Hanson should look in mirror before he sneers

Victor Davis Hanson’s piece in the July 3 Bee peddles his usual anti-liberal twaddle.

Political correctness – Hanson condemns it – is usually simple courtesy (though it can be overdone). I think of myself as a Mick – I’m Irish-American. But it annoyed the heck out of my uncle when I referred to our family as Micks.

I think of myself, and some groups of people as honkies, and I mean that as either a smart-aleck joke or an angry sneer. But it would be inappropriate for me to say to a conservative Caucasian, “You really are a dumb honky, aren’t you”?

Elitism is sometimes an ugly thing; but, though Hanson sneers at it, he himself is a member of an elite demographic – he has a Ph.D and (probably) an income well above average for Fresno.

I got my bachelor’s degree from Harvard, but I rarely mention that because to do so might make me sound snobbish. But I’m proud I went there, and I benefited from it.

Hanson, in this essay, is using overheated and oversimplified rhetoric to push his far-right agenda.

This story was originally published July 10, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Hanson should look in mirror before he sneers."