What's the point of being better than someone else?

That is [Edward Said] proposal as to how the term should be used. It surely does not describe those who are called "intellectuals" in standard usage, as he would be the first to agree.

State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome.

If you are not offending people who ought to be offended, you're doing something wrong.

Private sector unionization is down to practically seven percent. Meanwhile the public sector unions have kind of sustained themselves [even] under attack, but in the last few years, there's been a sharp [increase in the] attack on public sector unions, which Barack Obama has participated in, in fact. When you freeze salaries of federal workers, that's equivalent to taxing public sector people.

We still name our military helicopter gunships after victims of genocide. Nobody bats an eyelash about that: Blackhawk. Apache. And Comanche. If the Luftwaffe named its military helicopters Jew and Gypsy, I suppose people would notice.

Democracy, in any rational form, also imposes conditions on majority rule. That's what the Bill of Rights is about, for example.