My most recent posting on "That Notorious Buckley AIDS Column" produced a torrential response, including some wild attacks on me threatening to beat me up and even sue me if I didn't take the post down. My intention was to keep the post up for a day or so, but when I saw this response, I decided to let it stay up through the weekend. Some of my critics are real goons, and it's important to teach these thugs a lesson in free speech.
Besides, what were they getting so hysterical about? I got the idea for the post by reading responses to my Buckley eulogy on the occasion of his death. All I did was tell the full story about the famou Buckley AIDS column, reporting how it came about, what the reaction was, and giving an accurate account of a subsequent National Review contest about the column. My own account of Buckley's article was not uncritical, and to the degree that the humor was offensive the culprits were Buckley himself and his associate Jeff Hart. Yet I took the brunt of the abuse.
A little secret about me: I enjoy this stuff. When I was editor of the Dartmouth Review we used to tell the deans that taking on our student newspaper was like wrestling with a pig: not only did it get everyone dirty, but the pig liked it! I guess my Dartmouth experience has made me a little thin-skinned with regard to a certain type of attack. I always try to learn from intelligent criticism, but when I get outright obscenity and threats and name-calling, I sit by my swimming pool with a drink in my hand and laugh my head off.
Some of my pals who read this blog do periodically ask why some of my critics are so out of control. One of my friends even printed out a bunch of responses to my recent posts, handing me a sampling. I reproduce a few items to give you the flavor.
"Dinesh you should be executed."
"Dear Dick (I mean Dinesh)"
"We are stupid if we let this sand n*gg*r speak for us. Go home."
"This guy is a friggin' dot head."
"Hypocritical jerkoff."
"Go back to India you narrow-minded punk. You don't have a f*ck*ng clue, bitch."
"You have sh*t for brains. You are a moron too."
"I f*ck*ng hate the way Dinesh uses that stupid voice...I want to punch him in the face."
"Oh Double D (that stands for Double Douchebag by the way)"
"Dinesh is far and away the dumbest human being on this planet."
"It's asshole immigrants like Dineshit, an untouchable from India is why I am against immigration."
"Self-absorbed cretin."
"You only need to take a look at Dinesh ato know something is wrong with him. He is the quintessential little ugly deformed fascist. Weird lower lip, sticks straight out, weird pink ledge. Goofy ears. Little weird looking fascist nerd with a barren intellect and an even more despitable soul."
"I hope you die. What a piece of crap."
"The only rational response is for me to tell you are that you are simply full of sh*t and need to pull your head out of your ass."
I've been examining these comments for valid criticisms. Maybe I am a little self-absorbed, although my critics seem far more absorbed with me than I am. Hypocrisy I plead guilty to: it simply means that I have higher standards than I can live up to. I have never claimed to be a handsome guy, although through some stroke of luck I managed to marry a woman who looks like a model: maybe she is partially blind. I doubt I am the dumbest human being on the planet although I may be--a) the dumbest guy to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from an Ivy League college, b) the dumbest guy to serve in his mid-twenties in the White House, c) the dumbest guy to have taught at Harvard and served as a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, d) the dumbest guy to have written five New York Times bestsellers. Sometimes I wonder what I might have accomplished if I was a little smarter.
Now let's turn to these critics. It's striking that the cultural left, which wears the public face of tolerance and openness, quickly drops this cover when it's orthodoxies are questioned. Suddenly ad hominem epithets fly, and the intolerance and outright bigotry that is supposed to be the province of the right is quickly exposed as a distinctive feature of the secular left. I suspect that these folks are used to hanging out with people who share their political and cultural assumptions. They are not used to having these assumptions questioned. Unable to counter with facts and arguments, their only weapons are epithets and abuse. I have encountered this combination of left-wing and lowbrow on the campus, usually at second and third-rate universities. There occasionally I encounter a student who can do no better than yell "fascist" and run out of the room. In a way I feel sorry for him: his worldview has been shattered, and his abuse is simply an indication of the inner confusion he is experiencing.
To my friends and fans who keep encouraging me: No need to tell me to keep my chin up. It's already up. In fact, I feel blessed to have such irrational invective hurled at me. As long as my critics continue to reveal themselves as mean-spirited, foul-mouthed racists, how can I possibly lose the argument? Indeed such reactions from such people tell me that I must be doing something right.
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 32)
16. Well said Somber. I think that a lot of us keep getting sucked back into this train wreck.
I am encouraged though that it seems like there are more critics then supporters. Both on the blog and in the world.
Ryan Anderson at 4:24PM on Mar 3rd 2008
17. Undoubtedly Dinese, you receive these extreme responses, because you yourself are an extremist. One of the main reasons I read your post is because I just can't believe that someone with your education could be so naive, uninformed, outright outrageous, and bias. But hey, It's all good.
gshort3011 at 4:29PM on Mar 3rd 2008
18. http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
FORMER ATHEIST at 4:38PM on Mar 3rd 2008
19. Dinesh - forgive me, maybe I'm just a little stupid.
I can't figure out your agenda. Maybe I'm looking for an agenda in the wrong place.
One day you write a blog about atheism vs. Christianity, the next day it's something political, the next day it's something else.
What is your agenda?
I guess what I'm trying to say is if you are going to be a "voice" of Christianity online, then let's look at your strategy. You want to represent Christ? Then let's talk about Him! Not who is doing what to whom or the best way to get atheists incensed. Talk about Jesus, God, the Scriptures, personal experiences you've had with Him!
I don't doubt you are a scholar. And maybe since you're not a biblical scholar it's not even appropriate for me to say this.
Part of the reason atheists have issues with Christians (as I'm sure you know from reading the blog comments) is hypocrisy and an overall sense of self-inflated worth. And many Christians have given them reason to think this.
You want to talk politics, fine. But if you're going to discuss faith issues, then let's make it faith issues, not your latest trump of a scholar or a dig at atheists. Sometimes I think you purposefully try to incite them.
I am interested, Dinesh, in your story. Your beliefs, your struggles, your relationship with God. I don't need to hear your success stories. That's what Google is for.
And a word of caution: hypocrisy does not mean we have higher standards. Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue (read that somewhere, thought it was good). It's our admission that we know there is something better than what we are consciously doing. Or, as Webster's put it: "a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess." Of course we have all been hypocrites at some point or another about something; just be careful admitting to it. Jesus didn't come down on the Pharisees because they believed something different from His beliefs; He chastised them because they claimed to know God yet did not live it out in their lives.
You're in my prayers, man. Gotta go, this was my one break at work to comment.
Guy at 4:45PM on Mar 3rd 2008
20. Boner-nosed, beanie wearing jew boy (#15) - You are seeing half the picture. The hate and personal attacks come from both sides. The well thought out responses come from both sides. G-d doesn't exist is a response to people who say She does and want to change the secular United States into a Christian nation. We understand that you do believe. Don't force it on us. Would you deny Dinesh's detractors their podium to respond? I have seen many comments from others that would. Personally, I love America and hate the actions of those who would take away our liberties.
alan at 4:56PM on Mar 3rd 2008
21. Who would have thought that an assorted list of personal insults aimed at him would be his BEST ARTICLE EVER‽
Mokele-Mobembe at 5:06PM on Mar 3rd 2008
22. How did you miss my own rant, when I stated that rather then believe in evolution, you imagine that modern man co-existed with the dineshaurs?
You are definitely capable of dragging people down to your level, as indicated by how we respond here. And you truly BEG to be swatted like an annoying gnat.
Why act surprised when you are?
JerryC at 5:07PM on Mar 3rd 2008
23. D'Souza,
I would definitely have to agree with you about some of the posters on this blog. Many of them can be extremely nasty at times when this should be a place for intelligent debate (but then again, we are on the internet so that is too much to hope for). Also, you should note that some of your supporters can be just as bad (namely brian as I've noticed so far). You should take note of them and try to keep them in line as well so that they don't sully any meaningful message you might ever put up.
James at 5:19PM on Mar 3rd 2008
24. Tis a fruitful day in the quote mines for this collier! It's nice to finally see him confess explicitly to what we already deduced of him:
"Hypocrisy I plead guilty to"
"I sit by my swimming pool with a drink in my hand and laugh my head off."
"I may be ... the dumbest guy to have written five New York Times bestsellers"
Yes, you are a prolific author with works that compete on NYT's list with Paris Hilton's "Confessions of an Heiress" and OJ Simpson's "If I Did It" - The great minds of our time.
BTW, YOU took the abuse fir Buckley's joke because YOU found it to be so goddamn funny.
@James,
He won't
Mokele-Mobembe at 5:28PM on Mar 3rd 2008
25. "rather then believe in evolution, you imagine that modern man co-existed with the dineshaurs?"
This I can't figure out. Dinesh is Roman Catholic, and the Catholic Church's official position is that evolution is True, and fits in God's plan. I've never actually seen Dinesh take a solid stance on this.
AndrewV at 5:34PM on Mar 3rd 2008
26. Well D'Souza, you have the 'cathedral' living room, the pool, and the trophy wife so it can't be the lack of those things that is 'driving' you.
Do you see yourself as an anti-Ghandi?
"In 1981, D'Souza published the names of officers of the Gay Student Alliance in an article for The Dartmouth Review, including the names of those who were still closeted."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinesh_D'Souza
We know that you are a doublethinker because the above quote does not agree with the sympathy you show towards Ted Haggard.
We know that you are a doublethinker because you are smart enough to know that atheists could not 'hate' God.
Doublethink, or compartmentalized thinking is obviously deceitful.
I like this post, not for the reason that your fans might, but because it shows that you imagine that you should be able to spout any old propaganda, any old intolerance and still manage to whine about the intolerance of others.
Blaming Buckley and Hart for YOUR last post is 'akin' to a husband whining to his wife that it was his bar-buddies that called her a fat-assed-lazy-cow, not him.
not-pboyfloyd at 5:34PM on Mar 3rd 2008
27. Dinesh keep up the great expose... I'm reading your book "Whats so great about christianity" Wow!! Good job!
Craig at 5:36PM on Mar 3rd 2008
28. Guys... you're missing the point.
Dinesh isn't going to take your liberties away. The people who support him aren't going to take your liberties away.
Ultimately, Dinesh and all of these forums... heck, 99% of the internet... are a recreation. They're a way to waste time, not to change the world. Do any of you think that you are going to argue so articulately and convincingly that you're actually going to affect Dinesh? That with a single perfectly written post you are going to magically change years of opinion and experiance? Or make an insult so pointed and so vicious that you are going to send him sobbing away into his bedroom unable to write? Please. I'm sure he treats all your hateful rhetoric with the same dismissive scorn as I treat Robertson and Phelp's rantings.
And realize this, no matter what, you lose. If you post dire threats and outrage, he will use it to paint the entire left as maniacs. If you post tolerate and rational arguments, he will claim the left to be nothing more than pacifists and appeasers. If you post emotional arguments about how his postings pain you, he will claim that we are over emotional whiners. In short there is no diatribe, argument, or threat that he can not turn against anyone and everyone he considers a detractor.
Please remember that Dinesh is not interested in being fair. He is not interested in giving both sides the benefit of the doubt. He is not interested in gaining any kind of enlightenment or education. Dinesh all ready has all the answers he needs. He's quite blissfully happy to paint the world in whatever shade of rhetoric best suits him, because being a male protestant heterosexual there's absolutely nothing in the status quo to threaten him.
So save your slings and arrows for better targets. They're wasted on this one. Instead take a moment and think about who you are really interested in convincing and persuading. Because sure as God doesn't exist, it isn't Dinesh.
Somber at 5:39PM on Mar 3rd 2008
29. Mokele-Mobembe
I know he won't, but that doesn't mean that I can't at least mention it. He constantly talks about the people who support him on this blog while they are just as bad as the people that he's complaining about now.
James at 5:41PM on Mar 3rd 2008
30. Dinesh,
I am gratified that you plead guilty to hypocrisy.
Given your professed belief in an afterlife, including Hell, I'd like to inform you that, according to Dante, you have thus reserved a seat for yourself in circle 8.6 of 9 (9 being the furthest depth of Hell, reserved for such as Satan, Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius).
You will be seated BELOW heretics, those who are violent against their neighbors, themselves and God, and pimps, panderers and seducers.
In fact, your favorite target, homosexuals, get to reside at circle 7.3.2, somewhat above you.
Now, without the hypocrisy, you might at least have been able to stay at circle 8.1, with the other panderers.
Phoenix at 5:42PM on Mar 3rd 2008