It turns out that Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money (a.k.a., Lesbians, Gays, and Marriage) is shocked - shocked! - to find hated-filled intolerance in his comments section.
Farley, apparently, just returned from Seattle. While gone he had Professor Charli Carpenter write a guest essay. Professor Carpenter's an expert on gender and humanitarian intervention in international politics. She also a co-blogger at Duck of Minerva.
Well, she took a hit from Farley's regular commentocracy at her guest essay, "Careless Warfare or Lawfare? A Pointless Debate." Farley then wrote a chivalrous post to defend her. He writes:
I'm a bit befuddled by the apparent influx of an army of trolls in my absence ... I was extremely disappointed by this comment thread, and in particular that one of my favorite regular commenters saw fit to mount his high horse and dismiss Charli as "a technician of empire" for making a set of entirely reasonable claims about airstrikes in Afghanistan ... Regular commenters incur some responsibility for civility, but more importantly they have a responsibility to behave as if the bloggers and the other regular commenters are acting in good faith. This means that you can't simply denounce a blogger as "a technician of empire," and thus unworthy of engagement, after a single post. At LGM we ban people because of arbitrary drunken whim; no one is safe. That said, consistenly treating the bloggers and other commenters as idiots who act in bad faith (and to be sure, I don't think that the commenter in question has established such a pattern of behavior; far from it) is, in the fullness of time, likely to get you banned.Oh poor Robbie! The faux outrage is exquisite! And boy, how about that determination and resolve: "No one is safe!" My God, what would life be like without posting privileges at LGM! A poor soul's life would be ruined to meet such a fate!
"Be not so long to speak. I long to die"!
Seriously, that's offensive? Suggesting that Professor Carpenter is "a technician of empire" raises old Robbie's hackles? Actually, that's nothing compared to the regular bile the spills off that page.
No doubt too that Professor Carpenter's a big girl and she likely can handle the abuse, or she wouldn't be blogging. No, what's funny is that if you cruise through some of the other comments at the post you'll feel as though you were at an organizing meeting for the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party.
Check it out:
Somehow we need to reestablish the principle that the only time using military force abroad is justified is in response to an immediate, direct threat to your own country -- which in the case of the United States means pretty much never. The alternative, which we've got now, is simply imperialism.
Ahh, let me think ... "an immediate, direct threat" to our country is "pretty much never"?
Never say never, as they say:
Invading Afghanistan was a monumentally stupid idea. Remaining there remains stupid.
Yep, invading Afghanistan was such a "monumentally stupid idea" that 98 U.S. Senators and 420 U.S. Representatives authorized the President of the United States "to use all 'necessary and appropriate force' against those whom he determined 'planned, authorized, committed or aided' the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups."
But hey, we want Charli Carpenter to feel welcomed!
Wouldn't want to lose the one professor at LGM who actually has a shred of scholarly credibility.
Remember, Robert Farley is the professor who bagged $1000 to write a book review while simultaneously twiddling his Johnson and sipping a few whiskey sours!
2 comments:
LGM is only a blog, not social science. How does Professor Carpenter's "scholarly credibility" come into play?
Of course this clown's "scholarly credibility" isn't in question here, no matter how many times Donald shows his ass.
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