10/10/2010
In the current climate, it was pretty brave of anyone to say anything nice about the late Joe Sobran, so I was impressed to see Ben Domenech’s obituary post on The New Ledger, even though it concluded with the usual "Weave a circle round him thrice/ And close your eyes with holy dread" wimpishness about Joe’s alleged anti-semitism.
And I thought it was really quite decent of Domenech to say:
I am sad about Joe Sobran. He was a brilliant fellow in some respects, but he lost himself to darker things. So, in much the same way I will be sad when Pat Buchanan inevitably passes, and Peter Brimelow, and yes, Andrew Sullivan … I am sad tonight for what this man could have been, and what he instead chose to be.
Thanks a lot, Ben! And the same to you! (Why Andrew Sullivan? Dunno, but I don’t move in fashionable circles up here in rural New England.)
The comment thread that follows this post says a lot about contemporary Righteous Right thought, or emotion. Of course, Domenech’s comments drew in Sobran defenders. And, of course, their comments were deleted ("cliche apologia for anti-Semitsm redacted") by "a moderator". I presume this moderator was a New Ledger editor called Christopher Badeaux because he then posted self-righteously:
Hi there. Just to save you the "cowards-you're-afraid-of-the-truth-hiding-behind-your-moderating-your-website-sucks-I’m-taking-my-ball-and-leaving" rant: We don’t care. We don’t provide free bandwidth for people who "speak needed truths" (and synonyms thereof) about the Jews. You know how it is. Let one dancing anti-Semite in, you end up with truthers, VDare transplants, and Little Green Footballs commenters.
(Why Little Green Footballs? Isn’t that Politically Correct too? Dunno again.) Despite the moderator’s self-serving control, the New Ledger’s readers obviously didn’t like this approach and were able to give it a good booting. At one point, a gifted poster called "Klejdys aka Gamblor" wrote:
Sorry, just saying "Pete Brimelow is a racist," doesn’t necessarily make it so. Please provide some evidence for your conclusion.
and Badeaux responded:
I don’t link to hate sites. You're welcome to explore VDare-dot-com at your convenience. I'd suggest being prepared to scrub your brain in lye afterward.
As it happens, what you would have scrub from your brain most recently was Ed Rubenstein’s analysis of Friday’s unemployment numbers, demonstrating from government data that immigrant displacement of American workers is reaching new highs. Manifestly, this is not "hate" and Christopher Badeaux is a fool.
At VDARE.COM, we don’t give a fig that opponents won’t link to us: in the age of the internet, and given the searchworthy subjects we cover, it’s a futile gesture. But my question to Badeaux: what’s the difference between refusing to link to an intellectually challenging website and the book-burning associated with You Know Who?
Sieg Heils to Badeaux here.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.