Oh, one may, if one wishes, find insult at ev'ry step,--from insolent Stares to mortal Assault, an Orgy of Insult uninterrupted,--yet how does one proceed to call out each offender in turn, or choose among 'em, and in obedience to what code? [...] there never be time enough to acknowledge, let alone to resent, such a mad Variety of offer'd Offense."Okay, okay--Pynchon was really describing eighteenth-century London, not the Internet. Nevertheless, his description aptly describes the fact that the blogosphere and politics both, as "a function of simple Density," seem to attract more than their fair shares of creeps and charlatans.
With such a "mad Variety" of crazy people, frauds, neo-Nazis, racists, and pedophiles to choose from, who finally tips the moonbats of the right wing over the edge of the curb and into the sewer drain? A woman named Deborah Frisch.
Who the hell is Deborah Frisch, you might ask (unless you spent your weekend reading blogs)? Well, I wondered the same thing. Like most people on "The Left," I'd never heard of her, so I had no idea that this particular mountain was erupting over at the right-wing molehill. Many other progressive and liberal bloggers were in a state of equal oblivion. (See, for example, the astutely comic posts by the heavily trafficked Sadly No and TBogg.)
It turns out that, if this were eighteenth-century London, Frisch would be the wino we would notice babbling incoherently on an East End street corner. Granted, she has a blog (who doesn't these days), but fewer than a dozen people a day visited her site--at least before she made a blooming idiot of herself at the prominent right-wing blog of Jeff Goldstein, apparently making ominous and insane noises about Goldstein's two-year-old son. Although she apparently held a position as a part-time instructor at the University of Arizona, she has no power, no audience, and no influence. She is a tree falling in a forest, and nobody heard it until Goldstein stubbed his toe on her.
The atrocity's relative insignificance didn't keep a blogger named the Confederate Yankee from hysterically (and, boy do I mean hysterically) condemning The Left because The Left "couldn't quite seem to find so much as a single word to condemn a fellow liberal who threatens the murder of a child."
Yet, on his own site, we read the following comment posted only five days before by an unknown right-wing troll:
We must systematically execute all liberals and democratnazis now, now, now. Let the purges begin. God help me I hate them so much. Kudos to you brother in arms for pointing out the truth!!!!!!! [Posted by Jehovah at July 3, 2006 05:09 PM]Now, I'm not so silly and childish that I would suggest that "Jehovah" is one of Confederate Yankee's "fellow conservatives." It would be just as relevant to remind everyone that Ted Bundy was a Republican Party campaign staffer. Equally, it is ludicrous to suggest that a low-life like Ms. Frisch is one of my "fellow liberals." Jehovah is anonymous; Ted Bundy is dead; Deborah Frisch is nobody.
What's more disquieting, however, is that, of all the examples from the Orgy of Insult to choose from, the Confederate Yankee selects this one. Only a few weeks ago, Shakespeare's Sister noted, with disturbing accuracy, that "the party that considers gay marriage, women's reproductive freedom, condoms, and comprehensive sex education all vicious threats to civilization as we know it, is curiously prolific in its production of true perverts," including:
-- Brian Doyle, fourth highest ranking official the United States Department of Homeland Security's public affairs office [arrested for pedophilia]and dozens of other well-known Republicans and prominent office-holders whose actions have actually harmed children. (And, I'm sure, one could add a few Democrats to the list as well.)
-- Political consultant Carey Lee Cramer, the Republican consultant who created ads for Republicans in Texas [convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of indecency with a child by exposure]
-- The infamous former Mayor of Spokane Jim West [who lured underage boys to his city office]
Let's be clear: I don't think every conservative blogger needs to condemn each and every one of these criminals. To repeat Pynchon: "there never be time enough to acknowledge, let alone to resent, such a mad Variety of offer'd Offense."
We must all choose our battles wisely (and perhaps, merely by discussing this mini-tempest, I'm violating my own advice), but given the Confederate Yankee's professed outrage against "disgusting, abhorrent behavior by deranged individuals," one would expect to find a condemnation of one of these sickos rather than his feverish disgust at the incoherent ramblings of a crazy woman. Yet, if you search Confederate Yankee's site, you'd be hard pressed to find a single mention, much less a condemnation, of any of these actual criminals.
In his own words, you'll find "{crickets}. Not one post."
Compare this silence with his hissy fit about a woman that even Jeff Goldstein admits was never really a "threat" and is "as nutty as the ring inside a squirrel's crapper." Confederate Yankee's selective targeting would seem to bring new meaning to the now-well-worn adage, "It's OK if you're Republican." He (and not a few of his right-wing colleagues) reduce their principles to the level of team sports (a phenomenon I've noted before), where the relevance and significance of the argument doesn't matter so long as it can score some points with the crowd.
Confederate Yankee closes his post with, "Welcome to the new face of the most deranged members of our political opposition, the toddler-threatening community." Might I suggest to Mr. Yankee that the next time he decides to roll a babbling drunk in a dark London alley, he should instead look up and attend to the screams of the children coming from the dusky Windows of his own Chambers?
