I haven’t written anything about the insane-acting psychology professor-slash-blogger who wrote several threatening comments to Jeff Goldstein and his young son, his pushback that cost the professor her job, and the subsequent DoS attacks that have taken his site down. It’s not for lack of interest. I’ve been following the story thanks mostly to posts from Patterico (here and here, then keep going) and Allah’s Hot air post.
I haven’t posted much because, what can I really say that isn’t being said quite well by other bloggers? Deb Frisch may or may not be actually unhinged, but that’s beside the point. Her actions have been nothing but the actions of someone who is mentally ill and actions speak much louder than anything else. The left side of the blogosphere has been notably silent about one of their own, which doesn’t much bother me either. Frisch is a newly-birthed minnow in a very big pond, who gets even less traffic than I do (and who will get no traffic from me, even in this post). Why should a blogger with the stature of Jeralyn Meritt spend any amount of time distancing herself from an obscure loon like Frisch (though her effort was quite welcome and sincere, unlike, say, the half-assed apology here)?
I’m entering the fray, as it were, on this because what I’ve been reading from Frisch and her supporters is beginning to sound very similar to the sorts of things we’ve heard from the Islamists and their supporters for the past decade. The threats may be worded differently, but the elements of seeing their foes as less than human, of wishing death not only to them but to their children, the passive-aggressive tones of the threats, and the fanatical adherence to an ideology they can only express with the words of violence are exactly the same. I’m seeing very little difference between a Deb Frisch comment and an Osama bin Laden audiotape.
Note here that I’m not in any way saying that the Islamists and the Leftists in question here are equivalent. Islamists have shown the capacity for carrying out their threats and I very much doubt that Frisch has the determination necessary to carry out her wishes. Nevertheless, it bothers me that the tone of the comments I’ve read this week aimed at Goldstein and his family (and the rest of us on the right), and the threats made against America and the war-fighting West are sounding to very similar to me.
UPDATE: I should have known the Hamsterbots would bring their special brand of moral equivalency to the table.
And by “special” I mean, “the only moral equivalency on the bus that has to wear a football helmet so it doesn’t accidentally give itself a concussion again”. Here’s a choice quote:
But this isn’t about Goldstein and his commenters who are as violent and crazy as they are paste-devouringly stupid. That’s old news. No, this is about the wingnut horde which has collectively put on its Hockey Mask of Decency and Rectitude to disguise the Hannibal Lector within.
Threatening a 2-year old kid? It’s bad only because…well…because it makes you just like the right. Never mind that you have to warp your entire worldview to assert that bloggers like Jeff Goldstein are in the same moral universe as a woman who would threaten a child. Never mind that the points that the Hamsterbot makes about Goldstein are categorically false. Never mind that there is stuff that ought to be off-limits and right at the top of that list ought to be A BLOGGER’S CHILDREN!
Never mind all that. They have power to gain. To hell with you and your family.
And where’s The Hamster on this?
Brilliant (as always) Retardo.
Of course.
I don’t despise people like The Hamster and her co-blogger. I truly don’t. But, DAMN, some days it’s an ordeal not to.
