27 October 2004
Earlier today I noted that much of the rhetoric on Little Green Footballs, one of the web’s most popular blogs, resembled Nazi rhetoric — so much so that a “quiz” put together by another blog reveals that it’s hard to guess which is which. Only, the LGF community directs this invective toward Muslims. This strikes me as a big religion story. All the moreso because LGF won The Washington Post‘s contest for best international blog. Had a site which frequently referred to Jews as “vermin” (LGF has done so with regard to Muslims hundreds of times, according to one counter), I suspect the rest of the press would have paid attention. But the press ignores LGF. LGF readers, unfortunately, don’t ignore me — today my email box has been jammed with messages along the lines of “Die, arab-loving fag.” There’ve also been accusations of anti-Semitism — despite the fact that I’m Jewish, used to edit a Jewish magazine, continue to write for Jewish papers, and grew up being put in the position of having to fight, literally, for my right to walk down the street and be Jewish at the same time. Mixed in with those, though, have been some more thoughtful responses defending Charles Johnson, the “righteous gentile” (their words) editor of LGF. Particularly intriguing is this, from LGF reader Buck Macklin: “A sizeable amount of the hate speech posted are by people who oppose Charles, and want to plant evidence against him. The regulars all know it as a ‘Moby’. What’s a “moby?” Someone who is following the advice of techno-pop star Moby to plant items that are likely to alienate supporters. We know that people write the nonsense (call for genocide etc.) you refer to. It doesn’t mean that Charles calls for it. The people who post this slime are usually denounced by the regulars. When they are not denounced, it is because we are tired of it, and just GAZE.” In the interests of fairness, I thought this claim ought to be aired. Now, onto other news…