“I won’t be going over the cliff with them.”
Just when you think the word “change” has lost all its meaning in the post-Obama-election-win world, The formerly far-right conservative site Little Green Footballs has done the blogging world’s version of flipping a bitch.
In his post “Why I Parted Ways With The Right” blogger Charles Johnson cites (among other very sound reasons) Support for fascists, racists, anti-women policy, religious fanaticism, Islamophobia, homophobia and “anti-science bad craziness.” I don’t expect that Chales and I will be seeing eye to eye on a number of specific issues any time soon, but that’s completely beside the point. It’s very good to see such an honest, open and frank post in a blogosphere where people seem to be more prone to sticking to their arguments no matter how far from the plot they wander.
Especially interesting was this point for fleeing the dwindling confederacy of dunces: “A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.).”
I did briefly consider whether or not this was a joke or if someone has hacked his site. But the point he’s making is not (as some of the 1,278 commenters on his post were suggesting) that he’s punted into the left field, just that he’s moved from the irrational right. For some of them, though, saying that is just about the same as moving to Cuba and penning an ode to Chairman Mao. I know some of the targets of the LGF blog, and you couldn’t say he’s repenting anything he’s said about them as of yet. But the reasons listed in his post show that he’s at least thinking about who he’s lumped himself in with during the horrible oughts of the Bush years.
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption of high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed. I feel more anxiety at this moment for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.”