I have been following with interest the flurry of activity-both for and against-the supposed “defection” of Charles Johnson from the ranks of the really all American true blue red blooded patriots, wise thinkers, and only knowledgable personages in the blogosphere. Two articles have tried to capture the debate here and here.
I find the controversy interesting because its an interesting commentary, in macro, on what has happened to political blogging and bloggers at all levels over the last few years and the last year in particular.
Charles Johnson, for those who don’t know-founded one of the first mega-Blogs Little Green Footballs. (LGF for short). He was one of the first persons who made the connection to Osama Bin Laden when 9-11 happened and was known for being very much on the side of a hawkish, conservative few of the world and politics.
From the Times article:
But enemies themselves are a kind of currency on the Internet, and for every attack L.G.F. provoked as a place that permitted and even fostered bigotry against Muslims in particular, new allies rose up to link themselves to Johnson and his causes. Those links were both spiritual and literal; allowing (or preventing) less-successful sites to post a link to yours, and maybe offering them a link on your own site in return, turns you into a kind of taste maker, a locus of tangible power. L.G.F. was, by 2007 or so, at the heart of a vast, amorphous grid of right-wing sites of every description, an interdependence that Johnson himself had become, in a way, too popular to control.
Until this last year. Now the sycophantsreaders of Michelle Malkin don’t have enough bad things to say about him. Why? Because he broke from them in a very public way. Since then he has been called a variety of things-most of them not good- by those who used to count him as a kindred spirit.
Charles Johnson biggest crime as far as they are concerned? Not just merely calling them on their lies-but then having the unadultered gall to deny them a place to insult him. Primarily because-using his computer savvy-he has locked a fair number of his former compatriots out of his site.
Hmm. Maybe he’s not quite as patient with being called “pathetic” and “bitter” as I am.
Whatever the reason, its definitely gotten the sheep stirred up. He’s been well and dutifully attacked and the opposition has even resorted to bringing out the “gay card“. ( Funny, where I have seen that done before?).
Everyone has their explanation-but no seems able to accept the most obvious, the Charles Johnson truly changed his mind. That, it seems, is a cardinal sin on both the extreme sides of the aisle. Johnson explained that clearly when he made his post in November: “The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff. I won’t be going over the cliff with them.”
That by the way is a perfectly reasonable sentiment. And it doesn’t, unlike what some of my own commenters have alledged, make you automatically a liberal looney toon. Just like with the Republican party and middle of the road folks such as myself-it was the right wing blogosphere that walked away from Johnson-not the other way around.
Why am I so interested in it? Because this drama has been repeated over and over again with smaller and less hit worthy blogs-and the attacks have been the same. Watching it play out the macro level-provides fascinating insight into the direction of the blogosphere-and the attitudes of its less than reasonable inhabitants.
And besides-every loves to watch a good cat fight. Hell hath no fury like stupidity scorned.
