As a matter of pure coincidence, last month I wrote two very different pieces about good intentions and complicity with evil.
The first, appearing at the Hooded Utilitarian, focuses on Watchmen, Fail-Safe, and Eichmann in Jerusalem. It prompted a response from Ng Suat Tong.
The other essay concerned a local controversy about an FBI trainer who got involved in the civil-disobedience wing of the environmental movement, and somehow got his feelings hurt when people decided he was unwelcome there. You can watch the whole Vahid Brown saga unfold in four parts:
Part One: The Committee Against Political Repression (of which I am a member) published a brief blog post warning people about Brown’s background, with links to the evidentiary documents.
Part Two: Vice accuses CAPR of running a “witch hunt” (and quotes me).
Part Three: Willamette Week tries to have it both ways, saying that activists are right to be “paranoid” but wrong about Brown.
Part Four: I wrote an article for the Seattle Free Press, responding to CAPR’s critics and trying to clarify why it’s a mistake to try to liberalize the FBI by providing them information about the people they’re persecuting.
Of my two articles, I prefer the one about superheroes.