Atrios contra Cohen

The WaPost's Richard Cohen is taking a lot of deserved heat in Left Blogistan ever since he wrote a couple of dimwitted columns, first attacking Stephen Colbert as a "bully," and then whining when he got thousands of critical responses. Cohen's argument was lame: it is Orwellian to suggest that the "bully" is the guy who stands up alone in a hostile room full of incredibly powerful people and mocks their hypocrisy and deceit. Real bullies puff out their chests and talk big when, surrounded by like-minded friends, they confront a weak and lonely dissenter. George Bush and Bill O'Reilly fit that bill; Colbert does not.

Still, Atrios goes overboard with his expose of Cohen's past sins against liberal good sense ("Richard Cohen's Greatest Hits"). The old columns he cites today, one about how liberals often improperly attribute white apprehension of blacks to "racism," rather than a justifiable fear of prevalent black crime, and a second where Cohen raises doubts about the universal innocence of women in sexual harassment situations, strike me as pretty reasonable. Racism and sexism certainly exist, but let's not pretend that these things are all, forgive the phrase, "black and white." Being oppressed does not make one, ipso facto, morally superior. Victim chic may be particularly prominent on the right wing these days, but it has also had its heyday on the left, one that I might add was deadly for liberal politics. Cohen may be an ass, but he wasn't wrong on this one.