Thank You, WaPo! You’ve Brought Us a New Wingnut!
There is something extremely strange about our political culture when a privileged, politically-connected homeschooler gets hired by the Washington Post to write a blog purporting to speak on behalf of working-class heartland Americans.
Don’t believe me? Check out the opening sentence of his debut blog post:
This is a blog for the majority of Americans.
Whether he’s referring to the majority of Americans who think Bush is doing a shitty job, he never says.
For added laughs, check out this bit:
It’s always better to just let kids be kids and keep the psychologists out of the way – to follow the dictum of an aging hippie couple I know who, despite their pacifist beliefs, still let their boys run around playing army with sticks made into guns. After all, someone has to defend America.
Say, isn’t Ben only 24 years old? It’s kinda… funny that he hasn’t signed up to join the Marines yet, isn’t it? Could it be because he’s a pampered homeschool sissy boy who’s too yellow to fight for his country? I report, you decide.
Gavin adds: Say, wasn’t Red Dawn that movie where one country invaded another country and there was a bunch of teenagers whose families got killed or hauled away, so they got together and started launching sneak-attacks on the invading soldiers? Ben Domenich: objectively pro-terror. Oh, what’s this?
A few notes are in order after the impressive reaction to the premiere of this blog.
First off, a note of thanks to the liberal side of washingtonpost.com’s readership, which has weighed in on Red America in this comment thread. I’m happy that no one’s engaged in any ridiculous hyperbole, unfounded accusations or unintentionally hilarious name-calling. We can all agree that such things lower the quality of debate on the Internet, play to the worst side of our knee-jerk partisan nature and have no place in the modern public square. I look forward to engaging you in a serious, respectful discussion on the issues that matter most to the future of our nation.
“Al Gore can suck it.” -Ben Domenich, 2/4/02. Now, aside from the telling comment about ‘our knee-jerk partisan nature,’ which not only underlines the fact that Ben reasons with thoughtless muscle spasms, but also reveals that he thinks everyone else reasons the same way — aside from that glittery lump of ore-bearing material, what kind of guy would spend his (short) career blithely pelting ‘liberals’ with rhetorical poo and garbage, but then attempt to hide behind the skirt of civility and ‘quality of debate’ as soon as he’s in the public eye? The whiny-ass lickspittle cum-gargling ass-twat monster fuck kind. And that’s a technical term.
To that last point, we’ll be rolling out comments here shortly.
[beaming]
He’s waging battle on the insidious home front, you bastards!
thanks for the link.
i love this kid. keep checking back on my blog for more on ben.
Argh! He’s ruining my good name!
Shorter Ben: We’re winning, but people still make fun of me. It’s not fair!
James- this kid is your ticket to blog stardom! Keep riding it, baby! And not in a dirty way! Oh fuck it, IN a dirty way! That’ll get you tons of traffic!!!
I’m looking at the positive here. This means when the blue-helmeted Socialist U.N. Oppressors invade our great country and grab all our guns, we’ll have a brave army of stick-wielding children who’ll be able to poke the bad guys’ eyes out!
I’m looking at the positive here. This means when the blue-helmeted Socialist U.N. Oppressors invade our great country and grab all our guns, we’ll have a brave army of stick-wielding children who’ll be able to poke the bad guys’ eyes out!
What do you want to bet that’s a scene in the screenplay Ben’s writing called “Crescent Dawn?”
Now, Brad, give Benny Boy a chance. You yourself said, he’s only 24. There’s still plenty of time for him to become a Marine. I think someone (Brad) oughta fill out an application for him. Then all he has to do is sign.
Brilliant!
His sorry ass wouldn’t make it through the first week of basic. I personally think a great reality show would be to follow young ex-Heritage interns through boot camp.
Will they be able to dodge the paper clips thrown at them?
Interesting how Jim Brady agonized over “White House Briefing” confusing vast millions of his readers, but a cossetted Republican DC brat speaking for Red State America is branding genius.
You realize, of course, that the last time the Washington Post printed something this far toward Ben’s end of the spectrum, it was authored by the Unabomber.
POTD?
I vote for a Domenech-vs.-Shapiro Texas cage match to the bitter end. One way or another, we must find out how is the better, wingnuttier Ben.
Has anyone thought getting MJ’ together with our *new* Ben? Now there’s a match made in conservative heaven!
After all, someone has to defend America.
“Preferably, someone else.”
[W]hen the blue-helmeted Socialist U.N. Oppressors invade our great country and grab all our guns, we’ll have a brave army of stick-wielding children who’ll be able to poke the bad guys’ eyes out!
What do you want to bet that’s a scene in the screenplay Ben’s writing called “Crescent Dawn?”
Actually this was the topic of Ben Shapiro’s hastily written, four-paragraph column today.
I love the strategy of just being brick-wall totally fucking god damned inane, illogical and ridiculous- of course its only a trap- when the lefties then play the name-calling game to the delight of the frustrated base, cockmuffins like Ben can play the “appeal to common courtesy and debate”- there is no debate, how can you debate someone that does not accept reality, hence he can munch on a loaf of ass. Seriously, they play us for fools everytime, because we have to play to the frustrated base- how can you not be frustrated by these assholes? Of course, I haven’t been civil so all Ben’s points are automatically now valid.
Hey, I remember that asshole!
Oh Pinko, you sillymuffin you. Didn’t you hear Diane Rehm’s second-hour guest this morning? Over at WaPo, they’re extremely worried about the decline of the art of lighthearted banter, which is apparently the foundation and cornerstore of democratic civilization. Didn’t you hear what those blogging mongol hoards did to poor Debbie Howell? She was just trying to write a nice column, for pity’s sake, and they beat her to DEATH with CURSEWORDS!!!!
Which means that Benny-Ben’s new-fangled weblog with have a comments section for about 13.8 seconds, let’s he get his wittle feewings hurt.
there’s a diary on Kos about how he’s actually an ok guy in person, and you should all stop being so mean to him.
One of the commenters remarked that Stalin was also rumoured to be a real hoot at parties, once the vodka started flowing…
there’s a diary on Kos about how he’s actually an ok guy in person, and you should all stop being so mean to him.
I hate that argument. It doesn’t matter if someone’s a “nice guy” in person. If they’re being an asshole in their writing, you have a duty to respond in kind.
OK, he’s a swell guy in person. So I’ll stop being mean to BenDo. In person.
right. This guy apparently plays poker with him (at the Redstate founder’s house,) and thinks he’s just swell.
His argument was that the personal attacks are unwarranted. Apparently people have made comments about his mother, and called him a dickhead.
But most of the commenters (including some who are apparently in the same circle of friends) have said what you did.
Maybe he is a personable guy, but his internet persona is that of a bigoted and delusional asshole, and people have responded in kind.
Ever since the Coulter fiasco at my school it has become clear to me that all these people are trying to do is bait their opponents with insults so that when they respond in kind they can point to it and say ‘see how mean the liberals are.’
But it also brings up a philosophical point. If I am capable of cultivating and exhibiting the persona of an asshole, doesn’t that make me, at least in part, an asshole myself?
Aristotle says that good nature is the result of repeatedly performing good actions. Is the reverse also true? If day after day I act like a racist conservative jerkoff, then wouldn’t it be legitimate when people said that I was?
This is the dick-slapping guy, right? Man…every blog I’ve read today has something about this clown’s new gig. I wonder if George Soros has some pull at the WaPo, and decided to give every liberal blogger an early Christmas.
no, Matt T, I think the dick-slapping guy is failed academic cum amazingly successful hausfrau Jeff Goldstein.
This new guy is some smarmy dickhead from Redstate.
But it also brings up a philosophical point. If I am capable of cultivating and exhibiting the persona of an asshole, doesn’t that make me, at least in part, an asshole myself?
Hm. I was talking about this to Jeff Goldstein yesterday.
He’s actually friends with a lot of folks like Jeralyn at Talk Left, and it’s a long story, but my point was that one of the things we try to do here is to be full-bore nasty only in blogland, while trying to be courteous and nice in private, no matter who we’re dealing with or what differences we might have with them.
I don’t know how that works in terms of being an asshole or some fraction of an asshole, but I’d like to think that it neatly divides ‘public’ from ‘private,’ and that the two can coexist as separate things for separate occasions.
I mean, that leaves out the comparative morals of the left vs. the right in terms both of tactics and policy, which is also a huge thing. Backing an immoral position doesn’t strike me as an acceptably non-asshole use of the power of public speech. But then, when we start talking about moral grounding and the function of rhetoric in the public sphere, it’s probably time to call the doctor, honestly.
“To that last point, we’ll be rolling out comments here shortly.”
Shortly being defined as sometime in the future…say about 10,000 years.
Gavin, that’s not really what I meant by asshole.
It’s quite possible Goldstein is personally pleasant, and can even be cordial with leftists.
But if a person expresses opinions that are racist, or misogynist, or homophobic, does that make him a racist, misogynist or homophobe in private life also?
I don’t care how many liberals you have tea with, blogging in the service of evil still makes you a bad guy.
This is a blog for the majority of Americans.
“The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons –Emerson
Has anyone thought getting MJ’ together with our *new* Ben? Now there’s a match made in conservative heaven!
MJ’s real soulmate is Vincent “Brown Bunny” Gallo.
Ben designed this mug that he had in his CafePress store:
Now, I don’t know about you but I am pretty certain in this country we have laws against using trademarked logos and turning a profit without paying out royalties to them.
Would this be considered “war profiteering”?
“But if a person expresses opinions that are racist, or misogynist, or homophobic, does that make him a racist, misogynist or homophobe in private life also?”
Honestly, I don’t think it matters. Unless someone is obviously an actor playing an obvious role, how they act when I see them is all I can base my opionion on. It doesn’t matter to me how they treat someone else: if they treat me like shit, I will respond in kind.
This applies even more to the “outrageously funny” pundits like Rush, Coulter, etc. They do not admit to being character actors, and ther never “drop character” in public: they claim to believe the crap they espouse, and they encourage other people to do likewise. So long as they choose to act that way, it is completely irrelevant whether they love fluffy pillows or brake for animals.
If you act like a misogynist, racist, inflammatory asshole, and you *are* a misogynist, racist, inflammatory asshole until you repudiate those actions. I don’t have any way to know whether or not you “really mean it”, and the damage is not lessened one bit if you are “only teasing, jeez!”
Link to image
Here’s my prediction for how this whole, sad affair will turn out. Ben will blog for a while, and post a mountain of malodorous bullshit. Comments will open–and be shut down the same day, because of us “uncivilized” lefties. Oops. After a relatively short period, the Post will realize that it made an awful mistake, after receiving a boatload of hate mail. Rather than balance “Red State” with a liberal “Blue State,” they’ll quietly discontinue the feature, without comment. But, it will be fun while it lasts!
Never trust a male cheerleader. It’s the only thing he’s said that I agree with.
Gavin, I disagree with the assertion that you’re “full bore nasty” around here. I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think what y’all do here rises to the level of mean or nasty.
You point out that people say insanely ridiculous things. And you do it with a good (if pointed) sense of humor.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s the social equivalent of saying to someone “pardon me, but you’ve got a bit of spinach stuck in your teeth”.
Okay, maybe it’s “Pardon me, but you’ve got a bit of spinach stuck in your teeth, Popeye”. But still, the point stands.
Mean really seems to come from the other side of the aisle – like posting fantasies about people you don’t like wanting to have sexual relations with your dog.
Not to say that there isn’t some well-timed snark on the other side of the aisle (just because I’ve never seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t there), but that it just seems like the bulk of the nastiness is.
What does homeschooling have to do with it?
Ha–I was mostly right, though I didn’t predict plagiarism and I actually expected “Red State” to last something like three weeks, not one. Oh, and they never opened the comments. But, otherwise, I was spot-on!