TERRORISM AND CANCER

John Quiggen at Crooked Timber:

I just received an email drawing the (far from original) comparison between terrorism and cancer. It struck me that, to make this metaphor exact we’d need

-attacks on cancer researchers for seeking to ‘understand’ cancer

-even more attacks on anyone trying to find ‘root causes’ for cancer in the environment, such as exposure to tobacco smoke

-lengthy pieces pointing out that the only thing we need to know about cancer cells is that they are malignant

-more lengthy pieces pointing out that criticism of any kind of quack remedy marks the critic as “objectively pro-cancer”

Indeed. We'd also need one or more historians to explain how a certain rash that was going around in the 5th century BC has so much to teach about this cancer.