Bleat point

Lileks makes a good point about criticizing people:

This story about the Iranian president’s Mahdi complex gave me pause; the man is not good for children and other living things, as the poorly lettered poster used to say. What made me depressed, in an instant, was knowing exactly how this would be received on, say, a Fark forum: it would take about three comments before someone compared his messianic religiosity to Bush’s, and did so either to make them equal or disparage Bush as the greater threat....
I understand why some on the left loathe Bush; what I do not understand is why this is so often coupled with a reflexive desire to downplay the words and deeds of people like Ahmadinejad. It’s as if they fear that admitting the threat he poses means that the case for HATING BUSH 24/7 will be weakened, and there’s no possible way to justify such a thing.

[...]

Said the pretentious internet scribbler who has spent his day writing about forties lampshades and twenties cartoons. Okay, got me.