For obvious reasons, LGF Watch has been rather silent of late. Much to his credit, Charles Johnson has increasingly edged away from his past sentiment that demonized Islam and everything related to it, and has lately started thrashing people for "Anti-Muslim bigotry" and for protesting against an 89-storey islamofascist terror-breeding, infidel-beheading Ground-Zero Super-Duper-Mega-Ultra-Mosque Islamic cultural center. Yes, times have changed dramatically in Lizard Kingdom.
However, concerning his former allies and friends who have turned into his bitterest foes, none less than intellectual fraud and disgraceful "scholar" Robert Spencer, and his faithful Shrieking Harpy Pamela Geller, who is basically just that... They've become loonier and more bigoted than ever.
So while Charles Johnson's blog is actually becoming quite readable, the only way to stomache the insanity of the anti-Muslim movement is with brilliant exposure with a pinch of parody. Now, we're not planning on shifting our focus to other anti-Muslim extremists across the media, because LoonWatch does exactly that, and they do it very well.
But while LoonWatch may not be new, a new sister site of it is, which focuses on one of LoonWatch's prime suppliers of material, and it needs some publicity. So Ladies and Gentlemen, sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy Spencer Watch! It does a fabulous and long-overdue job of placing Bobby Spencer onto the manure heap of scholarship, right where he belongs. And I'm sure Charles Johnson would get a few chuckles (no pun intended) out of that.
Little Green Footballs
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Spencer Watch!
Posted by The Sphinx at 22:19
Labels: bigotry, Charles Johnson, Loonwatch, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, stalking
16 comments:
Charles hasn't changed as much as you think and you should be just a little more skeptical about this all. His transformation is akin to seeing David Duke, all of the sudden, out of the blue, in 2010 beginning to post website articles defending affirmative action and decrying racial disparities in law enforcement and issuing statements denouncing white supremacist groups, but never at any point whatsoever comprehensively addressing his past as a figure who promoted extreme hate. Note that Charles earlier today banned Hieronymus Bosch for even daring to bring up his past incitements to genocide (and this was in context in which Hieronymus Bosch was actually praising Charles for maturing).
If an ex-Nazi propagandist, or a broadcaster in Rwanda who helped incite genocide there, attempted to clean up his image and began issuing remarks preaching tolerance towards Jews or Tutsis, would this excuse the prior crimes against humanity? LGF prior 2008 could be seen as on level with Radio Machete. Understand that Charles was engaging in extreme hate speech against Muslims during a period in which the US military was actively invading and occupying Muslim countries. Without making any definitive statement either way regarding the wisdom of launching those wars themselves, we can note that in these wars there were numerous incidents of US forces engaging in extreme atrocities against civilians. These atrocities in part could occur because of an atmosphere of hatred against Muslims that dominated American culture. Charles was the single most important anti-Muslim hate agitator on the entire internet during this period, and it's highly possible that his own genocidal rhetoric actively encouraged at least some instances of murder of so-called "vermin." (His site was highly-promoted by mainstream news outlets and surely some soldiers on the ground read it and were influenced by Charles' hate.)
To put it another way -- if there end up being any Nuremburg Trials after the whole "Global War on Terror" dies down, Charles will not be spared being treated as a high-tech Goebbels figure. His recent attempts to play nice do not make up for his past crimes against humanity (as overt incitements to genocide qualify as).
It's good that Charles is no longer spreading his hate because God knows our world needs less of it, but that doesn't let him off the hook at all for his past. He never even apologized at all for the most extreme of his past statements, and seems to act confused and bewildered when anyone even brings them up.
Thanks for your diligent work in the past on exposing LGF when it was a far-right hate site, but please don't be so quick to let Charles off the hook for his extreme actions.
Charles hasn't changed as much as you think and you should be just a little more skeptical about this all. His transformation is akin to seeing David Duke, all of the sudden, out of the blue, in 2010 beginning to post website articles defending affirmative action and decrying racial disparities in law enforcement and issuing statements denouncing white supremacist groups, but never at any point whatsoever comprehensively addressing his past as a figure who promoted extreme hate. Note that Charles earlier today banned Hieronymus Bosch for even daring to bring up his past incitements to genocide (and this was in context in which Hieronymus Bosch was actually praising Charles for maturing but questioning his views on the Israeli right).
Yes, you're absolutely right. If this were 2007, Charles would be right there at that 9/11 anti-Cordoba demo.
On second thought, he probably couldn't be bothered to make the cross-country trip, but he'd be posting about it and promoting it several times a day.
Sure, I'm very aware that Charles Johnson of 2010 and 2007 would clash very, very intensively. And there's no excluding the chance that he might swing back to his older sentiment if it proves convenient to him. His blaringly obvious double standards, demonstrated so often in the past, might be an indication for that.
But hey, I like giving credit where credit is due, especially because 3 years ago I would've never thought that he'd undergo such a major transformation. Let's just hope he stays this way. And though I like to forgive, I do not forget.
As for Robert Spencer - he is hopeless. But he's getting intellectually massacred. I thought some people might get a hoot out of that.
"Forgive but don't forget" is generally a decent principle. But the problem in the case of LGF is that, well, Charles never even said he was sorry. He never apologized at all for anything. To hear it from him, he's held steady to some sort of principled views while it was "the right" that changed and moved towards bigotry and insanity. The problem with this is that, well, only several years ago, Charles was saying things actually, if anything, more extreme than most of the right-wingers he's now attacking. Even in late 2008, Charles (the original birther) was still engaging in bizarre commentary against Obama more surreal than any of rants he now attacks spewed by Glenn Beck. Charles sadly used his technical know-how 2001-2008 to incite a massive wave of hatred against Muslims ("vermin," by his usage). Now he acts like he never did anything wrong at all and that he had only been against "jihadis" (note, of course, that even his usage of this word smacks of bigotry -- jihad is one of the core tenets of the Islamic religion, but translates into a far more profound concept than some paranoid-imagined "murderous holy war against infidels" but rather "struggle" towards understanding and following God).
It's not that I don't appreciate Charles' move in the direction towards sanity and tolerance. It's that he simply has never even acknowledged having ever done anything wrong in the past. It's hard to give credit here. The hate speech spewed by Charles from 2001 to 2008 was psychotic, and even likely criminal under international law. A broader apology might be in order before I'm willing to forgive.
Note that Charles earlier today banned Hieronymus Bosch for even daring to bring up his past incitements to genocide
What thread was this in?
I noticed the radical ideological shift by LGF...I haven't been following it for some time so when I checked it today, I realised how transformed that blog has become. Did something major happened while I was away, or is this just a passing phase for LGF?
Did something major happened while I was away
Basically, Chuckie got laid.
But to address anonymous' points about him never apologising. The simple answer is he still believes everything he said. His curent left leaning sentiments are nothing compared to his old hardline extremist views; views he will flip back to at a moments notice as soon as the political winds change. The "sleepers" of today will become tomorrows lgf power users, and the iceweasels and HoosierHoops will become the new ironfists and zombies.
Over at Little Green Kos today, Charles was displaying psychotic tendencies. A classic trait of psychopaths is to have wild mood swings. You want to see Charles at his psychotic best; politely disagree with him. He'll huff and puff, claim exasperation and ban the commenter. He banned a commenter today and then instead of deleting the commenter's post, which is the usual way of silencing those who have different opinion, he left the posts but scrambled the text rendering the comment unreadable. Little Green Kos is Charles' private fan club and it's getting smaller all the time.
Well, seems like MandyNoManners has finally gotten the boot..
The favorite word at Little Green Kos lately is 'bigot'. Although the irony is lost on them when Charles silences those who disagree. Go against the accepted orthodoxy and you're banned. Oh, and you'll be savaged by the King Lizard afterwards with no chance to defend yourself.
No matter how far you run, Charles, you can't run away from your past. We know who you are.
True story:
Because I used to post his stories on Digg ahead of him, this guy CJ (flaming narcissist and somewhat of a sociopath) actually had the nerve to rally his zombies to coordinate a mass calling of my workplace (which he found via tracing my IP address), complaining to customer service reps about my inappropriate online behavior.
Even though the customer service reps were unusually busy that day, and I did get a talking to, I didn't get fired. Sorry Charles :(
But the main point is that guy is a total whackjob. I don't care if he changed his viewpoints to be more in alignment with reality, he's a laughably insane cult-of-personality, not much better than Michelle Malkin and not much worse than Jerry Springer.
In today's post regarding Arizona Gov. Brewer, Chuckles makes a point that could, um, apply to someone else:
"Has right wing American politics reached such a fever pitch of insanity that this is now a winning strategy — to simply cut yourself off from all possible challenges to your views"
Ha.
CJ's new schtick is to claim that he had such an open comment moderation policy that some bigots just took an opportunity to post some hateful stuff. Laughable, but can you guys try to gather together some bans of lefties for innocuous stuff like criticism of Bush? About 5 examples or so, otherwise CJ will just say it was a fluctuation.
Guys, check this out:
http://wristaction.blogspot.com/2010/09/memory-hole-has-opened.html#comments
Orwell rolls in his grave.
I actually think that Charles has come to his senses....
I know some people will find that too much of a stretch I know. But, as an ex LGF'er who left because it got too nutty, I think he has come to his senses.
As a conservative who isn't a raving lunatic I may even go back there.
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