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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

My last post on strawmen and dishonesty (ok, so probably not)

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Sep 4 2008, 1:30 PM ET Comment

Basically, it seems fine these days to argue against what you wish your opponents were saying, as opposed to what taking the time to counter what they actually are saying. Weak-sauce. Get over it you say? Fine, we expect from party apparatchiks, but from actual journalists, come on:

Derided by her critics as someone who comes from a town of fewer than 10,000 people, she went after Obama for his famous "bitter" comment about small-town residents, made at a San Francisco fundraiser.
Who are these critics? Obama has been derided "by his critics" for being black, but I didn't know he was supposed to be having an argument with Stormfront. Come on. That is just fucking lazy.



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