# Ward Churchill: "intellectual martyr" is not a synonym for "fucking douche-tard" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 1, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798 "2005-02-01T16:58:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/1 "2005-02-01T16:58:10Z")
[This](http://www.darknightpress.org/index.php?i=news&c=recent&view=9&long=1) is the September 2001 piece that got [Ward Churchill](http://www.colorado.edu/EthnicStudies/faculty/w_churchill.html) , Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies, into trouble more than three years later, particularly this claim made about the victims in the twin towers (and keep it mind, when this was written they were still removing bodies): > [@](#): > > As to those in the World Trade Center . . . Well, really. Let’s get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire – the “mighty engine of profit” to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly… [T]hey were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it. The shit has hit the rotary over this (three years later) and he has had to resign as chair of his department and become a lowly professor instead. He swears that his reference to the Twin Tower victims as “Eichmanns” was taken out of context (he’s referring after all not to Adolf Eichmann but instead to his cousin, Millie Eichmann, the well known humanitarian who ran a home for blind kittens and healed orphan children with her kiss). And what pisses me off- he’s being hailed by leftists as an intellectual martyr for “daring to exercise free speech” and as a victim of censorship. PEOPLE: being made to take accountability for your actions is NOT censorship! Censorship is when you are denied permission to express controversial views at all- this is just a stupid arrogant fucktard who wants to shoot his mouth off (causing pain to the families of the victims of terrorist murderers) without having to defend his statements. He was totally allowed to express his opinions, and the media was totally within their rights to spread it, and other people were totally within their ritghts to say “That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve read about 9-11 and btw get a haircut you hippie freak the 60s are as dead as those hijackers you love so much” and being made to take a demotion (where he’ll make more money than other professors in his department) is not the same as being arrested and moved to a reeducation camp in Alaska. (I’m in a rush or I’d have some links, but GOOGLE NEWS for Ward Churchill will take you there.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/2 "2005-02-01T17:24:33Z")
Man, Churchill’s a piece of work. I became interested in radical Amerindian politics when I was in high school, and even I had trouble defending the man. Never heard this one, though. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/3 "2005-02-01T17:28:30Z")
Couldn’t happen to a ‘nicer’ man! ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/4 "2005-02-01T17:33:39Z")
As a leftist of sorts, I would like to state that Mr. Churchill is not an intellectual martyr, merely a common, or garden-variety, jerk. [Here’s a link.](http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2685148,00.html) I honestly don’t remember if the Denver Post requires registration. Someone let me know? ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/5 "2005-02-01T17:41:14Z")
Wow. Does anything scream “exaggerated sense of self-importance” than posing for your faculty picture wearing sunglasses? Unless the man is blind or something, of course. I can totally get behind the struggle for Amerindian liberation. I can totally understand the anger. But shit man, you are sucking at the public tit! Those “little Eichmanns” braying into their phones are the reason you get to hang out in your ivory tower! The majority of them are just trying to get over. It is unfortunate, I agree, that they choose to work so closely with the machinations of profit, but how else will they keep up with the Joneses and afford their brownstones or Jersey homes and all that other shit? They want that stuff, they believe in that stuff, and it’s their right to do so. So don’t bite the hand that feeds you quite so hyperbolically, you, you, douche-tard. What a great insult. Douche-tard. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/6 "2005-02-01T18:07:07Z")
He’s a troll. His trolling does disservice to the substantive points of his arguments/theses (to the extent that he has any substantive points). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/7 "2005-02-01T18:15:42Z")
If Churchill really believes his own analysis about the 9/11 victims, he is an ass. But if he is saying that _the reason for the attacks is that others believe this, he may have a point._ [Today’s New York Times article](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/nyregion/01hamilton.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1107281882-H3bU73Z6lUP9o+1SC+aKbg) (might require registration, I don’t know) ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/8 "2005-02-01T18:16:21Z")
Come on people. This is all just a misunderstanding. Posted by the guy who looks like a long haired mummified Bruce Campbell and who is clearly to smart and cool for all of us. > [@](#): > > “I have never characterized all the Sept. 11 victims as Nazis. What I said was that the ‘technocrats of empire’ working in the World Trade Center were the equivalent of ‘little Eichmanns.’ Thus, it was **obviously** not directed to the children, janitors, food-service workers, firemen and random passers-by killed in the 9-1-1 attack,” Churchill said. Yup, just a plain ole misunderstanding. In fact, the whole essay is nothing but praise for America. It’s all so obvious. :dubious: Meh, another moron mistaking freedom of speech with being a loud mouthed idiot. Shame he wasn’t fired outright, or fired right out…of a cannon. Then we’d be shooting his mouth off. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/9 "2005-02-01T22:29:38Z")
As someone **named** Eichman, should I take offense at this? What a dickwad. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/10 "2005-02-01T23:06:58Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > As someone **named** Eichman, should I take offense at this? Depends. How tall are you? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/11 "2005-02-01T23:13:55Z")
Wow, reason #3,217 why I’m glad I moved far away from the People’s Republic of Boulder. It’s a great town to live in, if you’re rich and batshit insane. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/12 "2005-02-01T23:41:11Z")
You can be a professor and chair of your department now with just an M.A.? Man, I got out of academia too soon. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/13 "2005-02-01T23:46:21Z")
As someone in the left of American politics, I say the dude’s no martyr or prophet. He’s just fucking full of himself. Even his damn explanation is fucking full of himself. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/14 "2005-02-02T00:01:40Z")
The guy does make a valid point though. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/15 "2005-02-02T00:06:48Z")
And what point would that be? ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/16 "2005-02-02T00:13:22Z")
That America can’t just do whatever the fuck it wants and expect that nothing bad is going to happen to us. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/17 "2005-02-02T00:27:17Z")
Can you really argue with this? > [@Ward Churchill](#): > > Looking back, it will seem to future generations inexplicable why Americans were unable on their own, and in time to save themselves, to accept a rule of nature so basic that it could be mouthed by an actor, Lawrence Fishburn, in a movie, The Cotton Club. > > "You’ve got to learn, " the line went, “that when you push people around, some people push back.” ---
**Author:** ![Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Age_Quod_Agis)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/18 "2005-02-02T00:31:23Z")
“Do whatever it wants” like … work, or talk on cell phones? From his “article” as quoted in the NY Times article linked earlier in the thread: > [@](#): > > “They were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cellphones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants,” he wrote, referring to American sanctions on Iraq. > > “If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it,” he added. Yeah, his point was _totally_ that US foreign policy stinks. Never mind that the sanctions he was railing against were _UN_ sanctions, and not US sanctions. All rich Americans deserve to die for those sanctions. “\*\*raying, incessantly and self-importantly … conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance [of the dead]” indeed. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/19 "2005-02-02T00:43:12Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > That America can’t just do whatever the fuck it wants and expect that nothing bad is going to happen to us. Then you accept that the terrorist attacks were directly related to Iraq? As to his money quote: “If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it.” How’d that work out for the attackers? Yeah, he’s got a point alright. I suspect we’d differ as to what it is. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798/20 "2005-02-02T00:49:17Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > The guy does make a valid point though. See my post above about how his trolling obscures that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ward-churchill-intellectual-martyr-is-not-a-synonym-for-fucking-douche-tard/287798.md?page=2)