don't be an idiot

It's funny how the red hot lefties of yore have taken to querulous support for gramnmar schools just when the old line conservatives are getting up on the stump and shouting for civil liberty. Simon Jenkins today:

The truth is that those who want to subvert freedom can always rely on “useful idiots”, a phrase Lenin is said to have used of liberal apologists for extremists (but never did). Modern terrorism neatly inverts this attribution. It relies on “useful idiots” of the right to exploit any terrorist incident to foment xenophobia, suspend civil liberties and seek revenge from any ethnic group vaguely linked to the incident.

So if you happen to be in and around London tomorrow, don’t be an idiot.

Comments

[dearieme]

' “useful idiots”, a phrase Lenin is said to have used of liberal apologists for extremists (but never did).' Of course, Jenkins can't possibly know whether Lenin used it or not. He didn't use it in writing, and no-one has found, for example, contemporary diaries recording its use, but he might have said it nonetheless. It's consistent with his attitudes. Perhaps we should accept that it's part of the Hadith of Lenin? In contrast, you'd bet against Wellington's having made the remark about the playing fields of Eton, because it's inconsistent with his attitudes.