Nicholas Danforth

I greatly dislike Max Blumenthal because he is an apologist for Assad, but I think the idea that Iraqi perspectives on the Middle East are above reproach is silly. I wish more people had challenged Makiya and Chalabi, for instance

I don't think anyone is suggesting that the views of Iraqis writing on foreign affairs shouldn't be challenged like anyone else's. But Blumenthal's point of view appears to be that if you are from a non-Western country, you must hold to a given radical left ideology.

So white trust fund kids are essentially less principled than say... Poor foreigners with a western education dying to find themselves a place within the Western hemisphere so they can get a job. I think that's a real shit argument.

The argument is that if your sole credentials are that as a result of being a trust fund baby with media connections via your father's legacy, and you've never worked a day of your life on these topics, don't denounce the actual experts and local knowledge as false.