Eschaton

I didn't used to think that Little Green Footballs was a bigoted hate site. Sure, the people writing in the comments helped make it fit that description. And, sure, Charles had developed a potentially unhealthy obsession with unearthing any little negative tidbit from the pan-arab/muslim/etc... world. But, hey, it was also informative and we all have our interests. I won't make the argument, as some might in other circumstances, that Charles's failure to highlight the terrible things in the non-Muslim world made him a bigot simply by emphasis. However, over time Charles's tone changed to match that of his commentors, and rather being simply informative it became derisive. Each bit of nasty information is now seized upon with a kind of "see! I told you they were bad" kind of glee. And, increasingly any subtlety in distinguishing between Muslim/Arab/Pakistan/Persian/Muslim American/Arab American/etc... became lost as they would all be lumped together.

But, now apparently, we on the left have become insular because some of us don't want to link to a home for bigots and don't want to encourage others to do so either. This has been taken by some to be evidence of lefty "cocooning"


You know, I don't have a permanent link to Indymedia and I don't (as far as I know) link to sites that do. Is that cocooning too?



UPDATE: Via Hesiod I see that Steven deBeste has a novel view of free speech:


It is fortunate that RR's gesture is empty and meaningless because if it were actually effective it would be a serious threat to freedom of expression.

Indeed.

Anyway, this is the dumbest arugment to come down the pike in the 'ole blogosphere for at least a week or so. What Jim is doing is equivalent to boycotting the advertisers of a TV or radio show you don't like. For example, I don't buy balding products or magical vitamin cures, contact debt consolidation services, or purchase Bose speakers, which is my little way of putting pressure on the conservative media.

I seem to remember crazy Norah Vincent once had a column which argued that such boycotts were a serious threat to free speech and as such should be illegal, or something, but I couldn't track it down...

UPDATE 2: TBogg weighs in as only he can....as does Pandagon. The good news is that I've made Steven's list of "extremists!" which apparently includes:


Warblogger Watch, This Modern World, Ted Barlow, Tapped, Sullywatch, Shadow of the Hegemon, Smirking Chimp, Media Whores, Eschaton, and Counterspin Central.

Now if I can only get David Horowitz to call me a Marxist, my life will be complete...

(note to Avedon -- you're obviously doing something wrong!!!!)


UPDATE 3: AH, here's Norah's column:

Consequently, Schlessinger is a fascist because she thinks homosexuality is Mother Nature's boo-boo. What's more, she's lost her television program for exercising her 1st Amendment right to say so.


...

But thanks to the hard-driving agitprop of her enemies, she has been given far more credence than she deserves, and we've come one step closer to consigning the Constitution, along with the dictionary, to ye olde dustbin of history

UPDATE 4: Max weighs in as well...


Repetitively linking to a bunch of people who basically agree with me on a specific issue. Who do I remind me of...