The Harrassment of Patterico & Its Roots in Left-Wing Activism
Haywood - The article is linked to for review. But I will point out some of the most interesting aspects. The first is the throw-away disclaimer in the article that “Every belief system – political, religious, philosophical, lifestyle – attracts some nutty people, some stupid people, some evil and dangerous people. You can’t judge those belief systems by their craziest adherents. Liberalism, as understood in the United States over the past half-century or so, involves the belief in a lot of nonsense, but it is basically a peaceable creed.” The next is the “this post by the fearless and indefatigable Patterico”. Then lastly, notice what he conflates with threats of physical violence “Picketing the homes of political opponents and business executives, Boycotts aimed at donors and sponsors of political causes and political commentators, Efforts to ‘out’ political opponents, ranging from disclosing the identities and addresses of anonymous or pseudonymous writers to targeting closeted homosexuals among Congressional staffers, Googlebombs designed to skew internet searches for information about a targeted person, Reporting targeted opponents to ISPs, hosting companies or Twitter as spam.”
The disclaimer is to morally shield him from criticisms of the right from those who would those on the right who stalk, hunt and then kill Dr’s legally providing the Constitutionally right for a woman to choose to have an abortion and those on the right who have committed violence against minorities and protesting racism etc. And then when he writes that, ” Liberalism, as understood in the United States over the past half-century or so, involves the belief in a lot of nonsense” he isn’t, as such an astute observer and credible analyst of history including such movements as feminism, civil rights and environmentalism is he? As an editorial i’ll add that these comments are in the classification of those that say more about the commenter than they do about the facts of the particular situation. Dan McLaughlin is not a serious thinker. Dan is a silly man who is a lead writer for a silly site.