WHO IS JOHN PEELER?

My guess is John Peeler is an academic who excelled in grade school, college, and graduate school and continued on in a life in which he would be rewarded for sounding clever. This would explain his pseudo-scientific article entitled “Fascism: are we there yet?” It is obvious his sympathies are with the far-left and his article is a thinly veiled insult of anyone to his right (i.e., virtually everyone) disguised as a high-minded, impartial, pseudointellectual article. I suggest you read Marx’s “A World Without Jews” to see how one can use generalizations mixed with partial truths in order to justify one’s own hatred using pseudo-scientific sounding terms. Peeler ends his article by expressing “a willingness to acknowledge and respond to the real concerns of honest conservatives.” Isn’t it wonderful we live in a world where John Peeler has the magnanimousness to entertain the concerns of “honest conservatives.”

Joel Carlson, State College, PA





JOHN PEELER Responds: This intemperate letter exemplifies precisely what concerns me about elements of the American Right today: “how one can use generalizations mixed with partial truths in order to justify one’s own hatred using pseudo-scientific sounding terms.” A democratic society can thrive only if we can somehow oppose one another without disrespecting one another. Why is it so terrible that I express a willingness to listen to the real concerns of honest conservatives? Is that not a sign of respect which is being denied to me here?