"Say What You Will About the Tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at Least it's an Ethos"

You thought we were tough on Brian Morelli's Carl-Monday-esque look at Facebook. From last Wednesday's Press-Citizen letters to the editor:

The article on football players' facebook pages was interesting ("Alcohol abundant on players' sites," Aug. 23), in its association of disgusting misogyny with alcohol abuse, and in how it provided a springboard to change the subject midstream, and hype the 21-ordinance. Hopefully it's coincidental that it seemed such a masterful use of the propaganda tactic of demonization by association, in tying such vile comments to underage drinking.

Iowa City is above such tactics, even if its media isn't. Propagandists like Joseph Goebbels would approve, but it doesn't address the issues, and is quite divisive.

See how it works? I associated you with the Nazi propagandist, just because you used a Nazi tactic. It's similarly unfair to associate underage drinkers with misogyny. Alcohol may bring vile behavior into play, but only in vile people. The vast majority doesn't exhibit such behavior. Your Neo-Prohibitionist friends resort to such tactics, but you'd be wise to refrain.

Some friendly advice: Knock it off. You may not be better than this, but we are.

We may have been mean to Morelli. We may have exposed the hypocrisy in his own Facebook profile. We may have even let our readers advocate spamming him back into the stone age. But you have to hand it to us: We didn't call him a Nazi.

(Props to 'Cuse blogger Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, who is obviously reading our local papers more closely than me.)