Deconstructing The “Hate America” Reasoning Of Liberals Like Ward Churchill

If someone tried to apply this sort of reasoning to left wingers or people they support, they’d call it fascism:

“Controversial professor Ward Churchill says the United States is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, because of its support for Israel and the sanctions against Iraq.

According to the New York Sun, Churchill, an ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado, gave a two-hour speech at New York City’s New School on Monday night. In the speech, titled “Sterilizing History: The Fabrication of Innocent Americans,” Churchill said America essentially was asking for the 9/11 attacks because of a historical pattern of mass murder.”

First of all, let’s momentarily set aside Churchill’s “Blame America first, America is the root of all evil, I hate America,” shtick because it’s not unusual to hear that sort of rhetoric from liberals.

Instead, let’s focus on his reasoning. According to Churchill, America is responsible for the 9/11 attacks because this is a bad country that does bad things. And because America is evil, people hate us, and therefore we deserve whatever happens to us.

Moreover, let’s take things a step further. Al-Qaeda, the group that attacked us, isn’t a Palestinian group, nor were they based out of Iraq. Additionally, Churchill doesn’t try to justify Al-Qaeda’s attack on us because we were a threat to Al-Qaeda or to Afghanistan, where they were based at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

Again, it’s simply, “America is evil, people hate us, and therefore we deserve whatever happens to us.”

Ok, so let’s try applying that same reasoning to other people and nations.

Let’s say someone calls Ward Churchill evil and hates him, because he hates America. Does that mean that it’s OK for them to encourage people to, let’s say, work him over with a lead pipe? Let’s say the Israelis, quite understandably, hate the Palestinians and call them evil because of their suicide bombings. Does that mean it’s OK for them to simply massacre every Palestinian they run across on the street?

We can be sure that Churchill would strongly disapprove of any assaults on his person or assaults on the Palestinians even though, using the same reasoning that he applied to the 9/11 attacks, they’d be justified. Why is that?

Because Churchill’s “reasoning,” such as it is, only works if you agree with his underlying assumption: that America deserves whatever it gets just by virtue of being America. It’s no different than the attitude the average person takes towards a cockroach. Any excuse to kill a cockroach will do because it’s a cockroach. In the Chomskyian/Churchillian world view, America is the root of evil and any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to kill an American will do.

So, take away the hate for America and the “reasoning” collapses.

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