At True/Slant, Barrett Brown has been getting into it with wingnut blogger Donald Douglas, and the story of Douglas’s latest attempt to defend the white supremacist connections of Robert Stacy McCain has some amusing turns.

Brown has put up two posts that should be read in order for the full effect:

Seven Questions for Donald Douglas on the Question of R.S. McCain’s Racism

Donald Douglas Answers My Questions and Then Some.

It’s amazing to think someone would do this, but in the post quoted by Barrett Brown, Donald Douglas actually offers a lame defense of the openly white supremacist American Renaissance. First we learn that Douglas himself is a former subscriber to American Renaissance, which comes as no shock whatsoever:

4. Are you familiar with the publication American Renaissance?

Yes. I used to subscribe to it.

Douglas then digs his hole even deeper, with a bizarre convoluted rationalization that American Renaissance is “not entirely” a white nationalist magazine.

5. Do you consider the publication to be white supremacist in nature?

Not entirely. Any “white supremacy” may be implied but I never saw it overtly expressed. There are white supremacists who take the publication because they like the discussion about race and crime. The founder of that publication does not believe that whites are “superior” to Asians, as Asians have a provably higher IQ than whites. He once asked if that made him a “yellow supremacist.” The publication was generally objective and useful in discussing race and crime, political correctness, IQ and other factors as they vary by race. I stopped taking it, however, when I became aware that neo-Nazis love the publication and when it began running selected stories about non-white crime, which I felt were not really representative and had no purpose other than to stoke race prejudice. The short answer is that I do not recommend American Renaissance.

If you’d like to check Douglas’s assertion that the white nationalism of American Renaissance is somehow questionable, just Google the name and see for yourself what kind of material they publish.

Wikipedia’s entry has some background information:

American Renaissance and the New Century Foundation are alleged to have had links with far right, neo-fascist and racist organizations and individuals such as: the Council of Conservative Citizens, the Pioneer Fund, the British National Party, Don Black and David Duke.[3][4] The organization has held bi-annual conferences that are open to the public and that attract 200 - 300 people. Critics say that some of those who attend are neo-Nazis, white nationalists, white separatists, Ku Klux Klan members, Holocaust deniers and eugenicists (as well as numerous protestors).[5] Taylor has written that the magazine welcomes Jews as writers and conference speakers.[6] Contributors to the magazine and conferences have included Stephen Webster, Michael Levin, Nick Griffin, Bruno Gollnisch, J. Philippe Rushton, Ian Jobling, Glenn Spencer, Lawrence Auster, Richard Lynn, Sam Dickson, and Samuel T. Francis.

According to the Anti-Defamation League [7], “The New Century Foundation - known primarily by the name of its publication, American Renaissance — promotes ‘genteel’ racism: pseudoscientific, questionably researched and argued articles that validate the genetic and moral inferiority of non-whites and the need for racial ‘purity.’ Generally avoiding overt bigotry and stereotyping, many of North America’s leading intellectual racists have written for the journal or have addressed the biannual American Renaissance conferences.”

This exchange between Brown and Douglas explains quite a bit about the right wing bloggers who support Robert Stacy McCain so vehemently.

UPDATE at 1/12/10 12:32:10 pm:

Another twist to the tale: Donald Douglas Wins a Point, Still Not Making a Lot of Sense, Though.