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 4 of 32)
46. Yeah, but Botts, even though people like Dinesh may seem a little arrogant because they believe they have the facts, your type actually SOUNDS hypocritical. Hey, it could just be perception, but have you ever noticed that?
Michelle at 7:16PM on Mar 3rd 2008
47. The Dartmouth Review?! No wonder this guy makes no sense. All religions are stupid in one way or another.
sossity at 7:30PM on Mar 3rd 2008
48. Ughhh...this is just getting even more absurd, if that were possible.
I've been coming here to listen to great arguments and discussions with fantastic people who have ideas I'd never thought of. And NONE of those ideas amd arguments come from DD. Rather, from all of you who post here in response.
But the fact that D'Strawman actually got HUGE JOY out of watching people react to his hate speech (he was tickled to death, apparently), and then posted the really silly non-replies with profanity and etc. as examples - I think I gotta go participate in discussions elsewhere. It's just too bizarre in this self-centered world of his..."Christian" indeed...
brandon at 7:35PM on Mar 3rd 2008
49. Hey Michelle,
What is my kind?
And what is hypocritical about me, since you know me so well.
I believe in Love. I believe in loving my neighbor. Love is Truth. And there is absolutely nothing hypocritical about that.
Just because you don't understand me, doesn't mean you know me. But ask a question and I'll be happy to answer you.
But Dinesh ......please, there is nothing to defend. He is not Christian in the least bit.
Botts at 7:55PM on Mar 3rd 2008
50. DUDE,
i just read this post and he must have taken my notes to a tee!!! he said better what i have said all along and that is the lefties are uptighty about freedom of speech and they have no tolerance its that simple. Go DD. you got my vote once more. but not to worry i take my share of hate and keep smiling
brian at 8:06PM on Mar 3rd 2008
51. "not to worry i take my share of hate and keep smiling"
And you give that hate out just like DD here. Great teacher you have, brian. Just great. Keep on hatin'! It just turns more people into non-Christians every day...
brandon at 8:16PM on Mar 3rd 2008
52. Brandon:
1) How does Brian give out hate?
Just curious.
kulari94 at 8:19PM on Mar 3rd 2008
53. DD:
I've kept my own list of the personal attacks and diatribes that people have made against you. Pretty unbelievable.
kulari94 at 8:25PM on Mar 3rd 2008
54. brandon,
now you make an intersting point. are you saying its christians and not your mindless science that keeps you from becoming a christian? are you saying that it is because of others that you cannot decide for yourself. i thought you atheist weighed the facts, others notwithstanding, and decide christianiyt was a hoax. now i read that you are not one because of others? i am duly confused.please help. and i have not doled out hate to anyone. you confuse my tolerance,which i have with your intolerance. get it straight. i don't hate!!!!
brian at 8:27PM on Mar 3rd 2008
55. kulari94,
thanks!!! they don't have any use for me. but i love them and pray for them all these atheist are like family. i think i could even have a sit down dinner with these guys and enjoy the banter. they try my witness at times but i keep coming back even when they spew venom
brian at 8:35PM on Mar 3rd 2008
56. Kulari: He's done it over and over here. I will not cite eamples...just read the blogs...nearly everyone has experiences it here.
- - -
and brian, "are you saying its christians and not your mindless science that keeps you from becoming a christian?" Not me, personally. But your brand of christianity (note the small c) is enough to turn those looking for answers right the heck off. And I do have it straight - you hate very much for a Christian. Which is why you are a christian.
brandon at 8:36PM on Mar 3rd 2008
57. kulari94,
i just bought a new book today its title is "i don't believe in atheist" by chris hedges. i hope it will shed some light on the angst atheism conveys. i am trying to get a grip on the anger issues that seem to be a common thread. i think the un-rest they feel inside reaches boiling when confronted by believers who challenge their views as calmly as we do
brian at 8:39PM on Mar 3rd 2008
58. brandon,
according to you science is all you need. it answers everything. according to you i am delusional. now which is it? now if what i say has some truth in it,then you are the one in trouble and i think thats what gets your boiler grillen instead of chillin
brian at 8:42PM on Mar 3rd 2008
59. "you are the one in trouble and i think thats what gets your boiler grillen"
brian, come on. If I thought what you say had any truth to it, I'd be paying attention to all of it.
But it doesn't. What gets my boiler grillin' is hate speech by you so-called believers, and "leaders" like DD here who would become a hateful fear monger if he actually had an accepting audience.
brandon at 8:52PM on Mar 3rd 2008
60. Just one more thought.
D'Souza posted a vile, tasteless, hateful joke. Was he expecting civilized comments?
I always try to keep my comments to the tone of the blogger. I know it sounds childish, but he started it. He started the tone, he started the level of decency and profanity. Then, after he gets roundly and deservedly blasted for it, starts crying about how horrible and cruel his critics are? What did he expect? Wow, I really do believe the guy was banging Ann Coulter, he sure has that page from the right-wing playbook down.
I have to say everything posted about Dinesh D'Souza does appear to be accurate. He's a terrible person using religion and God of all things to promote hatred. That has to be the very definition of evil.
Davidg at 8:53PM on Mar 3rd 2008