Tagged: Charles Johnson RSS Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • aziz 12:19 pm on January 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Charles Johnson,   

    Charles Johnson says:

    “The kinds of hate mail and the kinds of attacks I am getting from the right wing are way beyond anything I got when I was criticizing the left or even radical Islam.”

    The rightwing nutjobs do have the numerical advantage, so that’s not surprising.

    btw, the LA Times piece on Johnson was overall positive, but the NYT piece was more critical. Johnson has posted a couple of responses to the NYT piece. He was also profiled in Vanity Fair.

    UPDATE – my post at COB on Charles Johnson’s jihad.

     

    • vanderleun 3:43 pm on January 25, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      “The rightwing nutjobs do have the numerical advantage, so that’s not surprising”

      Well,that’s not true, but considering you wrote it, that’s not surprising.

  • abunoor 6:56 pm on January 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Charles Johnson, Nicholas Wade, Razib Khan   

    Blogging Heads has a couple of diavlogs this weekend: one featuring Charles Johnson of LGF on his famous break with the right, another with our old friend Razib Khan talking with Nicholas Wade,who has a new book on religion from an evolutionary perspective.

     

    • razib, murtad fitri 3:11 pm on January 3, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      tx for the link. 60 minutes was really short. prolly should stuck to evolutionary aspects in hindsight, since i didn’t want to get into arguments about christian or muslim history as it’s unsqueezable into 30 minutes.

    • shams 10:50 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I very much liked the analogy to language. I think ill buy the book.
      SBH, blushing and waterfall displays indeed.
      I suppose the chomskyian “deep grammer” model of language is analogous to spandrels while Wades model is analogous to Pinkerian cognitive anthro….as I favor SBH and cog anthro…..I think I prefer Wade as I prefer Pinker.
      I wonder if there if there is not only a positive correlation between IQ and atheism…..and a negative correlation between religiousity and IQ …..but a negative correlation between …..oh say….. music, dance……umm….. cultural fluency and atheism…..like lack of appreciation for hiphop?
      I’m inspired to look up my old work on evolution of dance and chimpanzee waterfall displays.
      Waterfall displays are not about sexual selection….but about…umm…… awe.
      ;)
      I want another book….Wades work integrated with what we are learning about SBH….I think…the fusion of SBH(social brain hypothesis) and cognitive anthropoly is going to reveal a lot….many secrets in District 9.
      lol.
      I thought the letters of Paul predating the life of Jesus, yet following in the new testament….. analogous to the Meccan Suras coming at the end of the Qur’an.
      Given our recent discussion of Ashura I find Wade’s historical explanation of Muawiya as a christian to be …umm…bizarre?
      But the border of the quantum and classical worlds is still sirr (mystery).
      In maarifa, the invisible world.
      ;)

  • Shams al-Nahar 8:04 am on December 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Charles Johnson,   

    Ripple effect from Charles Johnson’s break with the right.

    We don’t believe in trickle-down economics anymore, but we do believe in trickle down hate. And violence and intimidation that is practiced against our government representatives could soon enough be practiced against us.

    Every Shabbos we pray for the government of the United States. As the third chapter of the Pirkei Avot notes: “Pray for the welfare of the government, for without fear of governmental authorities people would swallow each other alive.” A Tea Party rally is no place for a Jew. Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, Mr. Obama is the President of the United States and, if nothing else, he deserves to command the respect that we as citizens owe to that office.

    All of this truly makes us wonder where the Right wing has gone. Leaders like Sarah Palin, Joe Wilson, and Dick Cheney are more embarrassing than inspiring. The conservative movement, as Sam Tanenhaus writes in The New Republic, and like punk rock before it, is dead. This Chanukah we know what we want: a rebirth.
    We want the right to be Right.

     

    • shams 4:22 pm on December 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      btw, 78% of American Jews voted for Obama.

      • Buzz 6:56 pm on December 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Least popular president in Israel accoding to recent polls.

        • shams 12:25 am on December 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          well ……yes.
          He’s a muslim nigger that actually wants to solve the Israel/Palestine problem.
          Of course the Zionists hate him.
          Israel is just a volunteer Selusa Secudus…..

  • Shams al-Nahar 4:54 am on December 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Charles Johnson   

    Charles and Andrew leave the building.
    Last one out, turn off the lights.

     

    • Shams al-Nahar 4:56 am on December 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      reason numbah 9.

      9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)

      …given adequate substrate, everything evolves.

  • aziz 6:40 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Charles Johnson, , , , ,   

    Charles Johnson of LGF declares war on Glenn beck and the culture-war conservatives. I can’t help myself in admiring him, despite his absolute dogmatic stance on the Palestinians and Islam in general (and some personal bad blood between us as well). He is a consistent critic of fascism, and the credibility of the jafi-sphere never fully recovered from Charles’ denunciation of the Jihadwatch/Atlas Shrugged alliance with European white supremacists. This is not schadenfreude on my part, I genuinely am pleased to see Charles be rigid and unyielding on the matter of basic human rights and dignity, even if it means we are collateral damage (rhetorically speaking).

    Bravo, Mr. Johnson.

     

    • null 7:47 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I tend to feel the same way of Charles Johnson. At least he is consistent by his own beliefs. His denunciation of JW/Atlas shrugs I feel is only the first of many necessary splits withing the Jafisphere.

      Thus far they had conveniently ignored their various differences in philosophy and politics to collectively malign Islam and Muslims at whatever costs. These are not minor points of contention amongst them. You have Christian evangelicals to radical feminists to white supremacists to far, far right wing Israel supporters to extreme leftists to rabid atheists to Christian zionists (my personal favorite) to just your regular run of the mill bigots, all teaming up under the banner of resisting the islamoficationisation of the west. These alliances can’t last.

      I kind of like it when Robert Spencer and Pamela Gellar gives each new Islamophobe their seal of approval. They are such obvious racists (and in Pam’s case, obviously unhinged), in good time it will be seen as the kiss of death, surely.

    • Aaqil 10:01 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Charles Johnson was allowing his visitors to preach hate speech on his website for years and all is better because he is against Glenn Beck? I don’t think so.

      I don’t know if you realized this, but Glenn Beck called out Charles Johnson personally on his television show. Ever since then, Mr. Johnson has been holding a personal grudge.

      It seems as if he is like a weathervane which turns to attack whomever his critics are as he assumes the opposite position of what they have. He is not to be trusted by anyone.

      • Dan 10:11 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Not really. He has also made an effort to crack down on hate speech on his blog.

        Here’s a quote of the decade to illustrate his change.

        • aziz 11:33 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          now THAT is an amazing find. In the same thread he also expressed deep skepticism of the Rifqa Bary case.

          • thabet 2:56 am on September 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

            but hey, what do I know? I’ve only reported on honor killings for 8 years.

            Reported? As in went out and interviewed people, gathered evidence, and produced a coherent narrative of the events to inform the reader?

            Or just added links on his blog for 8 years?

            • null 3:30 am on September 16, 2009 Permalink

              Eight years eh? How’s about that.

    • Thomas Nephew 11:18 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Interesting; and you’re right, Aziz, good for Johnson. Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I called out Johnson on his “Peaceful Religion Watch”-type schtick, which I thought pretty much lumped all of Islam together with criminals pretending to act in its name. (At the time, that generated a fair amount of comment, but they’ve all vanished due to a screwup of mine.) IIRC — it’s been years — I got a “sorry you’re so deluded” type of response. In my view, LGF became an online refugium, echo chamber, and go-to site for many of the people he is now criticizing; maybe Johnson is facing up to some responsibility for that. Maybe not. I wonder how he squares anti-racism with his broad brush negative views on Islam — or whether I’ve misunderstood those views, or whether those views are changing.

      My guess is he has some way of squaring those views, and someday maybe I’ll learn what that is, though I’m not going to make a study of it. But I confess to surprise that he’s not howling at Obama for latent/nonlatent Muslimness, or blackness. It’s a start to better, it’s a limit to worse. And I may go look for his reaction to Obama’s Cairo speech, just in a spirit of inquiry.

      • aziz 11:32 am on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        his reaction to the Cairo speech would indeed be interesting, and I hope you post what you find here!

        I think Charles has been on a journey of evolving opinions like all of his. I dunno if I can “reconcile” my own opinions from when i began blogging to today, even though I could defend the evolution of them over time in response to events and others.

        I admire Charles mainly for his adherence to broad principle – fascism bad, human right universal, freedom good. He genuinely is trying to apply them consistently. I read at LGF earlier somewhere a comment from him to teh effect of, “outlawing any religion? not down with that” (in response to someone else calling for Islam to be illegal).

        • Thomas Nephew 2:26 pm on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          Here it is: “Overall, this was a pretty good speech, with the usual boilerplate statements of support for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but also a clear acknowledgment of the Palestinian culture of violence [...] I agree with Max Boot’s summation: Not bad. It could have been better. But it also could have been a lot worse.
          [...] Read the whole thing. It’s doubtful that this one speech is going to lead to a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” but it’s certainly going to give the Muslim world a lot to talk about. It will be interesting to watch their reactions.”           Johnson follows up later with a MEMRI roundup of positive and negative reactions, which he describes as “some pretty reasonable, others, well…”; he puts an apparently Arab media origin, implicitly anti-Semitic cartoon over that to illustrate one of the bad reactions.

          So a fairly positive response to Obama’s speech, mainly in not seeing it as kowtowing per se. And a more muted, straight up depiction of responses in the Arab media than I would have guessed, though he couldn’t resist that cartoon as the visual summary. All in all, to steal a phrase, it could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse.

        • Thomas Nephew 2:38 pm on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          I dunno if I can “reconcile” my own opinions from when i began blogging to today

          I know how that goes.

          • aziz 4:46 am on September 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

            heh. Indeed. we should still do a cross comparison of our views on Iraq over the years. I find it fascinating how you and I seem to share almost all our basic principles and opinions, yet via the process of reasoning and analysis arrived at different points on that particular issue. i think it reflected well on both of us.

    • shams 6:11 pm on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Four years ago, the Lord of the Lizardoids was my introduction to Known Blogspace.
      Say what you like, Charles is an equal opportunity hatah of fascism of every stripe….He has evolved on al-Islam.
      I think he banned meh like 6 or 8 times for arguing with him in the bad old days about al Islam and Roobart Sbunsar and the axis of idiots.
      I finally gave up commenting there.
      The real has great power…..it turned me into a muslimah and launched Charles on jihaad against Beck and the Discovery Institute.
      But Charles is still a hardcore Zionist…i dont’ think that position CAN evolve.

      You guyz don’t know anything about my conservative chops, do you?
      I was regularily linked by Reynolds, Joe Katzman at Winds of Change was my blogfather, I was Jeff Goldsteins favorite guest blogger, one of Razib’s blogger stable at GNXP and friends with Allahpundit.
      My habbibi has humored my evolution all this time.
      inshallah I can live up to whatever he sees in meh.
      ;)

      • shams 6:42 pm on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        brother buzz would have lurved the old me.
        ;)

        • Buzz 9:14 pm on September 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

          I remember you from eteraz.org. You were more coserative and hawkish but not far from fair

    • thabet 2:57 am on September 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      It’s as though Glen Jenvey converted to Islam.

  • aziz 3:59 pm on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Charles Johnson, Country First,   

    I am not ashamed to admit I have been reading Little Green Footballs regularly of late. Here’s just one reason why.

     

    • razib 4:20 pm on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      many on the left like to employ stereotypes when it suits their own preconceptions (e.g., republicans are stupid, all on the religious right are christianists, etc.). johnson is “off the reservation” on several topics. e.g., he’s been fighting against creationism for years. this isn’t to imply that you should agree with him on all issues, but that people should get beyond cookie-cutter cut-outs of people when there’s plenty of extant evidence of their nuance.

    • kaitlin 4:35 pm on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Glad you liked this post too :) I thought it was about as right on as one could get while still retaining an individual perspective. @blogdiva is a recommended follow for sure.

    • aziz 6:31 pm on April 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I’m not gonna be singing kumbaya with Johnson anytime soon; but I can respect him even as I disagree with him on other issues and even retain some bitterness towards him personally.

    • Safia 1:35 pm on April 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      An incredible look by the Washington Independent at how Johnson has turned against the Jihadwatch/Atlas Shrugs crowd.

      I agree with the first comment that it’s a “fascinating peek into the world of blogging.” More than the breakup of the anti-jihadist bloggers, I find the analysis of interactions, friendships, betrayals, of allies-turned-enemies among big time bloggers the most interesting.

    • thabet 2:08 pm on April 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      All being documented by GOVVS.

    • Conrad Barwa 3:14 pm on April 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I never shared your residual respect for the site or its author; though I am not a prolific reader of either. I remember some of the stuff that was spewed out around about the time of the 2003 invasion and it was just stupid apart from anything else. I don’t have much patience for that kind of crap or people peddled particularly when life and death decisions were being made in such an irresponsible manner. SO he has suddenly woken up and realised that Obama is the C-in-C; big fucking whoopdedoo – are we meant to give him a medal or something? Conservatives or moderates who went loco for whatver reason afgter the WTC attacks are just like most weak-kneed liberals – you can’t count on them to talk sense or think critically when the shit hits the fan. In normal times they are prolly decent and reasonable people; but that matters little since their faculties seem to go walkabout preciselyt when they are most needed.

      And Razib – most conservatives are stupid :D

  • aziz 12:57 pm on February 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Charles Johnson, ,   

    Charles Johnson at LGF is stating the obvious – but it needed to be stated. Kudos to Charles for doing so.

     

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
l
go to login
h
show/hide help
shift + esc
cancel