CALCULATED OBTUSENESS. As it happens, I have some experience with calculated obtuseness as a political and rhetorical tactic. You can see in that episode all the characteristic charlatan's tricks now being applied to John Kerry's unartful attempt at humor. You can see the Deliberate Missing Of The Point, and you can even see the Knuckling The People Who Actually Do Get The Point, of which John Derbyshire currently seems to be the victim over on The Corner, and you can see how Willful Ignorance can become Accepted Wisdom. My point is that, despite the fact that handing John Kerry a joke is a mistake of roughly the same magnitude as handing me the controls of the Space Shuttle, this technique can be applied to almost anything said by almost anyone you wish to attack, given sufficient volume and bandwidth. There is almost nothing that can be done about the first two elements, but Willful Ignorance can be stopped before it becomes Accepted Wisdom if only the people in my business do their jobs properly.
--Charles P. Pierce
