Johnson has indeed banned anyone bringing up the "Obama birth certificate" story, 9/11 "Truthers" and at the same time, had developed a fixation for attacking exponents of "creationism." He has also become very guarded about the more virulent anti-Muslim type comments and Godwin-violating Nazi references. I think he is trying to maintain a level of credibility for the right-wing and McCain supporters, and not provide ammunition for the left-wingers who dismiss LGF as the sort of "fever swamp" he mocks the left-wing blogs as being. Free speech, as the Americans conceive it, like free markets, has its own built-in regulating mechanisms, and I guess Johnson is evidencing that.
But ... any observer would find LGF a Muslim bashing site ... just like this one. The comments,as well, are virtually all Muslim bashing and of the simplest type. That's the irony.
What is most peculiar though, is that Johnson has begun calling some thoughtful and very erudite commentary "neo nazi". I've read the stuff he complains about and it completey escapes me as to what he fumes about. Further, even the slightest association to strange or offensive points of view, will get one the Johnson black ball, no matter the issue and no matter how different.
Simply put, it's intolerance and a gross lack of basic reading comprehension and understanding of the diversity that is political thought. And most strangely, Johnson attacks that which he is as guilty of himself.
Like you say, he tars creationists with the same brush ... like some sort of of zombies from hell.
My own experience was him and the lizards was distasteful ... to say he and they have a grossly over inflated view of themselves is an understatement.
I agree. I used to follow LGF, and occasionally post there, but I think Johnson has developed some sort psychiatric disorder. Gradiosity, narcissism, and absolutely zero tolerance for even a hint of disagreement.
He has a little crew of butt-lickers who attack anyone who shows a bit of tendency to not tow the party line.
Sad.
"...Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch are out of our RSS feeds. I'm not going to support people who link to vile sites like Gates of Vienna and Brussels Journal."
How any reasonable person could so describe those sites escapes me. I don't visit Dhimmi Watch but do frequent the other three. They have well-written articles and present facts objectively. Opinions and conclusions -all reasonable that I've read- are stated as such. In short, they're a helluva lot better sources of news and intelligent opinion than 95% of the N. American MSM (and that portion of the European MSM that's in English).
Exactly Dave, calling Brussels Journal and Gates of Vienna vile is beyond me. And Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch as well ... Johnson just posts negative Muslim news with no background, no commentary, just negative connotation ... the others provide much needed comentary and background.
It's just weird already.
The absolute gall of Charles!! Banning troofers and recists from being linked via his site!!
And imagine!! He argues against ideas he does not believe in!!!
When do you folks start your new jobs at your local HRC?
AtlanticJim: You completely miss the point ... before you speak, perhaps find out what the issue is. Banning people at his own site is not the problem ... arguing against ideas he doesn't believe in is not the problem ... all political bloggers do that. That is, in fact, the whole pleasure of blogging.
It's banning people for simply presenting a polite argument that's the problem when he claims to celebrate freedom of expression. And worse yet, campaigning to have them removed from other sites. Imagine, those who link to sites he's deemed "unclean", get black-balled.
For me, the worst is that he suffers from gross reading comprehension problems, as he misrepresents what is written, then goes on crusades far beyond his site to attack people for something they are not; have not said; and do not represent ... like labeling sites "vile" which are anything but.
Charles posts Ezra Levant rants at the HRC as if Ezra is a hero ... yet Charles breaks every principle that Ezra fights for. Your little quip about "you folks" being a local HRC in incredibly silly, as it is just that tendency on CJ's part that is at issue here.
Charles has become a tiny little dictator who has never shed his leftwing roots ... he has rightwing views but has kept his leftwing need to micro-manage what others think and are allowed to think. Frankly, I think he's exhibiting signs of gradiosity that are just bizarre. He and his groupies openly mock the prospects of sites they ban as "needing" them ... what a moronic supercilious attitude ... worthy of the most dictatorial of leftists.
He's got himself into a corner now ... we'll see how he likes it because the number of rational well intentioned and reasonable people who've been burned by him and his lizards is growing. He's now set himself up as inquisitor of renowed writers and patriots.
What's next ... banning Drudge for mentioning Berg?
What a fool.
.... and, what if...
what if "Berg" is correct?
then what?
how much crow can 1 man eat?
I was registered at LGF for maybe 30 minutes. I made one comment he did not like a few years back and *BAM!* - I was banned with no explanation. The whole LGF site is just an echo chamber for CJ to bask in the adulation of his crew. Nothing else. Dissent is NOT tolerated.
Gates of Vienna, Jihad Watch and a couple of others were where I began my journey of trying to understand why radical Islam hated the west. I find them very balanced and open to discussion. Even willing to discuss to help educate. I have had very public fights with Conservative Swede at Gates and AJL @ Winds of Change - even been admonished to be nice... BUT never banned.
LGF is a waste. Johnson is a narcissist. They do not matter to the current discussion in the world of blogs.
...just shows that even people on the right are susceptible to power lust, or the old adage about absolute power and corruption.
One thing that keeps me balanced is the old Proverb of Prov 24:6 "For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety."
Pick your battles wisely and depend more on then yourself.
I used to be a regular visitor to LGF but as you mentioned, he has changed drastically and it appears that the more lizards he gets, the more people are being banned. I was quite surprised at the comments he made regarding Sarah Palin because they had conflicting views regarding creationism.
I agree with you and the majority of the posters on here that it is hardly worth visiting the site any longer.
Charles and his friends enjoy their jack-boots, to be sure.
The Baron and Dymphna run one of the most thoughtful websites in the Counterjihad.
Charles has become an enabler and an example of what he claims everyone else is...except I think his site most resembles a Paulorrhiod Forum.
There are only so many times you can tell creationists, IDiots and others of their kind how remarkably WRONG they are, and there are only so many times you can smack down their dumbass ideas and point out the countless errors of their ways, before you get sick and tired of dealing with them and just treat them with outright contempt. They are incapable of anything but deception, so it's hardly surprising that Johnson treats them as he does.
If they honestly understood evolution and weren't absolutely married to their silly sky-fairy supernaturalism, they might be worth treating with a little respect. As it is, we give them too much, and we run the risk of giving them the impression that their whack job ideas deserve to sit on the same footing as real scholarship.
Anon: Slightly off topic old chap.
Not really - I was defending Johnson's treatment of these groups. Saying that I was defending Johnson just now makes me feel like throwing up a bit, but here we are.
"And Gates of Vienna has turned into a reeking sewer of racism..."
Hmmm...as soon as someone quoted that to me, I said to myself that he'd have done better to phrase it as "a reeking rathole of racism" -much more fluent, don't you think?
Anyway, the phrase ought to be on the side bar somewhere, as a kind of endorsement:
Charles Johnson:
"Gates of Vienna is a reeking, etc"
Most psychiatrists would have an interesting time deconstructing that kind of metaphor...oh, except for Shrink-Wrapped and Dr. Sanity. In the fracas last October, they decided that Charles made the decisions he did about us because he had more character or integrity than we did. I think those were the words they used.
Even now, after all those accomplished people of integrity he's thrown off the side -- from Richard Miniter to Oriana Fallaci to Bat Ye'or -- what do want to bet those shrinks have stuffed their judgement of the situation down the oubliette?
Heh.
oh...I forgot to say that Chazzer may be done with us, but he still links to our posts. The latest example was one that Fjordman wrote on in late September. I believe he linked to it today. Not sure, because we hear about this thru emails from others with quotes cut and pasted from the Great Dyslexic Demonizer himself.
Nah, Chas isn't "done with" us at all, at all -- he's still got his roasting spit at the ready (spit being supplied in abundance by his minions).
Did you see the picture of all the professional people he's thrown under the bus? Most amusing...and the crowd will continue to grow.
That's the trouble with a world full of smelly orthodoxies that don't meet his Olympian standards.
Here's the photoshop from Tundra Tabloids, updated to include bigger fish than we are:
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.co...rt-
spencer.html
Quite a crowd...Notice the nice touch: Chazzer is driving the bus. Thank heavens the Baron has on his dark suit -- the tire tracks aren't as noticeable.
Does anyone besides me remember Al Stewart's great send-up of Stalin? Great song called "Joe the Georgian."
BTW, I believe it is being arranged to have the Dyslexic Dude forced to push a few other luminaries under the wheels. I don't have enoough information to pass on, however. Just that the ethernet is full of whispery sounds, none of which would be happy noises were Chaz able to hear them.
Every time he pushes someone off, he becomes that much more out of the loop. Someday in the not-too-distant future, he'll be farming in Greenland, trying to get by.
LOL! "Farming in Greenland!"
Indeed, Charles' hyperbole has moved from strident to just weird.
Frankly, given that Charles has no ability to put together a lengthy essay or post which builds concepts from their various attributes, I think that half the problem (other than arrogance), is reading comprehension. I'm not kidding.
I've been banned for trying to explain the difference between European Culture and "race". He does not understand that Europeans are protective of their culture against Islam.
He seems to equate this with racism or "fascism" and can't wrap his narrow mind around the "Culture" concept. But I guess being an aging hippie musician, maybe all the drugs has killed his ability to reason.
Just found your site via Atlas Shrugged. I was a long time poster at LGF. I was banned once for sticking up for someone who had the vilest things said of them which created a huge fight on LFG and many people banned. I was banned just because I thought this particular woman did not deserve to be called every vile profane name thinkable, she never responded in kind.
Charles let it fester for months. Later on I was banned with another nic as I would post scientific viewpoints that argued with strict Evolutionary theory, and believe me there is a hell of a lot wrong and missing, and probably impossible with Darwin's theory, not the least is no explanation for complex animal behavior, such as hive insects, and what appears to be programmed intelligence in thousands of species that hardly have the brain power to solve complex physics and engineering principles.
Not to mention symbiotic relationships in nature, or the pre-Cambrian explosion of life where there is simply no explanation other than the ridiculous idea that the forces of natural selection (Punctuated Equilibrium) can speed up or slow down willy-nilly.
CJ's tactic is to label all who do not squawk the party line like deranged parrots as 6,000 year old earth creationists. It is like pretending the opponents of global warming all just look at a single thermometer outside their hut and proclaim global warming a hoax.
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