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From Useful Idiot to Useful Infidel: Meditations on the Folly of 21st-Century “Intellectuals”

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  • Richard Landes

Abstract

Lenin allegedly referred to the thinkers and activists ready to cover up for his crimes against his own people as “useful idiots.” Today, some intellectuals sacrifice their integrity as intellectuals not for a professedly progressive egalitarian movement, but in order to protect radical Islam, one of the most regressive and authoritarian movements imaginable. This article refers to such people as “useful infidels,” showing how their excessive self-criticism is exploited by Islamists to incriminate the West in the evils of modernity. The result is a perversion of human rights discourse and a marriage of pre-modern sadism and post-modern masochism.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Landes, 2013. "From Useful Idiot to Useful Infidel: Meditations on the Folly of 21st-Century “Intellectuals”," Terrorism and Political Violence, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 621-634.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ftpvxx:v:25:y:2013:i:4:p:621-634
    DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2013.814504
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