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2013-12-24 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by badanov 2013-12-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [13 views ] Top

#1 Thanks for explaining this. I was wondering what in the heck was going on. I think I'll go with Steyn -- he's proven himself.

Posted by Steve White 2013-12-24 00:15|| 2013-12-24 00:15|| Front Page Top

#2 National Review Steps In It, Big Time. Again.

NR is the same publication that fired John Derbyshire for a piece he wrote for Taki's Magazine entitled The Talk: Nonblack Version. Derbyshire had the bad manners to make some politically incorrect, but demonstrably true statements regarding certain ethnic populations.

Posted by SteveS 2013-12-24 01:00|| 2013-12-24 01:00|| Front Page Top

#3 I guess Gramsci can apply even to ostensibly conservative organizations.

Posted by charger 2013-12-24 01:35|| 2013-12-24 01:35|| Front Page Top

#4 Quite a while back it had become obvious to all but the unread that NR has slipped its moorings and gone adrift from Conservatism, into "establishment-ism", and kowtowing to the northeastern big-city cocktail party set.

Now we know part of the reason why. To alter a phrase from Forrest Gump: Quisling is as Quisling does.

Fire him. Period. And get back to standing athwart history and shouting STOP, as founder Wm. F. Buckley recommended.

Posted by OldSpook 2013-12-24 03:03|| 2013-12-24 03:03|| Front Page Top

#5 Word SteveS. I stopped reading them after they fired Derb.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2013-12-24 04:14|| 2013-12-24 04:14|| Front Page Top

#6 The Gramscian termite can appear at any time.

One great example: Andrew Sullivan. As a young man he wrote great speeches for Ronald Reagan, for whom his attraction was, as he later admitted, sexual and not ideological. After ingratiating himself to conservatives during the post 9/11 period, he attempted to use his large audience share to advocate for the radical gay agenda. Sleeper cell all along? You be the judge.

Charles Johnson at Little Greeen Footballs? I'd have to say that the same dynamic is at work.

Remember Heidi Cullen, high priestess of global warming at the Weather Channel, who started out as a regular weather babe only to parlay her position into advocating that anyone who disagreed with her views should lose their licensure and their means to make a living? Similar dynamic. Insinuate yourself into place and go off like a human time bomb when the time is right.

Look, in any organization you are going to have people who differ on some issue. But it becomes obvious at some point when somebody has insinuated themselves into a situation to, ah, not let a crisis go to waste. This guy is a recent college grad (by my standards, anyways, I'm no spring chicken). His thought process is marinated in the methodology of the academy as it exists in the high water mark of the politically correct movement; shouting down, speech codes, grading people upon their politics and not their inherent skill, and hiring/promoting based upon the same.

None of us can tell NR what to do. The best thing for them to do going forward is proper vetting to prevent any other Manchurian cadidate types from coming on board in the first place.

Posted by no mo uro 2013-12-24 06:00|| 2013-12-24 06:00|| Front Page Top

#7 ...I like NRO, but if it comes down to a choice I will unreservedly stand next to Mark Steyn. He may be of a different tribe, but in his heart, he is an American...in the finest possible sense of what that used to mean.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2013-12-24 07:47|| 2013-12-24 07:47|| Front Page Top

#8 Very well written.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2013-12-24 09:13|| 2013-12-24 09:13|| Front Page Top

#9 NR is the same publication that fired John Derbyshire

An action that Jason Lee Steorts vociferously defended.

Posted by Pappy 2013-12-24 09:46|| 2013-12-24 09:46|| Front Page Top

#10 Birds of a feather are to flock together. Water and oil does not mix. So on and so on.

Posted by Threreling Munster6125 2013-12-24 10:24|| 2013-12-24 10:24|| Front Page Top

#11 Fire him. I bet Daily Beast is hiring

Posted by Frank G 2013-12-24 12:06|| 2013-12-24 12:06|| Front Page Top

#12 When it comes to the legal restriction of speech, or the legal coercion of dissenters, Ill storm the barricade with Mark. It amazes me that any soi-disant free people tolerate that sort of thing.

You fart, that is what Mr. Steyn is doing. I'd fire him for being an editor who contradicts himself in his own opinion piece, and proving his opponents point to boot.

I don't know what is going on here, or who Stoerts is. Ever watch a sports broadcast and it becomes painfully obvious that one of the announcers doesn't know a damn thing about the game? Perhaps Stoerts had a bad outing, but that is the first thought which popped into my head after reading his piece. Boring indeed, but as an editor a person is expected the ability of judgement, which his article also lacks.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-12-24 15:42|| 2013-12-24 15:42|| Front Page Top

#13 Haven't read NR for years. Nothing that has happened since then has changed my mind. Endorsing Romney certainly didn't boost their conservative bona fides. It is no loner the magazine which WFB founded - not by a long shot.

Posted by Cheager Smiter of the Huns2124 2013-12-24 17:19|| 2013-12-24 17:19|| Front Page Top

#14 The Robertson statements on both homosexuality and race have relevance because they rattle the grievance industry at its very core. Not in terms of judgment but of definition. Hate the sin but love the sinner is the essence of tolerance. Witness to perseverance in the face of injustice is counter to privilege. The secular progressive understands those traditional beliefs nullify their agenda. That is why they have to silence dissenting views with claims of bigotry.

Posted by DepotGuy 2013-12-24 18:31|| 2013-12-24 18:31|| Front Page Top

#15 What Mike K said

Posted by Barbara 2013-12-24 19:40|| 2013-12-24 19:40|| Front Page Top

23:23 Barbara
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