Nov 21, 2005

The taken-out-of-context dodge

The latest to use the dodge is one John Daly, an adjunct instructor at a community college, who responded to an email about a talk on the Iraq war by attacking the student who organized the event.
[H]e said that he would ask students to boycott the lecture, and that “real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors and fight for just causes and for people’s needs.”

Daly also criticized Beach’s leadership of a campus chapter of Young America’s Foundation, saying: “I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like yours won’t dare show their face on a college campus.”
Daly, now faced with losing his job, is furiously backpedaling.
Daly said he stood by the e-mail message, but that it was being taken out of context. He said that the comment about soldiers turning their guns on their superiors was meant “in the most metaphoric sense.” Also, he said that because Beach was never one of his students and had sent the e-mail message from her personal e-mail account, he thought she was a Young America’s Foundation organizer, and replied with that in mind. Daly said that if he had known he was writing to a freshman, he would not have changed the political ideas of his note, but would have used a different tone.

Ahh! Metaphorically shooting officers is OK.

Occasionally, someone's remarks are taken out of context, whether by design or accidentally, and the speaker's words are twisted so as to convey the polar opposite of what he meant. More often, though, the out-of-context dodge is used when a speaker lets slip a remark that would be unacceptable no matter the context.

That's how Jesse Jackson tried to explain away his "Hymietown" remark. George Galloway claimed his fawning tributes to Saddam were taken out of context. Trent Lott likewise used the out-of-context denfense to explain away his nostalgic yearning for a Strom Thurmand presidency.

I'd say Daly's remarks belong in that class. He should have just said he misspoke.

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