Rogueish

The kinds of things John Yoo advocated are absolutely dispicable and inhuman — but when you then think of John Yoo as a person, who presumably has his own needs and desires and loves his family, etc., suddenly appelations like “war criminal” and “worthy of death” seem somehow disproportionate.

Why should people engaged in public debate be able to abuse their status as particular human beings like this? It’s precisely these spurious appeals to our shared humanity that keep us from having a viable public sphere.