War Nerd, from the eXile

Gary Brecher’s latest piece, The French, vindicates some of my own scribbles, in a way. A short memory is a sin.

This eXile article is full of deliberate, wild and profane exaggerations — and therefore effective; this is postmodern (and premodern) journalism at its best; this, and not the Argun aid or the Independent. Zeroing in on a WSJ article, “A Message for Mr. Putin”.

Uh…France? Look, nobody enjoys giving the Frogs a good kicking more than the eXile, but an American newspaper claiming that “[France’s] intellectual class is now dominated by think-alikes who rarely challenge officialdom” is like a cocker spaniel calling a pack of timber wolves “wimps.” French intellectuals are a pain in the ass, but docile they are not. In fact, they say “no” instinctively to any assertion at all, and will not hesitate to deny that we even exist if the proposition is put forth. That’s their whole schtick. You can’t call them official stooges. The stooges are all under contract to American newspapers and TV. This is so obvious, such a bizarre flip-flop on reality, that the purveyor would be straighjacketed if he tried to get away with it in front of a professionally trained doctor, rather than a WSJ editor.

I don’t care if it is right or wrong, correct or barbarically off the mark; it’s amusing, that’s enough.

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