I’ve a proposal to make: what if, instead of employing the Chomsky “but” whenever something terrible is visited on us, we tried saying “and” instead? Not just for the fun of it but to make the world a better, bigger, more inclusive space. “But” shrinks and grudges; “and” amplifies and allows.

Let me remind you how the Chomsky “but” operates. “The attack on the Twin Towers was an atrocity,” you concede, “‘but’…” And here you insert whichever qualifier takes your fancy. “The attack on the Twin Towers was an atrocity, ‘but’ Americans are committing atrocities all the time.” “The attack on the Twin Towers was an atrocity, ‘but’ George Bush is a shit.” Or, how about, “Gunning down the staff of Charlie Hebdo was an atrocity, ‘but’ Israel kills journalists in Gaza.” Would anyone say that? Unless I dreamt it, Noam Chomsky just has.

So now change his “but” to “and” and see what happens. Take your time.

Salman Rushdie, meanwhile, has been doing sterling work on American television and in the American press fingering the “butters”. The “But Brigade”, he felicitously calls them. As someone who has been a victim of ideologically organised “butting” himself, he knows whereof he speaks. “No, we cannot tolerate fatwas on writers, ‘but’ he did insult the Prophet, and you wouldn’t like it if he’d insulted Jesus or Moses.” Which is disingenuous since most of us wouldn’t mind at all.

Chomsky himself has “butted” vociferously over the years about the fatwa imposed on Rushdie, noting that Western intellectuals were up in arms in favour of Rushdie “but” had nothing to say when it came to the imprisoning of Holocaust deniers. A selective truth, since many Western intellectuals have opposed the imprisoning of Holocaust deniers, believing it to be a more effective punishment to leave them wandering round what’s left of Auschwitz and Buchenwald with their rulers and log tables for all eternity. Besides which, the fate of a Holocaust denier touches us less deeply than that of a novelist threatened with assassination, if for no other reason than that a novelist adds to the world’s stock of knowledge, while a Holocaust denier detracts from it. All life is precious, but we mourn less when a skunk dies than when a tiger does.

The equivalising of what’s not equivalent is dear to the hearts of the “But Brigadiers”, who claim a purity of principle themselves, unlike the rest of us, who hypocritically defend one man’s rights and not another’s. There are two answers to such puritanism. The first is Leonard Cohen’s: there’s a crack, a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in. Avenging angels might be consistent but humans aren’t. “Everything unconditional belongs in pathology,” Nietzsche wrote, agreeing with Leonard Cohen. Only the pathological believe themselves free from those venial irregularities that make us favour novelists over deniers, tigers over skunks, even though as abstract causes they can be made to appear the same.

The second answer is that the pathological are themselves no better in practice. What principle of pure truth guides Chomsky when he equivalises a journalist killed in crossfire in Gaza with the cartoonists mowed down with malice aforethought in Paris? And while he wants us to see a parity in these deaths, the fervency of his reasoning declares him to be more outraged by those in Gaza.

Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Show all 15 1 /15 Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo The latest edition of Charlie Hebdo magazine, featuring a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed on the front cover Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo The first edition of Charlie Hebdo after 12 people were massacred at its offices AFP/Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo A woman reads the first edition of Charlie Hebdo after 12 people were massacred at its offices AFP/Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo As people march in Paris and the Arc de Triomphe displays the slogan 'Paris is Charlie', the tomb of the unknown soldier says "I have an erection!" AFP/Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo A cartoon showing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions carving up the world, mirroring the post-war Yalta Conference between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. The Catholic figure says he will guard the West and directs the Jewish figure to guard the East. AFP/Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo What future for our jihadists? 'Security guard at Carrefour?' AFP/Getty Images Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo A man pays for his new Charlie Hebdo edition at a newsstand in Paris Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo People browse a newsstand advertising "We don't have any more Charlie Hebdo". Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the paper Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo People wait to buy the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo newspaper at a newsstand in Rennes Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo People wait outside a newsagents in Paris Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo A sign which translates as "Charlie Hebdo - Sold Out - Next deliveries on Thursday, Friday and Saturday" is displayed at a newsagents in Strasbourg Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo The depiction of the Prophet Mohamed on the front cover has offended many Muslims AP Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo People wait outside a newsagents in Dunkirk for a copy of the magazine AFP Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo Members of the public queue at a newspaper kiosk, where copies of the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo magazine are being sold in Paris Getty Charlie Hebdo: The first edition since the Paris massacre Charlie Hebdo The new edition of Charlie Hebdo is prepared for delivery at a press distribution center in the suburb of Marne La Valle in Paris

So how are you getting on substituting “and” for “but”? Jihadists shouldn’t kill journalists in Paris. And Israelis shouldn’t kill journalists in Gaza. Doesn’t cut the mustard, does it? The reason being – leaving aside the preposterousness of analogising massacre and mishap – that it removes the idea of consequence. The “but” that was deemed so necessary after 9/11 – that great “but” from which all the lesser “buts” have sprung – was the “but” of extenuation. It was the first, grammatical step in shifting blame from perpetrator to victim. Not only, on the back of that “but”, was America reminded that others had suffered, that America was instrumental in that suffering, and that America could therefore be said to bear a share of responsibility for what happened, the “butters” finally came within a whisker of condoning the act of terrorism itself.

And so it has been these past few shameful weeks with the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Little by little, day by day, the “But Brigade” has turned its monosyllabic screw until the cartoonists become complicit in their own demise and their murder appals us a little less. Yes the requisite noises are made – free speech non-negotiable blah blah – but the “butters” are quick to invoke instances where we do negotiate it: anti-Semites removed from their positions, for example, anti-Semites not allowed to speak what’s on their minds. Funny how it’s always the freedom to be an anti-Semite the “But Brigade” protects. And finally, in justification of murder, the issue of provocation is wheeled out, though the concept of “asking for it” would not be entertained for a second if the crime were rape.