Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Reply to Barrett Brown

The communication director of the Godless Coaltion sent an e-mail last night, taunting me about the allegatiions made against me by himself, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and others. I replied:
A rare occasion, Mr. Brown, when any of those who've chosen to attack me even bother attempting to contact me. Of course, no one ever contacts me in advance: "Hey, did you actually write X, Y, Z? If so, why? What did you mean? What are your opinions about these things?" Instead, they leap to assumptions (if it's on the Internet, it must be true) and the fact that certain things have been endlessly repeated online leads to the assumption that these things are true.
How often, since Charles Johnson began attacking me, have I emphasized that, during the years I was at the Washington Times, I was not permitted to address these allegations? And how often have I remarked that "white supremacy" is quite contrary to my observed conduct among those who actually know me?
You are, I gather, a young man, and quite arrogant. Not an unusual combination, really, but neither should you mistake your own arrogance for knowledge. Try Googling my name in combination with the phrase "Hayekian insight." There are in the near-infinite number of things you don't know certain facts that may, I suspect, be far more important than those tacts you know. And it may be that you are mistaken about some things you accept as facts.
Well, I've had more time to study all this sort of thing than you could imagine. You desire to make me look like a villain, for whatever selfish motive, and therefore assemble a prosecutor's case -- the Ransom Note Method. This you present with a lot of noise and clamour: "A-ha! I have exposed the dangerous villain, whose stealthy evil had never been fully known until now!"
Now, what is *expected* of me in response is that I will address your "evidence" point-by-point or, failing that, that I will Deny, Denounce and Repudiate: "Oh, I'm not actually friends with Person A, and I abhor the thought of being associated with Person B."
Ah, but there is never an end to it, you see? Were I to answer charges A, B, C, you would then proceed to interrogate me about D, E, F, etc. To address your accusations in such a manner would ultimately avail me nothing, while tacitly acknowledging your authority to act the part of the interrogator. Further, such a response would ssuggest that there is some legitimate cause to suspect my good faith, to cause others to believe that perhaps I harbor a hidden hatred which must be rooted out and renounced. You invite me to a Maoist re-education camp, with yourself playing the role of commissar. The cloud of suspicion is thrown upoin me, and I must prove myself innocent!
Except that I don't. We live in a free society and I am not even a candidate for public office. I am not paid for having the correct opinion about anything. Opinions might be profitable to Bill Kristol or George Will, but I am not one of those big-shot pundits. It is my skill and hard work, and not my opinions, which are my stock in trade.
What you and Johnson and others apparently wish to do is to cast upon me a stigma, which you may then use as part of a campaign of guilt-by-association smear against various of my friends. You seem to assume that my friends are fools and cowards, and will automatically disassociate themselves from me, lest you then say, "A-ha! So-and-so associates with Robert Stacy McCain, who is a hateful racist!"
Except that I'm not a hateful racist. And this, sir, is the big point that you seem to have missed entirely. People know me, and the people who know me know that I have no hate in my heart, and if they felt it necessary to speak up on my behalf, you might be surprised at who would sing my praises. Their silence you mistake for fear, is rather an expression of their contempt for your malicious behavior.
Whatever you say about me, I am certain you will fail to convict me of hate, Barrett. I don't even hate you.

Best regards,
--Robert Stacy McCain
Co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of DONKEY CONS: Sex, Crime & Corruption in the Democratic Party
Strange to say, writing that e-mail cheered me up. I had been feeling kind of down in the dumps, but there is nothing like teaching a seminar to cheer me up. Pay attention, class. This might be on your final exam.

21 comments:

  1. Hey RSM,

    God bless you for taking the high road (well, maybe not always, but certainly on the whole) in this ongoing battle. I originally came to your site a while back wondering what a modern day "white supremacist" might look like. Naturally I assumed that these charges were overblown given the source. But I had no idea to what degree.

    Judging from a bit of a distance, you have demonstrated remarkable restraint and humor in your dealings with this particularly vile nemesis. This reflects well on your personal character and, I think, will ultimately trump the malicious attempts to assisinate your good name. In the long run most people respond to goodness and humility over bullying tactics and smears-by-association. In Creationist/Christianist-Extremist parlance, I think it's no accident the Evil One is often reffered to as "the Accuser." Keep up the good fight and don't let yourself get dragged into the mud. I will be rooting from the sidelines.

    I came for the controversy. I stayed for the humble Southern comfort. Blessings, strength and courage to you my friend...

    ~ Scott

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  2. RSM The accusations by a drowning banjo player who yearns for attention.He is dishonest and a liar and his site is just as ridiculous as his amazon shrills. The man is going down fast.As he begs for pennies from his penniless parrots.
    Even so..Even though you might give him pity. Do not. He is like the frozen snake. Do not thaw him. Beat him down every chance you get. For worthlessness must be defeated.

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  3. Scott took the words right out my mouth.

    Never ever let the bastards get you down. Nil Desperandum.

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  4. That e-mail is a perfect reply to not only young and forever wet behind the ears punk Barrett Brown, but if it could be printed on suitably rough paper, folded and shaped to a wad, then stuffed up Charles Johnson's ass, a perfect reply to him as well.

    Barrett might still be receptive to reason (doubtful), but that other one, the old crusty hippie, there's nothing left in him but for his shouts "Get off my Little Green Lawn!" and to lob libels at his betters (of course safely ensconced behind the firewalls). Best that old C J be left isolated there, as a Koresh in his compound.

    Time will take care of the rest.

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  5. Nicely done sir!

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  6. Really, don't you think it's time to give it a rest on the whole lgf subject? Like many, I migrated away from there years ago; I suspect that there's no one left on the site other than like-minded cranks whom you're never going to enlighten anyway. Here, you're preaching to the choir.
    Personally, I'd much rather read your words on just about any other subject.

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  7. Excellent reply. Unfortunately CJ will continue to lie because is a liar.

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  8. Stacy, it is quite a shame that you cannot find a single man of honor of all the men who make these accusations besmirching your name.

    Should you find one, I offer my services as your Second.

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  9. Bartlett Brown is a notorius internet assertion monkey.

    -N. O'Brain

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  10. Charles Johnson has himself an idėe fixe, to be sure.

    Why the fascination? He could have chosen any number of other people to dump on. I don't see how he chose you out of the crowd.

    For crying out loud, he's connecting you to Sarah Palin's writing collaborator via a couple of degress of separation. It's like, he's building you up as the linchpin of the entire conservative population of the country. "Bring down McCain, and the whole rotten structure collapses. Mwahahaha."

    I suspect his day to day life is not a happy or fulfilling thing. I think Dennis the Peasant had a pretty good take on him.

    http://dennisthepeasant.typepad.com/dennis_the_peasant/2009/09/influence-angst-and-charles-johnson.html

    "When I met Charles, back in 2004, he was fiftyish and driving a somewhat battered Hyundai. According to Raj, he'd been cleaned out in recent divorce and didn't have much more than that Hyundai, his computer and his bike. That's got to be a tough thing to take at fifty. It is probably fair to say that Little Green Footballs and the blogosphere were about the only things Charles had going for him. Which is, quite frankly, somewhat sad."



    Wm T Sherman

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  11. The Communication Director of the Godless Coalition? Really?

    If you have to identify yourself with others who LACK something...just go ahead and call yourselves the Clueless Coalition. Easier to remember, and it makes a nice alliteration.

    Stacy, I'd associate with you. Long as you buy a round now and then.

    For the record folks, I can't find anything supremecist about McCain based upon his writing. Oh, sure, he's white enuf, and all that. But supreme?

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  12. Stacy, regarding the trolls and fools [like Brown, Maddow, Johnson, et. al., don't forget Psalm 63:

    1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

    2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

    3 Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

    4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

    5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:

    6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

    7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

    8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

    9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

    10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.

    11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

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  13. Barrett Brown os yet another socially retarded so-called "atheist" who gives atheists and agnostics a bad name. Specifically, he enhances the stereotype that they are all socially inept dweebs who need to make fun of central Kentucky biblical literalists who think cavemen rode dinosaurs to work.
    By "crusading" against the simple, he shows us all how intellectually superior he is.

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  14. you will fail to convict me of hate...I don't even hate you."

    For all their self righteous bluster they betray themselves. Foiled by the hate they so conspicuously attempt to bludgeon you with.
    Convicted by their own hand the sin they accuse.

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  15. Chuck is on drugs... yes he is

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  16. "Barrett Brown os yet another socially retarded so-called 'atheist'"


    Barret is that most delicious flavor of atheist - the evangelical, missionary kind.

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  17. Stacy - while Mr. Belvedere's counsel of cooler heads and Christian foregiveness is probably better in this situation, I would offer a quote from the book of Puzo:

    "If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone."

    By kill, I mean in the metaphorical or sarcastic sense - or perhaps as once employed by Lee Atwater or something.

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  18. To Alec Leamas: God gave us free will so it's within our rights to make our enemies 'a portion for foxes' on our own--in the metaphorical sense, of course.

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  19. I have come to a conclusion as to why the Hate on you Stacy. And this is why...I would be willing to bet this is why...PAMELA GELLER..anyone who associates with her becomes a target of that pig Charles Johnson. Wonder why? Draw your own conclusion. And it seems mental.

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  20. The accusation of racism has become a petty taunt by the left against its critics. Every observation becomes "racist" when it engenders hard questions of left-think assumptions, and even when it doesn't.

    People who might have legitimate grievances against real racism lose their legitimacy, because their charges of racism can be so easily dismissed as just more whining. The ever-so-caring left bears the blame for this.

    RebeccaH

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