Additional Ick

EVIL. There, just say it.

By jameslileks

November 16, 2015 — 12:46pm

As you've heard, no doubt: "A Burnsville DFLer's campaign for the state House abruptly ended Sunday morning within hours of him posting on social media that ISIS 'isn't necessarily evil'." Dan Kimmel subsequently announced "he was dropping out of the race 'to remove the ick' from his party."

Let's just examine the Ick a bit more. He tweeted:

"ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though."

On his website he says it was poorly worded, and you can't disagree with that. In an interview with this paper, he said it was "not as interpreted as I intended," and that it was "so badly misinterpreted." That can be different from being poorly worded, and suggests that the statements made were subject to interpretation. They aren't. It would help if his apology had made it clear he thinks ISIS is evil. It doesn't.

That said, you have to wonder: what in heavens makes someone write that, look at it, and hit the TWEET button? If I had to guess, I'd say it was someone attempting to condemn while anticipating critical responses. No doubt some people who would bristle at the "evil" appellation, and say "well, you have to consider, they're responding to X or Y or Z, and some of their social outreach programs have provided good, steady employment for gravediggers" or some such nonsense. You get a sense of this preemptive cringe on his apology page, which says "I condemn the attacks, as I condemn all violence." Because someone might say "well, you condemned the Paris attack, sure, but what about this violence over here?" And then you're spending the rest of the day performing piecemeal condemnation.

I think he just felt uncomfortable with the E word.

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