Dissident Veteran For Peace: The Pochoda/SwU-M Hate Speech Challenge

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Pochoda/SwU-M Hate Speech Challenge

UM Press Director Phil Pochoda has said of Joel Kovel's book Overcoming Zionism that "the issue raised by the book is not free speech but hate speech" and StandWithUs-Michigan (SwU-M) has affirmed this reading. So, here's the challenge: Do any of the folks behind these claims have the integrity to put their money where their mouths are? Show my readers up to three examples of your own choosing of "hate speech" in Kovel's book (fifty words or less each and with page numbers) and I will publish them here on this blog unedited for anyone to read. Any examples beyond three I will consider publishing but, hey, you can always publish them yourselves. I predict a definite no-show by Pochoda and although they're reading this blog I also predict a no-show by SwU-M. Accusations are cheap and integrity is rare. E-mails will be sent to Pochoda and SwU-M regarding this challenge.

Labels: censorship, hasbara, thoughtcrime, Zionism