Beyond the pale

November 10, 2004 7:24 AM

Political discourse in these desperate days is - as we all know - very much a no-holds-barred affair. We have come to expect that political debate will be nasty, personal, based on appeals to emotion, and largely divorced from consideration of real-world consequences of the positions claimed. Still, I hope we can agree that some rhetorical flourishes are simply unacceptable in civil society. Like this piece of vileness from Adam Yoshida, imagining that "the future of the Democratic Party [is] providing Republicans with a number of cute (but not that bright) comfort women." You read that right: "comfort women." Left, right, or center, I hope we can all agree that we are within measurable distince of moral surrender if this sort of rhetoric goes unchallenged. Or is this really what we've come to? (Via Atrios, upon whose summary I cannot improve.)
posted by adamgreenfield (62 comments total)

They lost, now they can sit in the back of the bus.


priceless.
I also liked the
We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head. Now’s the time to curb-stomp the bastards.
which is basically a quote from American History X

nice to see an undiplomatic, sincere "Conservative" every once in a while.

priceless, indeed
posted by matteo at 7:37 AM on November 10, 2004

He's like William Hung for the Ann Coulter set.
posted by fungible at 7:40 AM on November 10, 2004

Who the fuck cares what Adam Yoshida thinks? Does anyone actually read his tripe other than people who disagree with him?
posted by mkultra at 7:40 AM on November 10, 2004

Complaining about this is like complaining about the drunk racist in the pub. There are idiots everywhere, you don't have to take any notice of them.
posted by Summer at 7:42 AM on November 10, 2004

Such is the nature of free speech -- the fools and tools are given the rope with which they can hang themselves. While I'm sure he has his supporters, by his idiotic rantings he shows to the world his dysfunctional worldview.

p.s. Yoshida isn't even an American citizen, is he? If he isn't, then as an American citizen I say "mind your own fucking business, Canuck." No offense to other Canucks out there.
posted by moonbiter at 7:44 AM on November 10, 2004

Self-identifying "ultra-conservative" Canadian opinionist publishes outlandish opinion.

Atrios disapproves.

Huh.

if this sort of rhetoric goes unchallenged.

What do you propose MeFites do to challenge it? There's an internetful of blogs containing objectionable politial opinions--some not-so-obliquely calling for the president's death--but it's freedom of speech. In short: what's notable about any of this?

Who the fuck cares what Adam Yoshida thinks?

More to the point.
posted by dhoyt at 7:45 AM on November 10, 2004

"This blog is maintained by Adam Teiichi Yoshida: ultra-conservative political commentator."

With a masthead like that, I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find ridiculously over-the-top ranting. Frankly, I would have thought there's be knitting and group hugs.

Too bad this guy is so goddam influential and well-respected. Think of the tremendous damage he's doing with his snarky, self-righteous grandstanding!
posted by cortex at 7:46 AM on November 10, 2004

Left, right, or center, I hope we can all agree that we are within measurable distince of moral surrender if this sort of rhetoric goes unchallenged.

It's now our duty to challenge every wingnut who shoots his mouth off? We better hurry, there's crazy homeless guys on streetcorners and religious nuts in subway stations I have to "challenge."


Still, I hope we can agree that some rhetorical flourishes are simply unacceptable in civil society.

Your hope is in vain. It's talk. Talk is cheap.

Or were you just hoping to find something to be offended by?
posted by jonmc at 7:51 AM on November 10, 2004

He's a lonely Canadian wingnut wannabe. There was a link to other drivel of his less than a month ago. Maybe we could stop giving him so much traffic?
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:59 AM on November 10, 2004

is this person, Adam Yoshida, anyone at all?
'cause as far as google & I see, he's just another blogger.
posted by ruelle at 8:02 AM on November 10, 2004

Wow, I guess you guys are all pretty unimpressed by this. I'm (obviously) not.

Rape camps, curb-stomping...I mean, this is poisonous, even by the lowered standards we've become accustomed to. And how many times do we need to learn the lesson that "talk is cheap," sure, but the acceptance of talk like this paves the way for little probes toward action. (Call it the "broken windows" theory of discourse.)

But, OK, the community has spoken. It's "just" talk. It amounts to nothing. Nobody takes this guy seriously.

Like I've said before, we know how this story ends. If I mention a certain book whose initials are "Mein kampf," are you going to trot out poor tired old Godwin to nullify the point?

Or let me put it this way: when do you start to get scared?
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:04 AM on November 10, 2004

Talk is cheap.

it can also be influential.
let's all try to pretend that this madman is vox clamantis in deserto -- he isn't.
Yoshida is linked in a big, influential conservative blog like InstaPundit. Reynolds get lots of respectable gigs. and he links Yoshida's hate site. deal with it. "conservative" blogs do not marginalize him at all. they like him! they really like him!
posted by matteo at 8:06 AM on November 10, 2004

Actually, no, you know what, forget it. Forget I ever posted this. It's all OK. Everything will be just fine.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:07 AM on November 10, 2004

Are you taking your ball back?
posted by Summer at 8:10 AM on November 10, 2004

I would get scared if he were a 6' leggy blonde. Scared, and excited.
posted by luser at 8:11 AM on November 10, 2004

You may be as sarcastic as you like, Summer. Look, I think people should know what folks like Yoshida are calling for, and have the decency to take them at their word.

I would most assuredly rather have the knowledge that I tried to do something beforehand than have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so" afterwards.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:13 AM on November 10, 2004

I think people should know what folks like Yoshida are calling for

I think you should know what "folks like Yoshida" amounts to. It's not as though he represents everyone who voted for Bush, no matter how much you'd like to believe it.
posted by yerfatma at 8:16 AM on November 10, 2004

We could write a dozen MeFi posts a day describing the violent fantasies of writers like Adam Yoshida and Ann Coulter. Even Glen Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, comes up with a doozy, every now and then. No, this is not time for the naive "everyone does it on both sides," especially since the loons on the right are the ones in control of the Republican party, right now. However, I still don't think it tells us anything that useful. Who reads Yoshida, anyway? Is there anyone who goes to his blog for reasons other that to get outraged at his ravings?

How many rantings about keeping their "foot on [their] throat" from total right wing lunatics do we have to hear about? Oh, yeah, that last one was from the president. I'll make an exception, there.
posted by deanc at 8:16 AM on November 10, 2004

Hey keep the talking down a bit will ya? I'm trying to fuck the south over here.
posted by Stan Chin at 8:17 AM on November 10, 2004

adam, it's obvious that your heart and head are in the right place here, but what do you want us to say? You want us to call for his censure? Have him locked up?

The guy is an asshole. But there have always been assholes in the world and there always will be. And anyone with an internet connection can set up a blog and appoint themselves a pundit. And trust me I've heard far worse online and in real life, from all sides of the political spectrum. Getting into a panic about it accomplishes nothing. Let him blow away like the fart in the wind he is.
posted by jonmc at 8:18 AM on November 10, 2004

Digital brownshirts, anyone?
posted by kgasmart at 8:22 AM on November 10, 2004

It's now our duty to challenge every wingnut who shoots his mouth off? We better hurry, there's crazy homeless guys on streetcorners

But sometimes they're not all wrong. I mean, sure, a hot dog is more than just two pieces of bread -- there's a sausage in there too -- so that part was wrong. But he was right when he said that you can't call that a motorcycle.

Well, I mean, you *can*. I can call my mom a trolley. But I understood him to mean that one ought not call that a motorcycle, not that so doing was impossible.

Adam Yoshida: ranting and throwing cats at you since 1999, but in a conservative fashion.

Or let me put it this way: when do you start to get scared?

I think we can safely wait for him to graduate from university before we run in panic away from his right-wing puissance.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:23 AM on November 10, 2004

when do you start to get scared?

When a Canadian extremist like Yoshida is deemed an influential politician in his country, or ours, it would be scary, yeah. But he's not. He's some jackoff from the internet. The percentage of this country who'd lustily enjoy Yoshida's views is small, no matter what hyperbolic opinions you may have about the number of genuinely Xtreme "right-wingers" in this country.

I would most assuredly rather have the knowledge that I tried to do something

Even if the thing you were trying to do was, like, not very clear?
posted by dhoyt at 8:24 AM on November 10, 2004

It's not as though he represents everyone who voted for Bush, no matter how much you'd like to believe it.

You're refuting a claim nobody made.
posted by argybarg at 8:25 AM on November 10, 2004

While I agree, it's offensive, and I acknowledge that other loons link to him...I'm going to have to go with, "I care about some Canadian kid mouthing off because....?"

Even if he was an American...freedom of speech is just that. I don't agree with the right wing freaky nuts, but as long as all they're doing is shooting off their mindless mouths, I'm good with it. Freedom of speech isn't restricted to just the stuff of which we approve.
posted by dejah420 at 8:34 AM on November 10, 2004

I enjoyed the fact that you can download a copy of his book from his website. In most circles of authorship that's shorthand for "I wrote this thing but nobody with money or a reputation would publish it."
posted by Hogshead at 8:41 AM on November 10, 2004

dudes, the left is dead!
posted by mcsweetie at 8:46 AM on November 10, 2004

I read the excerpt and thought that this was somehow a plan of action for the Democratic party... that is, they would provide the Republicans with these women, thus distracting them then later possibly publically shaming them.

Sounded like a great idea.
posted by Capn at 8:51 AM on November 10, 2004

OK, last shot. I'm not going to say anything more in this thread, I'm not trying to moderate it, but I am genuinely curious as to why this elicits a general shrug from so many people I respect.

Last year, Markos Moulitsas of dailykos bought himself a mountain of heartbreak by expressing an opinion that the mercenaries killed in Falluja merely had what was coming to them. You may recall that the right came ablaze with demands that Markos - not his words, his person - be disavowed by "responsible" and "right-thinking" people everywhere. And this, by and large, is what happened. (To their disgrace, for example, the people running the Kerry site deleted their link to him.)

Now, Yoshida is less influential as Markos, but not by all that much in the scheme of things. He's read and namechecked and linked to by more than a few more mainstream "conservative" blogs.

The Yoshida passage at issue was much more offensive than the mercenary comments, or anything else Markos has ever offered. (That is my opinion, certainly, but then I like Markos' style and share many of his viewpoints.) But to call attention to this ugly comment, in the hopes that people will recognize that a line has been crossed?

"Unclear," hyperbolic, over-reaction, "so what?"

What do I expect people to do? I'd hope people, conservative people, would recognize that Yoshida represents nothing of the best that is in them, and disavow him the way so many of them demanded that Markos be disavowed. I'd hope that we'd all think carefully about the reality of what Adam Yoshida is asking for. I'd hope we'd consider all of this in the light of what we've learned from studying history, and the consistent lessons we've found there.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:53 AM on November 10, 2004

An e-mail exchange with Adam Yoshida on the matter of "curb-stomping the bastards.
posted by waldo at 8:53 AM on November 10, 2004

I think the important thing to note here is: Adam Yoshida lives in my town! The husband and I debated the merits of putting a flaming bag of poop on his doorstep last night, but we both agreed he would probably shoot us.
posted by jess at 8:55 AM on November 10, 2004

Like I've said before, we know how this story ends. If I mention a certain book whose initials are "Mein kampf," are you going to trot out poor tired old Godwin to nullify the point?

Only if you do it cheaply and gratuitously.

Godwin!

Come on, Adam. Is this what the Left is reduced to- looking out for nascent haters? There are enough popular haters to go around. When the Bill O'Reillys, Ann Coulters, and Michael Savages of the world pack up and go home, we can start on the small fries.
posted by mkultra at 8:57 AM on November 10, 2004

adam, this is merely one theory of mine, but like all of our generation, I've grown up hearing zealots of all stripes prattling on in the background media. I've also come to the conclusion that it's useless to whip yourself into a froth and rage at them. It's almost like giving them validation, somehow. They use other peoples indignance for fuel and ego food.

If somebody asks my opinion on this guy (or markos, for what it's worth), I'll give it, but I'm not wasting any more braincells on them than neccessary.

If you're trying to make a point about right-wing zealots vs. left-wing zealots and their comparative treatment, maybe you're on to something, but I never cared for partisan blowhards no matter which side ot the aisle they fell on. But in general, people tend to cut more slack to assholes they sympathize with than ones they don't, regardless of the degree of assholedom. I suppose that's just human nature.
posted by jonmc at 9:02 AM on November 10, 2004

Adam, upon reading your last comment- I agree with everything you say, in principle. MeFi is not, however, the place to advance agendas. This post can basically be reduced to you expressing your opinion about Yoshida's piece and issuing a call to action. I see you have a blog. That's the place for this.
posted by mkultra at 9:03 AM on November 10, 2004

I read several right wing blogs in an effort to avoid living in a bubble, and believe me, they stumble all over each other to be the first or best at attacking the latest left wing conspiracy theory or extreme viewpoint.
ON PREVIEW: Yeah, Adam, the Kos example about the mercenaries was the first thing that came to mind for me.

The thing is, lefties hurl insults like "evil," "stupid," and "sheep." I don't see them suggesting we use republican females as sex slaves. Well, except maybe Ann Coulter.

This is threatening. I am a democratic female and someone is joking about chaining me to a bed. Mr. Yoshida is pretty small potatoes, and violent rhetoric is pretty typical in those circles, though. We should call this stuff out, if for no other reason than to discredit the howling they do about DU and Ted Rall.
posted by whatnot at 9:05 AM on November 10, 2004

Comfort women? You mean kidnapped and imprisoned women used for sexual gratification against their will?

*shrug*

As a practical matter, how else is Adam Yoshida going to get laid? I mean look at the guy and try to put together the words "sex" and "consensual".

Doesn't work, does it?
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 9:06 AM on November 10, 2004

Perhaps the 'comfort women' can have the clap that way BOTH Republicrat and Demopublicans will go down together in an orgy.

A pox on both their houses.
posted by rough ashlar at 9:06 AM on November 10, 2004

not only InstaPundit, LGF links to Yoshida, too, in their "anti-idiiotarians" hall of, ahem, fame

Yoshida is hardly a lone, ignored-by-the-Right nut. no matter how hard you try to spin it.

enjoy your fellow political thinker mr Yoshida, MeFi Republicans. he's all yours
posted by matteo at 9:06 AM on November 10, 2004

matteo, you've been trotting out the tired strawman that anyone who dosen't agree with you is a Republican or neo-con, which you know is untrue.

And big deal, he's semi-well-known in the right-wing blog world. wooooh, Look out, John McLaughlin. Go ask your bartender if he's heard of him. Then I'll worry.

And "spin?" C'mon what do I possibly have to gain by dismissing this imbecile?
posted by jonmc at 9:13 AM on November 10, 2004

"Didn't I say this little lying prick would just throw ad hominens at me!!"

Sometimes I really miss Usenet.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:14 AM on November 10, 2004

I guess now, in the interests of meme-starting, we can refer to him as "Gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida", or something of the sort.

You think I'm joking? I think the concept should be permanently attached to his name. So the next time he runs for school trustee, it can read:

Gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida is making his first bid for school trustee, and aims to shake up the system. In the financial service industry, Yoshida has said he wants to cut wasteful spending; create zero tolerance policies for violence and drugs in school; lobby the provincial government to establish a "merit-pay system" for teachers; create a service culture in schools and seek out private funding for the education system. "It's time that we put our energies into making schools work for students rather than unions. It's time that we put someone on the school board with the courage to stand up to the powerful forces which have sought to subvert our education system for far too long."

Gang rapist: On so many levels.

---
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 9:19 AM on November 10, 2004

> Yoshida is linked in a big, influential conservative blog like InstaPundit.
> Reynolds get lots of respectable gigs. and he links Yoshida's hate site.

Thank you international community, you're really paying attention. Adamyoshida.com is not in Glenn's front-page links list. Searching for "yoshida" with Google pointed at the instapundit.com domain turns up four item links, one of which is the following:

Adam Yoshida needs to take a chill pill. He writes:

Sometimes I think that the treason is so deeply ingrained in our society that nothing short of martial law, the suspension of habeas corpus, and the repeal of Posse Comitatus will do. Sometimes I think that we will need to think to the Revolution, where Tories and other traitors were dealt with harshly by a righteous people. I hope that I am wrong, but I do not deny the possibility.

That's a terrible idea. I'd call it an unAmerican idea, but in fact we did things like this in the Civil War, and in World Wars I and II. But it's wrong. Although the actual point of his post is to suggest less-drastic means of putting pressure on the anti-war movement (means that, in fact, remind me of things that the Left did in the 1960s and -- just ask Al Sharpton -- more recently than that) I'm utterly against that sort of thing. It's wrong, and we don't need it anyway. We're winning this war.

posted at 02:56 PM by Glenn Reynolds

posted by jfuller at 9:28 AM on November 10, 2004

Hmmm. So I guess I'm the only one that methodically read the piece and critically analyzed it.

Treason didn’t carry the day. Huh. And here I thought the only possibly treasonous act was committed by whomever leaked the name of an active CIA operative.

the party of AIDS, abortion, adultery and appeasement. I guess that he is referring to the party of Newt Gingrich, who divorced his dying wife to marry his younger mistress, and Rudy Guiliani, who lived with his mistress in the mayor's mansion.

And the AIDs party? Is he referring to the party of the president who ignored the AIDs epidemic here in the USA allowing it to spread unchecked? The party of the president that promised in his 2003 State of The Union Address to spend $15 billion to fight AIDs in Africa but changed his mind?

And the Abortion Party? He must be referring to the party that has seen an increase in abortions because of the number of women who have slipped below the poverty line or lost their health insurance and because of its insistence on teaching abstinence-only. The party that cut funding to the UN's Population fund that the UN estimates will result in 800,000 more abortions world wide?

And the Appeasement Party? I'm not sure what appeasement he is talking about. The only appeasement I know of is when the present administration paid Enron back for their $50 million campaign contribution by allowing them to screw Californians with an outrageous electric bill. Or when they tossed a bone to the fundamentalists by allowing Beverly Lahaye, wife of Tim laHaye to represent the US at a World Health Organization assembly.

Guess that's the way I will always view the Republicans now: the party of AIDS, abortion, adultery and appeasement.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:29 AM on November 10, 2004

We're not talking about this guy, are we?

'Cause I really, really like his Hawaiian marinade.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:31 AM on November 10, 2004

"Gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida" -- yup, that'll do.

When they're looking for the next generation of Coulters, Savages, Hannitys, Limbaughs, etc, he'll fit right in--sadly. (do you think he'll do any better than Michelle Malkin tho? or do they all have Rightwing Foundation jobs in their future anyway?)

Secret, yours is good too, but too complex for a soundbite
posted by amberglow at 9:52 AM on November 10, 2004

Gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida- or GRAAY. There ya have it!
posted by mkultra at 10:09 AM on November 10, 2004

Wow, this guy's completely out of touch.

Bush already brought a majority of Americans together: they voted for him.

Yes, Bush should treat the fact that just under 20% of the population voted for him as a mandate.

We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head.

Yes, I'd call taking the presidency by a margin of at most 136,484 votes counts as a massive, massive win.

the massive landslides for the eleven state Gay Marriage amendments, even the one in Oregon, show that the Federal Marriage Amendment will carry if it proves to be needed

Yoshida again manages not to be able to count the number of blue states (greater than 13, even if Oregon isn't counted). Thirteen states voting against the amendment makes it the weakest link—goodbye.

This is a mandate.
It was closer than we’d like, of course. Far too close.

No, I don't think you get it. You get to have one or the other. Don't brag about how handily you won and then gasp at how close it was.

They lost, now they can sit in the back of the bus.

This is a rather astonishing statement, considering that it makes light of racist practices and that it comes from someone who would have, under a racist practice, been put in an internment camp during World War II (whether in America or Canada).

Also, the fact that he's saying that "we" won is pretty much meaningless when you realize that he's not American and doesn't really have any grounds to speak. May the Canadian government create a special tax for him.
posted by oaf at 10:13 AM on November 10, 2004

Damn, that guy is harsh. He'd fit right in as a member of the Stalin Administration.
posted by psmealey at 10:35 AM on November 10, 2004

mr_crash_davis: no that's Junki Yoshida. Yoshida's has great ads.
posted by turbodog at 11:35 AM on November 10, 2004

I actually know Adam Yoshida - he and I have been on many of the same national government simulations for about six or seven years now. Hell, at one point in time he wanted to sleep with me. I suppose I could be his democratic comfort woman.

Here's what you don't know from this piece: he's catering to a base. He's essentially being a blog troll. He believes about a third of it, and the rest is specifically designed to be inflammatory and get him hits. Of course.

He's not entirely a bad kid - but he's a hell of an attention whore. I don't think it's worth getting worked up over. Someone got hold of his home telephone number when one of his entries was posted to cruel.com recently, and he actually received multiple death threats. However much you disagree with his positions (and even if you take them seriously, which...well, please don't, even he only takes them for the sake of arguments and numbers on his hit counter), he surely hasn't earned death threats. Of course, now he wears 'em as a badge of honor, but that's beside the point. It's still inappropriate.

He's just a kid from Canada who spent the last weekend at some Youth Liberal convention (at which I hear some interesting hijinks concerning a young girl, an antidepressant cocktail, and massive quantities of alcohol occurred). He likes to get the attention from his friends, but more importantly, in his blog and in the simulations he's part of, he likes to get attention from his enemies.

You're feeding the troll-y part of him. I like the non-trolly part pretty well. I'd prefer to starve that other half - he might be a decent kid after all, if he just didn't get this kind of attention. Negative reinforcement is still reinforcement.
posted by u.n. owen at 11:52 AM on November 10, 2004

u.n. owen,

OK, So, disingenuous gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida is "not entirely a bad kid".

Duly noted.

---
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 12:06 PM on November 10, 2004

seeing as he advocates the "metaphorical" boot-stomping of american citizens and the compulsory pimping out of american liberal women, i see no reason why homeland security should let this potential terrorist into the usa next time he shows up at the border ... if we're going to turn yusef islam away, we ought to turn him away, too

at least that's what this american patriot thinks ... we have to put up with ann coulter and the freaks on freerepublic ... we don't have to put up with him, he's not a citizen
posted by pyramid termite at 12:40 PM on November 10, 2004

Reverend Mykeru, you never said stupid crap when you were a kid?

It's hard to be rational when your brain isn't fully myelinated.
posted by u.n. owen at 1:11 PM on November 10, 2004

i see no reason why homeland security should let this potential terrorist into the usa next time he shows up at the border

you could always write to homeland security, if you felt strongly enough.
posted by norm at 1:37 PM on November 10, 2004

u.n. owen,

" Reverend Mykeru, you never said stupid crap when you were a kid?"

As I'm pretty sure gang rape advocate Adam Yoshida would have no problem trying juveniles as adults, I'm not going to give him any slack for being a "kid", especially as he's no kid.

It's hard to tell with the uglier than sin, but he is certainly over 18.
posted by Reverend Mykeru at 1:57 PM on November 10, 2004

you could always write to homeland security, if you felt strongly enough

no sense in doing that, they've already taken notes, i'm sure
posted by pyramid termite at 2:37 PM on November 10, 2004

On the subject of angry rants . . .
posted by MetalDog at 2:39 PM on November 10, 2004

u.n. owen - what's a "national government simulation"? Is that something like Model UN? Or has Nintendo come out with a new and bizarre Mario game? (Super Mario Lobbyist? Mario Bros Election Consultant? Sorry, but I've got video games on the brain right now.)
posted by RakDaddy at 2:53 PM on November 10, 2004

The national government simulations are a little like Model UN, I guess. It's basically a bunch of people, ranging in age generally from 13-60, who try their hand at being "legislators" and politicking. It's fun, but it gets old sometimes because a lot of the same people have been doing it for a long time, the politics have gotten incestuous, and the coalitions hate each other so much that it's basically a snarkfest. It's also atrociously hard to get in as a new person because if you have no "sim experience," they generally are pretty hard on you. Some sims don't even allow new members in.

So it's a lot like metafilter. But with more pretend politics.

No, no, scratch that, it's a lot like metafilter.
posted by u.n. owen at 3:11 PM on November 10, 2004

Just add this to the file with the other violent rhetoric spewed forth by the right. Either we will start seeing this kind of crap getting more play, in which case we should pay more attention to it, or we will not, in which case we can quit wasting our time with it.

The kid's a prick. If I were his duly-chosen Democratic Comfort Woman I might just leave him short a pair of testicles.

If I were having a bad day.
posted by beth at 4:32 PM on November 10, 2004

Just one last thing:

We have come to expect that political debate will be nasty, personal, based on appeals to emotion, and largely divorced from consideration of real-world consequences of the positions claimed.

No, we - or I, at least - have most certainly not come to expect that political debate be anything of the sort.
There are fine debaters on both sides who respectfully argue their stances in a civil manner and who cringe at such talk, no matter what side it comes from.
posted by ruelle at 3:00 AM on November 11, 2004

Here's what you don't know from this piece: he's catering to a base. He's essentially being a blog troll. He believes about a third of it, and the rest is specifically designed to be inflammatory and get him hits.

It's base indeed.

It's pathetic that we seem to reward idelogically consistent, yet attention-deprived children more than we value people of actual intellectual depth and integrity. I don't know what bothers me more: the fact that Adam Yoshida and Ann Coulter can say the hateful things they do and get away with it, or the fact that they really don't believe what they say, deep down, and are just saying them to get attention?
posted by psmealey at 4:23 AM on November 11, 2004