Slate Publishes Things That Our Undergraduates Would Get Flunked for Writing
Seriously, if one of our students turned in a paragraph like this, we would put a big X through it and write the pedantic and obvious statement "you can't use an anecdote to answer a poll:
And what of Hezbollah's anchors in Lebanese society? For over a decade, the armed group used its militancy against Israel, Syria's backing, intimidation, and Shiite support to protect its independence and prerogatives. This now lies in tatters. Much has been made of two polls recently released in Beirut, claiming that more than 80 percent of Lebanese citizens support Hezbollah's resistance against Israel. These results are simply not borne out by facts on the ground. Anecdotally, while there may be hostility to Israel in many quarters, there is no noticeable backing among Christians, Sunni Muslims, or Druze for what Hezbollah has done. If anything, hostility is being expressed with greater boldness.
We congratulate the professional media on their multiple layers of editors. Now if they can just hire some high school students who've taken intro-level statistics classes, they'd be well on their way to not being a decaying caricature of head-in-the-sand, Arab-publics-don't-really-want-war-with-Israel fantasizing. How absurd will the media get in their attempts to pretend that Israeli self-defense is preventing the blossoming of love and support from the Arab world? For clarity, the passage is "two polls recently released in Beirut [show] that more than 80 percent of Lebanese citizens support Hezbollah... Anecdotally... there is no noticeable backing". If we can drop whatever thin pretense of subtlty we might have left: that is a mind-bogglingly stupid thing for a reasonably educated grown-up to write. Anybody who knows the word "anecdotally" should be smart enough never to write a passage like that.
As to the idea of "Hezbollah's resistance against Israel", we again quote Alberto Fernandez, Director of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department - a guy who's job it is to be nice to Muslims:
"Oh come on, the 'Lebanese Resistance', if I may use that term sarcastically, didn't know the Shebaa Farms was occupied until the Syrians told them so. That is just ridiculous."
It's almost like Michael Young, opinion editor at the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and apparent Slate contributor, will write anything - no matter how illogical or untenable - to subtly and not so subtly scapegoat Israel.
And what of Hezbollah's anchors in Lebanese society? For over a decade, the armed group used its militancy against Israel, Syria's backing, intimidation, and Shiite support to protect its independence and prerogatives. This now lies in tatters. Much has been made of two polls recently released in Beirut, claiming that more than 80 percent of Lebanese citizens support Hezbollah's resistance against Israel. These results are simply not borne out by facts on the ground. Anecdotally, while there may be hostility to Israel in many quarters, there is no noticeable backing among Christians, Sunni Muslims, or Druze for what Hezbollah has done. If anything, hostility is being expressed with greater boldness.
We congratulate the professional media on their multiple layers of editors. Now if they can just hire some high school students who've taken intro-level statistics classes, they'd be well on their way to not being a decaying caricature of head-in-the-sand, Arab-publics-don't-really-want-war-with-Israel fantasizing. How absurd will the media get in their attempts to pretend that Israeli self-defense is preventing the blossoming of love and support from the Arab world? For clarity, the passage is "two polls recently released in Beirut [show] that more than 80 percent of Lebanese citizens support Hezbollah... Anecdotally... there is no noticeable backing". If we can drop whatever thin pretense of subtlty we might have left: that is a mind-bogglingly stupid thing for a reasonably educated grown-up to write. Anybody who knows the word "anecdotally" should be smart enough never to write a passage like that.
As to the idea of "Hezbollah's resistance against Israel", we again quote Alberto Fernandez, Director of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department - a guy who's job it is to be nice to Muslims:
"Oh come on, the 'Lebanese Resistance', if I may use that term sarcastically, didn't know the Shebaa Farms was occupied until the Syrians told them so. That is just ridiculous."
It's almost like Michael Young, opinion editor at the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and apparent Slate contributor, will write anything - no matter how illogical or untenable - to subtly and not so subtly scapegoat Israel.
