit for 10 or 15 years. He was surrounded by wealthy pundits on FOX and at this stage of his life wanted some of the action. The best way to get it was for NPR to fire him and stir up the hornet's nest of the right. It worked!
Ron, I think you're right. It's too well orchestrated to have been spontaneous. If not this particular time, it would eventually have unfolded as you described as he continued to push the envelope.
ReplyDelete