Fish is Dead On

The season's most apposite critique of the bizarre game of feigned offense and denunciation demands that dominates much of US political discourse comes from none other than Stanley Fish. Commenting on the dead (for now) kerfuffle over Obama's Wright connection, the former don of English at Duke concludes:

The odd thing is that the press that produces these distractions and the populace that consumes them really believe they are discussing issues and participating in genuine political dialogue. But in fact they have abandoned genuine political dialogue and have committed themselves to a conversation that differs only in subject matter from conversations about Eliot Spitzer’s and David Paterson’s sex lives. It’s not politics; it’s titillation clothed in political garb.

We should collectively denounce and renounce denouncing and renouncing.

I would add that those who most obviosly benefit from this silliness are the Fourth Estate's more unfortunate members.