Duck Soup

Recently, I posted in this blog about RINOs, the alleged Republicans In Name Only; that is, GOPers who haven’t swallowed the Trumpian Kool-Aid. (1) Apparently there are other INOs roaming the wilds of America, for I learned the other day of a tribe of JINOs—Jews In Name Only. They were discovered in the jungle of American politics by Ben Shapiro, described as “a conservative commentator and columnist.” (2) These JINOs are Jews who performed an unkosher act: They voted for Barack Obama. (I assume that Shapiro proclaimed his excommunication of thousands of once fellow Yids after consulting holy texts at the Jared Kushner School of Talmudic Studies.) Now, considering the fact that in 2008 79% of Jewish voters cast a ballot for Obama, (3) it does seem to be a bit presumptuous for Shapiro to declare that his rump group of Hebrews are the true bearers of the flame. In any case, how can a religious declaration be determined by a political test? 

As I pointed out in the earlier post cited above, this INO business is akin to the No-True-Scotsman fallacy. (In Shapiro’s case I guess we can call it the No-True-Yid fallacy.) 

This fallacy is an attempt to maintain the fiction of the purity of one’s cohort. Slice away the murderous Glaswegian from the group—and, voila, “true” Scotland remains pure. 

What may be considered a cousin of the NTS fallacy is the number-one defensive claim issued by those whose actions or words have been condemned as racist, sexist, misogynistic, etc.: “That’s not who I am/who we are.” Well, all I can say is, if that wasn’t you who said/did that, then you must be hosting a dybbuk that speaks or acts separate from your own will. (That is in opposition to the dictum that says, “If it looks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck—it’s a duck!”) 

One of the more recent examples of this NTS cousin was encountered in the case of country singer Morgan Wallen, who was accused of using a racial slur in a video. (4) Two country artists, Kelsea Ballerini and Cassadee Pope, came to the defense not of Wallen, but of country music, claiming that Wallen “does not represent” it. However, Andrea Williams, a Black journalist and author based in Nashville, disputed that defense of the country music scene:

That’s more hurtful than people who didn’t say anything because you’re diminishing the very real experiences of people who know for a fact this is actually indicative of the way this entire industry works.

In other words, it is what it is. It quacks like a duck.

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(1)   https://drnormalvision.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-brink-of-extinction.html

(2)   https://news.yahoo.com/capitol-riot-revealed-political-chasm-174301809.html

(3)  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections

(4)  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/arts/music/country-music-racism-social-media.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage