Since I’m still being hounded a bit on Twitter (well, a few putative conservatives are still talking about me, after having blocked me. Because IRONY), I decided to merely start replying to certain critics — one actually suggested there’s nothing conservative about me — with links to old posts. To see if maybe these people could put aside their pride for a bit and engage me on ideas I’ve expounded on over the years. I know, good luck, right?
Anyway, in order to do so, I looked back in the archives and plucked out a few links. And I reread what I’d written.
It’s an interesting trip down memory lane, but it also shows a kind of site trajectory. So in that sense, the exercise was instructive — at least to me. My Twitter stalkers won’t read them, because, you know, being challenged intellectually is not what this new brand of “conservative activism” is about. Instead, it’s go team — and maul the heretic!
Which, good luck with that. I don’t cow easy.
So here’s the plan: I’m going to post those links here in order to revisit some of the arguments I’ve made on this site over the years. If you’re interested, take some time to look them over. I’d rather talk about substance than deal with the kinds of people whom I now have to rely on to carry “our” battle flag. Because having dealt with them — and been blocked by a few who have 10s of thousands of followers — that’s just too damn depressing. Especially when I realize that some of these were written when the current crop of “conservative influence peddlers” on Twitter were probably in the 3rd grade.
In no particular order:
Link 1: 15 Jan 2007 — “There’s no such thing as race (and it’s a good thing, too)”
Link 2: 13 May 2004 — “The protein wisdom interview: Ted kennedy”
Link 3: 23 Apr 2004 — “The protein wisdom interview: Noam Chomsky”
Link 4: 05 Oct 2008 — “How the Left Hijacked the Magic Words”
Link 5: 09 Aug 2002 — “The Race Race”
Link 6: 01 Dec 2005 — “Defining the terms: racism, feminism, and the problem of identity politics”
Link 7: 16 Feb 2007 — “On cultural materialism, language, and the progressive gambit”
Link 8: 12 Mar 2009 — “Losing more slowly: an OUTLAW’s lament”
Link 9: 16 Mar 2006 — “Being Frederick Jameson”
Link 10: 15 Mar 2006 — “The Impeachment Agenda”
Link 11: 07 Aug 2011 — “outlawry”
Link 12: 09 Mar 2009 — “Hot Air: How I learned to stop worrying and love the f-bomb”
Link 13: 11 Apr 2010 — “Provocateurism, 11”
Link 14: 14 Aug 2008 — “Provocateurism, 8”
Link 15: 15 Mar 2009 — “This way lies fascism: an OUTLAW’s lament (cont.)”
Link 16: 29 May 2006 — “in which I spend my morning correcting a number of remarkably self-satisfied “academics” who, quite frankly, have no idea what they are talking about”
Link 17: 23 May 2006 — “I think SOMEBODY needs a little more frozen strawberry and a little less rum… ”
We all know — because I’ve bitched and whined endlessly about it — of my marginalization by those on “our” side who, though one-time pragmatists, have now evolved into full-throated conservatives pining for individual liberty and distrustful of the ruling elite. And we also know the marginalization was intentional and part of a back door email campaign, bits of which I’ve had forwarded to me over the years.
Be that as it may, however, I offer up these links as a way of reminding people what I offered the conservative movement (back before being a TEA Partier was edgy, or even before there was such a thing as a TEA Partier); and to perhaps introduce those who joined the movement at the time of my banishment to the kinds of things I used to write, be it on immigration reform, the establishment feminist movement, the antifoundationalists, and the necessary trajectory of our political system given our acceptance of incoherent linguistic premises.
I don’t suspect the post will gain much traction, or that any of today’s perpetually OUTRAGED putative Twittercons will have the attention span to engage most of the arguments. But you guys are smart. So if you have the time, take the trip.
If you need help, there are some red pills behind the sofa cushions that may help you out.
update: DEATH THREAT!
You know I'm not usually a fan of eugenics, but damn that moron sure makes the case for it. @PolitiBunny
— Ryan Jones GRAA (@RyanGRAA) April 23, 2014
Of course, after he wrote that he blocked me, too. The craven little suck-up.
Links 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, are 404ed. The rest work fine.
My Twitter stalkers won’t read them, because, you know, being challenged intellectually is not what this new brand of “conservative activism” is about.
From what I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure these guys are all about being intellectually challenged…
I’m getting some 404 errors from some of the links, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, so far.
The interview at Link 3 is one of my all-time favorites. I just wish there were footage of it at C-SPAN or the like.
Sorry, no http:// was added. For some unknown reason. Should all be fixed now.
You know, I’ve been hanging around under several different aliases since way back in the beginning. I’ve disagreed plenty in the comments, especially back in the egret days, but I never had a problem with you or you with me. Hell, we even met once and no one got punched in the face. (Tony almost broke my arm, but that was agreed to in advance). So I guess I’ll just repeat what I said back then… “There’s a lot of assholes in the world.”
As an aside, I did get threatened with violence in the comments here once. I was sock puppeting and one of the then-regulars had a holy shit fit over something I said that was factually correct, but he or she didn’t agree with. Later that particular commentite defected to a more reasonable side of the innertubes and I went back to posting dick jokes and non sequiturs. The irony has never been lost on me, and is part of the reason I’m so damn cynical.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have sarcastically called y’all out for being such an echo chamber. More intellectual red meat gets chewed over on PW among the resident commentariat than any other site I could stand to frequent.
A few have, over the years, let things get so personal in such threads that they can’t drop it and go fishing for a few days to cool off, but instead let the butthurt become a personal raison d’etre. That’s a shame, but in my mind it doesn’t quite sink to the level of tragedy.
The whole thing is depressing, not just for you Jeff. But my hope is that they are just young. I think the average age of the commenters at this site is well north of 40.
Course, I hate all of you, but I mostly come here for the abuse anyways.
I do not understand this groupthink that we’re all supposed to indulge in. I expect my allies to challenge me. Often. That’s how I learn to properly defend myself because echo chambers are where intelligence goes to die. This “can’t we all just get along” mentality is lazy and I will have no part in it.
I’m pretty sure I’ve told just about everybody here to fuck off at one time or another. I’m still a little disappointed that more of you haven’t reciprocated.
First, I think Twitter is the social media of the Id. It’s difficult to have any sort of reasoned discussion, especially when dealing with an echo chamber. Second, as others have said or implied above, the insistence upon a “team” view, especially when the team’s reasoning is suspect has never been clear to me. It always gives me pause when someone I respect thinks differently than I do. It necessitates a reexamination of premises and conclusions. Third, this new crop of self-selected guardians of conservative “virtue,” is more concerned about winning power than they are with principles. That way lies madness. See, e.g. “Boehner, John,” “McCain, John” “Romney, Mitt” et al.. Fourth, I’m going to start clicking the links above for the refresher.
A lot of this does read as so much high school clique bullshit. Whatever.
Hey, Squid! Go fuck yourself.
You’re welcome.
Squid, you definitely told me to fuck off and I did…
…
…
…
Well, I got better.
Squid never told me to fuck off, but I’m okay with that.
Death threats are okay on the twitter? It’s a good thing ADA Frey isn’t on that thread.
So this place is a wretched Thunderdome of scum and villainy with Auntie Entity as empresario and Lord Humongus as MC, is that the complaint?
In other words, Twitter is for people who find sound-bites too demanding.
I hear you brother. I’ve been censored on sites I *paid* to join, just because I argued against feminism. There really is a cabal of Republicans that are on a mission to censor certain views.
Against feminism? Ghosted.
Criticize the electoral strategy of minority outreach? Ghosted.
Want to deal with the facts of demographic changes caused by immigration? Ghosted.
Mainstream conservatism has become a oligarchic racket, and it will ruin the big tent party.
Sherpa Notes
Link 1: 15 Jan 2007 — “There’s no such thing as race (and it’s a good thing, too)”
Link 2: 13 May 2004 — “The protein wisdom interview: Ted kennedy”
Link 3: 23 Apr 2004 — “The protein wisdom interview: Noam Chomsky”
Link 4: 05 Oct 2008 — “How the Left Hijacked the Magic Words”
Link 5: 09 Aug 2002 — “The Race Race”
Link 6: 01 Dec 2005 — “Defining the terms: racism, feminism, and the problem of identity politics”
Link 7: 16 Feb 2007 — “On cultural materialism, language, and the progressive gambit”
Link 8: 12 Mar 2009 — “Losing more slowly: an OUTLAW’s lament”
Link 9: 16 Mar 2006 — “Being Frederick Jameson”
Link 10: 15 Mar 2006 — “The Impeachment Agenda”
Link 11: 07 Aug 2011 — “outlawry”
Link 12: 09 Mar 2009 — “Hot Air: How I learned to stop worrying and love the f-bomb”
Link 13: 11 Apr 2010 — “Provocateurism, 11”
Link 14: 14 Aug 2008 — “Provocateurism, 8”
Link 15: 15 Mar 2009 — “This way lies fascism: an OUTLAW’s lament (cont.)”
Link 16: 29 May 2006 — “in which I spend my morning correcting a number of remarkably self-satisfied “academics” who, quite frankly, have no idea what they are talking about”
Link 17: 23 May 2006 — “I think SOMEBODY needs a little more frozen strawberry and a little less rum… “
Aw, bless you’re hearts.
I’m all pleased with myself that I finally understand. Beats the hell out of wondering WTF happened.
Sorry I was so dense.
Your apology won’t be accepted until you prove your sincerity by punching yourself in the face.
After all, this place has a reputation to protect.
“Against feminism? Ghosted.”
Being “ghosted” is now called being “Derbyshired”. Although Jeff Goldberg was Derbyshired before Derbyshire (and after Coulter and Buchanan) Derbyshire gets the coinage because his name sounds cooler.
Sorry, Jeff Goldstein. I got Goldstein mixed up with Bernard Goldberg sort of, what with the two names beginning with the same sound.
So a few of the idiots from yesterday still have a stick up their ass. Instead of relaxing and letting it go, they clinched real hard and squatted in order to drive that stick really deep. (Perhaps one day they will learn how painful that can be…or not.)
Heh!
I tried that, Ernst. I meant to leave a bump but it turned into a dent. But its a sincere dent.
My dent hurts.
Oh, dear God! Thersites! I recall when Jeff forced him to delete his entire blog or something. Very professorial, that one. Good, good times.
Then he came back later and tried to pretend he’d thoroughly demolished my “radical intentionalism.” Only he would spell my name “Godlstein” so it wouldn’t show up in proper searches.
I found it anyway and beat him to death with his own fat leg yet again. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Oh, dear God! Thersites!
Wasn’t that one of the best blogwars EVAR?
Too bad the poor sot deleted his stuff, because the whole thing is a lot more fun when you can read his drivel.
This place is like Fight Club for the nerdish. Your head is s’posed to hurt.
OMG, the commenters on that thread!
Ric Locke, Phone Technician in a Time of Roaming, Vercingetorix, arguing about something Tony Snow said.
Nostalgia!
Yes, that really was a hell of a lot of fun. Then there was the Sadly, No! tool from…Kentucky, was it? America was a hell of a lot more fun back then.
“Back then”? Back when? Before Obama? Maybe we need a reader poll to decide what Pablo meant by that.
The thought police, like the Children Detection Agency is watching.
Always watching
Oh, man, *I* was even on here back then. What a world, what a world.
Damn right. I didn’t realize we could be quite this stupid.
Clearly we’re to the “shame on me” stage of tom-foolery.
Is it “Dumb Vinci Codes”? Scroll down.
I have a theory on the Runny Poo Poos of this world that have been foolish enough to tangle with Jeff yesterday and today…
Since the 1970’s and the emergence of the New Right, I’ve encountered these types and I’ve come to the conclusion that they are not conservatives in the real sense. They are Ideologues.
Shermlaw made a very accurate observation of these types above:
Physics Geek wrote about their ‘groupthink’ above.
These are all signs of the Ideologue – believing in a system of ideas that brooks no deviation from the script that has been developed collectively.
In Jeff’s case, he dared[the audacity!] question their groupthink, not in a hostile way, but as someone interested in probing the mind of supposed allies. The Hive Mind reacted – as they, as Ideologues, always do – by unleashing a juvenile tantrum upon Jeff [and Dicentra].
As Mark Levin has correctly stated many times, but as Russell Kirk has stated more eloquently [emphasis mine]:
[This applies, as well, to those who prefer the term: Classical Liberal]
Shermlaw expressed the approach of the conservative very well in the example he gave:
The Ideologue cannot allow himself to do this.
The Ideologue designs a blueprint for how Life must proceed and every material to be used in it is governed by the design. Any deviation and the structure risks becoming unstable. Like a building plan, an Ideology must be followed to the letter and, therefore, it has to dictate the specifications for everything needed to make a building efficient [electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.]. Thus, an Ideology must encompass every facet of Life. It must pervade every nook and cranny.
I see less ideology and more pose striking. Selfie-culture, perhaps.
On Conservative Ideologues And The Vile Marginalizing Of Jeff Goldstein
For the past two days, Jeff Goldstein, proprietor of the essential blog, Protein Wisdom, has been under a sustained attack on Twitter by a certain type of conservative that, sadly, we have seen too often since the New Right emerged in the 1970′s.…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The Thersites episode was before my time. But what I’m wondering, given that we now know leftists have no qualms about perpetrating their own victimization, all in the name of “consciousness raising” of course, is what’s the liklihood that Thersites himself was responsible both for the sexual slur on his site and the release of his identifying information on Jeff’s?
Call it the “At long last, have you no decency sir?” asked with single trickling tear-drop gambit.
There are those on the right whom I KNOW to be capable of such things; so it of course wouldn’t surprise me one bit, Ernst.
My first reaction was to redact the info. Because, you know, I’m evil and must be avoided. Unclean, as it were.
Clearly your problem is first impressions. I mean, that gravatar! A violent, rapey street hoodlum who likes rape and violence and deaf composers. Really?
You should change your avatar to something less threatening. Something cute and cuddly that lets folks see the softer side of Jeff.
Something from a Japanese video game shilling cartoon perhaps?
you want you can have sailor moon
My gravatar is precisely that as a result of the whole dustup, wherein I was informed I “defended rape,” was a dangerous psycho, and prone to violence.
The deaf composer thing is a bonus. Like the eyelash and the bowler hat.
Incidentally, when I went back and read some old stuff today, what I still like the best is the red pills stuff. Lots of people like the Martha Stewart prison diary, but for some reason the red pills — and maybe the Leif Garrett missives — are my faves.
Sorry, Ana-Marie Smith.
If you knew of Usagi Tsukino you would not mock. The Marine motto would not be out of line for that character.
There’a always Susumu Kodai from Space Battleship Yamato, too. However, too much anime might encourage nishi to return, so beware…
This is precious:
Yes, clearly we should breed people to our liking, and cull the yucky ones so they won’t make us look like the clueless, flailing, histrionic assholes we are on twitter. And to stop hate. And for freedom. Because smart, patient, noble, and prudent. Because BETTER. Smug.
Staunch.
If I had my Gravatar to do over again, it’d be chef Boyardee.
Or maybe Mad Madam Mim Jumping up and down with the caption “I’m an ugly old creep!” Because that’s what my psyche feels like these days.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2qihzwieE1r5wti9o1_500.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Chefboyardeepic.jpg/220px-Chefboyardeepic.jpg
Perhaps you should offer to bring the tree to your own hanging.
Nah. They’ll just miss the syntax again.
“I’m an ugly old creep!”
Paleo, I’ma find that webcam you hid in my living room and spray paint it.
Doing GRAA proud.
Coming out of Lurk mode for this..
I use to run a FB Group that had Politi Bunny as a member.. Samantha (Sam) Janney.
She was tight with a handful of other women who quickly overran the group and ran roughshod over anyone who didn’t agree %100 of what their definition of ‘Conservatism’ meant.
She isn’t the nicest of people…
Who remembered that happyfeet used to write in complete, properly punctuated sentences?
Not me.
Here, for example.
I once said of Phil Donahue — in response to some nitwit’s remark that la Phil “really made us think” — that this was true, but mostly he made me think he was an idiot.
The relevance to happyfeet, I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.
“The craven little suck-up” can’t answer an easy-enough question.
https://twitter.com/serr8d/status/460113032006606848
I didn’t say, but meant to say: fantastic series of links, Jeff. I may not completely understand the things you are talking about as regards signs, marks, etc but I at least am not misunderstanding as much as _some_ people.
Who are, possibly, doing so deliberately. Because it is convenient for them to do so.
I have kind of given up hope of a resurgence of sanity in our government. Which sort of says that the population in general is in some ways insane. So, we’re moving from an urban area to a rural area, and trying to make ourselves more self-sufficient.
You have my thanks and appreciation, Jeff.