Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

There Are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

Clock-truther Rod Dreher backs up his crazy by using his son.
One of those teenagers [upset about Ahmed Mohammad] is my electronics geek son, who was initially furious over what happened to Ahmed, but now thinks Ahmed is a plagiarizing little punk. My son said to me last night, wearing his MIT t-shirt, “I’m actually inventing things, but this kid is getting all the intention for something he didn’t even invent. This is really disappointing.”
Dreher's son supported Ahmed at first, identifying with the other boy's love of electronics. Then something happened to change his mind. That something is almost certainly dear old Dad. It might be that Dreher is passing on his sense of entitlement and bottomless resentments as well as his bigotry.
You know what’s interesting about the Talbot part of that story? That here’s a scientist offering an analysis that debunks what might be a tall tale, but the Social Justice Warriors want to shut him up because his analysis might disprove the initial narrative. I jumped to conclusions about Ahmed’s clock the first time, so I’m not going to do it now.
Dreher immediately goes on to jump to conclusions. Dreher always makes observations that he then ignores. It's incredible. He can see a problem and see the effect of that problem but invariably goes on to embrace the problematic action.
But what these geeks show us makes the entire episode look very fishy. The early Ahmed Truthers on this blog who suspected the kid was put up to this stunt by his attention-seeking gadfly of a father might have been on to something. Whatever the truth is, it seems at least likely that Ahmed did not “invent” anything. That may not justify the overreaction of school officials and the Irving police, but it’s worth seriously considering, if Ahmed did, in fact, plagiarize this device, whether or not he was trying to provoke exactly this kind of overreaction. Somebody needs to get to the bottom of this — or has the story become too useful for the White House and others who rushed to Ahmed’s defense to discredit?
If you looked up "attention-seeking gadfly" in the dictionary you would find a picture of Dreher.


ADDED: A commenter warns Rod to avoid emotional reactions:

We need Conservatives to be cool, calm, and collected, especially our best thinkers – so as to offer the perfect opposite of the prevailing sentiment. I understand this must be difficult in blog format where one is expected to opine on the day’s cultural news. I am thinking here, too, of the immature reaction from a lot of the Right around the early stages of information flow regarding the Trayvon and Michael Brown incidents.

We need you, Rod…and we need you to be penetrating!

Yes, conservatives need a penetrating Rod.

10 comments:

Warren Po said...

So he deserved to be locked up for plagiarism?

Susan of Texas said...

Dreher is making a career of warning that Christians are being persecuted and frequently warns his readers of Muslim encroachments. He may or may not want to see Ahmed locked up for plagiarism. He definitely wants to sell books and book speeches in which he warns Christians that they are being persecuted.

Kathy said...

We need Conservatives to be cool, calm, and collected, especially our best thinkers...

Dreher is a Best Thinker?

Susan of Texas said...

Maybe they meant to type "drinker." He does love his wine.

mew said...

Dreher's son thinks that Ahmed is plagiarizing the guy who invented the clock?

mccamj said...

I was over at Powerline. The party line there is that Ahmed didn't make anything. Basically, he took an electronic clock out of its casing and brought it to school.

Fine. I don't see anything anywhere to substantiate that. But should he have been arrested for that?

These people are so full of hate they can't even make sense.

Susan of Texas said...

They are livid that instead of a Muslim kid being, basically, terrorized, he is praised and rewarded. The boy looks clever and cool, the frightened teachers and administrators look dumb, and the cops look like bullies. It's driving them nuts.

So they say the kid isn't really cool and clever; he "plagiarized" a clock. The teachers weren't cowards; the clock parts in a pencil case looked like a bomb. The cops weren't bullies, they were protecting kids from a potential Columbine-type situation. The was no Islamophobia; the left is pandering to Muslims.

In the old days they would have called liberals n--lovers and lynched the boy and burned something down. Now they flood twitter and cheer the most fascist candidate they can find. It's almost progress.

Susan of Texas said...

Going by Dreher's book, I believe he forced his son to completely change his mind about Ahmad and stoked resentments and anger as well. Kids will do anything for parents' approval and Rod is crammed to the top with resentment that his dad thought he was effete and useless. It is pretty certain he is doing some version of the same to his kids.

Anonymous said...

So, I'm confused - if you wear an MIT t-shirt, you have credibility and standing to discuss the spirit of invention and whether tinkering is truly innovative? Does a Cal Tech t-shirt work just as well? I've got a Wilco t-shirt on now, so I'm thinking I could do a bit of songwriting in a retro vein.

Sorry for the Anonymous - can't sign in appropriately for some reason.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that really bothered me that Dreher turned his son around to resentment of the other kid. Never to early to get your kid steeped in white-guy privelege and resentment when "those people" get anything that should go to the white guys. I look forward to more observations on the book.