Political Profiling

Why is it that Jewish names keep on cropping up in stories about Venezuela? On the morrow of Chavez’s defeat, some US mudia (CNN or Fox or who knows) was interviewing the opposition for their pronouncements on the state of Venezuela. Both persons were Jewish (one evidently an entrepreneur). They could not find people with Hispanic names to quote? Then I read the following in a leftist take by by Gaël Brustier in Rue89

“ This electoral demonstration embarrasses those who profess an unshakable faith in a neo-conservative vision of the world.

“ The "neo-cons" have, in fact, the air of a discomfited Savonarola. According to them, there can be no critical support for Chavez, whom they don't hesitate to compare to and amalgamate with Ahmadinejad (on the basis of the industrial agreements signed between Iran and Venezuela), "explaining" this way that Chavez is anti-Semitic (consequently Nazi). By this means, anyone who supports the Venezuelan Left or criticizes American hyperpower becomes a Nazi who more or less acknowledges the same....

“This Manichean vision of the world professed by former leftists who have turned right (André Glucksmann in France, to name one), whose verbal violence leaves one stunned, must replace analysis and criticism. “

It’s interesting that others are making the connection, howsoever obliquely it may be stated. At the same time, it worth remembering that all profiling is both useful and easily abused. In detecting "conspiracies" one has to tread a fine line between actually shared traits and accidental properties.

©WCG, 2007