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Little Green Bigots?

August 10, 2006 10:25 PM

o, Little Green Footballs is a blog that's been getting a lot of attention lately. It's one of the blogs that helped break the story that the Killian Documents, which were offered as proof that George W. Bush's service in the Texas Army National Guard was less than exemplary on 60 Minutes, were forgeries. More recently, it helped break the story that a picture taken by a Reuters freelance photographer was altered using Photoshop.

Given all the attention that blog's been getting, I decided to check it out myself, just to see what was going on over there. What I found, frankly, was shocking. The commenters on the blog are almost all conservative. That's to be expected - the blog's author, Charles Johnson, is a conservative himself. Moreover, I knew that the blog had a conservative slant from reading about it. Still, I was shocked when I actually read the comments (Little Gree Footballs is another blog like Althouse's where the action happens mostly in the comments. That, in itself, annoys me.)

The most confusing and offensive stuff I found centered around comments on Bush's use of the term "Islamic fascists" to describe our enemies in the "War on Terror." Bush made the comment today after the foiling of the recent terror plot in Britain. Now, I can't really talk about my reaction to the comment because I don't have one. It's not really worth much thought, in my opinion. The people who were involved in the plot are Muslims. Ok. I'm not sure if they're fascists or not. It's not offensive: he's not calling all Muslims fascists or terrorists. He's saying that our enemies are Islamic fascists. You can debate whether it's accurate. But it's not offensive. Neither is it particularly stunning.

So, I was surprised when I saw this post. The post itself is innocuous, but some of the comments are insane:


This is the reason I am greatful he is our president. He calls it like it is. Bless this man.
I guess you'd expect that from a commenter on a conservative blog. Let's move on:
President Bush said the arrests are a "stark reminder" that the U.S. is "at war with Islamic fascists."

Guess he's decided it's time to retire that whole "tiny minority of extremists hijacking a great religion of peace" load he's been shoveling, eh?

But this is the worst one, by far:
I work with a Muslim dude. He's quiet and distant. Everytime one of these Islamofascist terrorist things happen . . . I trust him less and less.
This post was followed by a post in which Mr. Johnson criticizes CAIR for denouncing Bush's comment. Again, I feel the comment was fine and, therefore, CAIR's statement seems unnecessary and overly defensive. Still, it's reasonable. Here's something they said:
We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims
After September 11th, I was disgusted to learn of the violence against Muslims and people who "looked" like Muslims. That's not what this country's about. Therefore, I understand where CAIR is coming from: It's some Muslims that are evil, just like some Christians, some Jews, some Buddhists, some atheists, some people. But look at the response from one of the commenters:
Laughable....these people are nuts!
That's just such fucking bullshit. Look, I don't know a lot about Islam, I'll admit. But I do know that the vast majority of Muslims are vehemently opposed to the kind of terrorist attacks that were planned by the people arrested in Britain. It's ignorant and stupid to claim that all Muslims are terrorists.

Of course this sort of speech is protected, and rightly so. But it's bad enough to reduce an entire religion with the term "terrorist." Do we really need to nurture an environment where that happens? Mr. Johnson disclaims the comments, saying that they do not necessarily express his views. That's fine, but I don't think it's enough. People have posted mean things on this blog, mostly directed at me. I've left those comments up because I'd feel like a fascist otherwise. But if the comments portion of this blog ever became a haven for racist comments, I'd step in and say, in no uncertain terms, that that kind of speech isn't walcome here. Mr. Johnson hasn't done that. He hasn't even engaged these commenters to say "That's fine that you think that, but you're wrong."

The fact of the matter, though, is that those people are wrong. And, what's worse, they're stupid. Yes, terrorism is bad. Yes, September 11th was a horrible day. Yes, the people responsible were Muslims. But that doesn't give us carte blanche to hate a whole culture. In fact, we have to guard against having that happen. One of the major problems in our "War on Terror" is that we haven't taken the time to understand our enemy and, more importantly, to learn how to differentiate between our enemies and the innocent bystanders standing next to our enemies. The attitudes expressed at Little Green Footballs are just one step away from a "kill 'em all" attitude (in fact, that attitude is expressed on the blog). If we truly adopt that attitude, then we've failed not only at waging effective warfare, but at being an honorable nation. That is, assuming we haven't failed already. See, e.g., Hiroshima; Nagasaki; internment camps; Guantanamo Bay; slavery; segregation.



14 Comments


Santi said:

The type of comments I find the most ignorant are ones where someone is going off about "towelheads", when in fact most people you see wearing turbans are actually probably Sikh, not Muslim.

August 10, 2006 11:27 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

I can't find it right now, but there was definitely at least one comment at one of the posts that made that exact reference. It's just disgusting.

August 10, 2006 11:36 PM



Vice said:

That's right. As a matter of fact, we ought to take the term "Towelheads" back. Towelhead 4 Life!!

August 11, 2006 8:15 AM



jbob said:

"One of the major problems in our "War on Terror" is that we haven't taken the time to understand our enemy"

Yes. Lets understand why they'd like to kill us. I'll feel much better when a 747 blows up above Chicago and kills all the passengers and people on the ground below if I know what is going on in their heads. At least then I can sit back, reflect, ponder their concerns and make changes in my life to less offend.

But don't worry your pretty little head. Government teams are working on this problem right now for you. Here's the current theory:

http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2306

August 11, 2006 9:14 AM



kristin said:

Is this comment:

If we are at war with them, why are we letting them have whole countries as sanctuaries where they can raise any army, build any weapon, hatch any plot?

a statement that we shouldn't let Islamist fascists have a whole country, or a claim that Muslims in general should not have the right to their own country? In the overall context of that discussion, I couldn't really tell.

August 11, 2006 11:18 AM



jorge montego said:

Not very open minded. Same kind of crud can be found crawling from the muck at the bottom of Daily Kos or Dems Underground.

I expected more from a future lawyer who should be able to see both sides of every argument at this point in his learnings. Especially one on law review.

August 11, 2006 3:17 PM



tRJ said:

I was also going to mention Kos and the Dem Underground, which spawn thousands of comments a day, all full of equally ignorant ramblings.

As for the comments in question here, I want to know where this "vast majority of Muslims vehemently opposed to terrorist attacks" is. Why don't I see them on the news denouncing the extremist wings of their faith? I suspect and hope they are out there. But I want to know why they aren't making a visible effort to distance their "religion of peace" from terrorists.

August 11, 2006 3:56 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

I'm going to attempt to reply to the comments on here one by one:

jbob:
I'm sorry if my use of the word "understand" was misleading. I don't mean that we should "understand and accept" our enemy or their tactics. I merely meant that our enemy is far more sophisticated than the American government is giving them credit for. At the very least, our enemy is not as easy to identify as some would hope. You cannot, for example, just look for Muslims, or for people with turbans. It's much more nuanced than that.

Also, motivation must be considered. How would you react, for example, if someone came into your country (I assume it's America) and started fucking everything up? The fact is that, justified or not (and I leave that question open), American forces are now occupying what was an independent nation, and that wouldn't sit well with me. Read my words carefully, though: I'm NOT saying that the tactics of the insurgents in Iraq are justified, merely that their attitude is one we could have anticipated and, more importantly, taken steps to prevent. With more careful planning, the insurgency may have been avoidable, even to a small degree.

Kristin:
I don't know. The fact is that in that context, it's kinda hard to know what's a joke, what's serious, etc.

Mr. Montego:
I welcome you to my blog and I thank you for posting. I must admit that I haven't been to Daily Kos or Dems Underground and, therefore, cannot comment on whether comments of an equally inflamatory nature can be found at those blogs. This post was merely meant to vent my feelings on the things going on at Little Green Footballs.

I must admit, also, that I am perplexed by your comment about how I should be able to see both sides of an argument. My main point is that the kind of reactionary and, I think, racist stuff that was going on at Little Green Footballs is stupid, and I wanted to talk about that and refute some of the "points" that were made.

If there's something I'm not considering, I invite you to please bring it to my attention.

Further, and this goes to part of what tRJ said as well, I'm sorry if this post seemed one-sided or biased to you. However, the fact is that I have criticized Democrats, liberals, and people on the left generally several times on this blog. I am vehemently against the idea that all reasonable opinions fall on either the left or the right. It seems much more probable to me that there are reasonable people on both sides, and that there are solutions to problems on both sides. What I take issue with is the kind of nonsense being spouted by some of the posters at Little Green Footballs. But I've also taken issue in the past with several beliefs and people from the left.

Also, I should take this opportunity to point out the fact that this is my personal blog. While it's true that I'm on Law Review, this blog is not connected with Law Review in any way and doesn't reflect anything but my own personal opinions. So if you have an issue with something I said, please don't hold it against Law Review as an entity or any of the individuals associated with it.

tRJ:
I don't think the burden is on, nor should be on, the millions of peaceful Muslims around the world to defend their religion. We don't, or shouldn't, blame all Christians for abortion clinic bombings. Personally, I don't expect Christians to distance themselves from people who bomb abortion clinics - they shouldn't have to. The "distancing" should be done automatically by reasonable people - people should know that most Christians would not bomb a clinic, regardless of their stance on abortion. People should know, automatically, that Christians who kill people like that are not "mainstream" and are not exemplars of the religion.

It's the same with Muslims. I know that the people responsible for numerous terrorist acts are Muslims. But that doesn't mean that Islam is a religion of violence, or that all Muslims are terrorists. And it certainly doesn't mean that these few are the exemplars of their faith. It seems very likely to me that they are people who are followers of a cult-ish version of Islam, not unlike various Christianity-derived cults active in America in the 20th and 21st centuries.

All that aside, however, I don't think the burden falls on the majority of Muslims to say "this isn't what our religion is about." The burden should be on people to know that the kinds of people who hijack planes and crash them into buildings cannot be the exemplars of one of the world's major religions.

August 11, 2006 6:18 PM



Katherine said:

They got called out on the whole facist thing - on hardball - it was pretty funny actually. The hardball guy basically asked the head of the department of homeland security whether George Bush knew the definition of facist. And then gave the examples of how terrorists are somewhat different that the facist regime in Italy under Musolini or in Spain etc. It was fucking amusing to watch the dude squirm as he tried to reassure Chris Matthews, that yes, George Bush was aware of European history and the "conventional" use of the word facism and then made some far fetched analogy to cover his ass. Amusing...

August 12, 2006 5:15 PM



tRJ said:

I wasn't aware liberals cared about the "actual" definition of fascist, given how I hear it used in Madison every day.

August 13, 2006 2:42 PM



Donnie said:

Oooooh, getting defensive tRJ? You fascist conservative pig!

August 13, 2006 11:07 PM



jorge montego said:

I shall buy you a beer some time my friend and tell you about the old country.

August 14, 2006 1:28 PM



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