The Brain Gap

I was raised to be civil - to try to abjure name-calling, to live by the golden rule. I'm not perfect - sometimes I'm less perfect than others, but I do try.

I'll step outside my upbringing for a moment, though, to point out that I've gotten bombed by comments and attention from the readers of a couple of the big leftyblogs in the past. Now, Oliver Willis, Jesse and Ezra from "Pandagon", and Duncan "Atrios" Black are basically little but giggly fratboys whose writing is permanently frozen at the seventh-grade level; their audience, i we judge by their comment sections, are worse, a legion of the invincibly ignorant Kool-Aid junkies who'd do Democrat Underground proud, whose half-witted ranting sat in my comments like a toxic turd that just wouldn't flush. Read the sites, and the comments, judge for yourself.

Attention from the big leftyblogs is ugly, not very bright, and somewhat overwhelming; their hive mentality makes up for what their education, lack of intellectual curiosity and dearth of writing talent short them.

Now, I go a lot easier on the local leftyblogs, because most of them are not as irredeemably, depressingly, completely invincibly stupid as the likes of Atrios, Kos, Willis or Pandagon. And getting mentioned on their blogs doesn't guarantee you dozens, maybe hundreds, of dull-witted, uninformed comments by dullards inflamed by their unquenchable anger mixed with their impenetrable denseness.

UPDATE: More to come in a bit.

Which is not to say that I find Mr. "Minnesota Politics Guru at the Minnesota Politics blog to be impenetrably dense, necessarily. But I'll let you read his question to John Hinderaker of Powerline (annotated with my own responses, because I think piling on is appropriate) and let you judge if Hinderaker's animated response was appropriate:

Your recent post on the JD Guckert/Jeff Gannon story has to be one of the saddest examples of conservative head-in-sand syndrome I have ever seen. [Hey, why wouldn't an insulting intro like that draw a polite response?] You claim that there are three issues being brought up by liberals: 1) He isn't a "real" journalist, [Which the Strib, among others, did in deed harp on] 2) He was a Bush administration plant, [Again, the Strib among others said it in as many words] and 3) He had something (“God knows what) €“to do with the Valerie Plame story. [Would anyone in Washington who didn't have something to do with the Plame story please raise their hands?] Of course, you blatantly ignore the most important issue, the one that is easily found on hundreds of blogs covering the story: how did a person using a fake name get access to the White House? [Which, of course, Guckert did not.] If I applied for a pass to the White House using the name "Max Power", I would not get in unless I had some friends high up at the top. [Perhaps, but then that's not the issue - Guckert used his real name.] A closely-related issue is exactly what the links are between GOPUSA and Talon News. Now, you may think it perfectly acceptable for the President and press secretary to consistently call on a reporter who is working for what is essentially an arm of the Republican Party. If so, it would be nice if you would admit it. That doesn't mean that others aren't allowed to have a problem with that arrangement, however. [Naturally, Mr Guru ignores the fact that Gannon/Guckert did in fact as a number of tough questions from the right, on things like spending.]

You also take Americablog to task for "finding nude photos of Gannon and posting them online." He didn't "find" photos taken by some paparazzi at a secret party; he found websites where Guckert (let's use his real name, not his pretend name) posted his own photos. If you posted photos of your family on your web page and I posted a link to these photos, would that make me a low-life "outing" you? [In that instance, yes it would; John Hinderaker's family is not really fair game Nor are Guckert's photos, in and of themselves (we'll address the "prostitution" angle in a bit). What if Helen Thomas were to post nude pix on the 'net - should that eject her from the White House Press pool?] Come on. Guckert is not ashamed of these photos, otherwise he would not have put them on the web in the first place. If somebody else finds them and points them out to the world, they are doing nothing wrong. [Mr. Guru, what exactly are you getting at? That the White House should be googling to find lifestyle "dirt" on reporters, to bar them from press conferences? Is that what you're after? Because that's the closest to a logical conclusion I can find in that statement.]

Just one, just once, it would be nice to see a conservative with the ability to find fault with other conservatives. I won't hold my breath, though. [Fact: Conservatives are a lot more honest about our movement than the left is. And why should Rocket Man, or any of us, leap into the right-criticism biz? It'd put so any leftybloggers out of work.]

Of course, Mr. Guru sent the above via email, during a Kos-alanche that was burying Powerline's mail servers with a flood of half-literate, un-informed twaddle from people who've intellectually evolved not a jot since fourth grade. Hinderaker allegedly responded:

You dumb shit, he didn't get access using a fake name, he used his real name. You lefties' concern for White House security is really touching, but you know what, you stupid asshole, I think the Secret Service has it covered. Go crawl back into your hole, you stupid left-wing shithead. And don't bother us anymore. You have to have an IQ over 50 to correspond with us. You don't qualify, you stupid shit.

Not exactly civil.

But you know what? He's right. Mr. Guru's letter was wrong at every point; no fake name. No bearing on actual security. No logic (what should the white house do, actively look for lifestyle issues?) There is no there, there.

Would I have responded that way? Maybe not. But I can't blame Rocket Man, either. It was a dumb email.

Mr. Guru closes:

Whatever happened to Minnesota Nice?

It went the way of "Minnesota logical and Minnesota well-educated and Minnesota capable of critical thinking", I guess.

Sorry, Mr. Guru. Consider it a cue to work on the ol' reading comprehension.

UPDATE: A commenter notes that the response seems out of character for Hinderaker. Knowing John, I agree.

I'll dig into this.

Posted by Mitch at February 21, 2005 05:27 AM | TrackBack