Thursday, July 06, 2006

Dear Wayne.


Y'all forgive me for making this post just a touch personal, but I'm going to try to save someone from a life of abject ignorance and, sometimes, drastic situations call for drastic measures.

Back here, one-time commenter Wayne made the mistake of mindlessly regurgitating the now-debunked neo-con talking point of how the New York Times had compromised the personal security of some members of the Bush administration by (gasp! horrors!) publishing, with their permission, stories of their vacation houses as part of a travel feature. Me, being in a bit of a snotty mood at the time, took the opportunity to lay a quick beating on Wayne, who seemed a bit hurt by it and claimed that all he wanted are facts.

No, Wayne. You don't.

What you appear to want, Wayne, is to mindlessly and gullibly regurgitate an endless stream of idiotic right-wing talking points, without taking even the smallest opportunity to see if there's any truth to them. And why can I say that and get away with it? Easy. One need only consider your blog, Wayne, to see what I'm talking about.

Let's take a look at that blogroll, Wayne, shall we? Now, with the exception of your "favourite lefty/prog" (excellent choice, naturally :-) and the rather weird selection of "Talk Origins" in the middle of all that, one can safely say that your choice of reading material is almost exclusively right of centre. And not just slightly right of centre, Wayne.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep up with news from the wankersphere but, seriously, is that the best you can do in terms of where you get your information? In terms of the conservative viewpoint, we're not talking the creme de la creme, are we? It's more like the scum de la terre. I mean, really -- Dust My Broom? Free Republic? Kate McMillan? Canadian Free Press? Proud to be Joel Johannesen's Bitches? This is your idea of trying to stay informed? This is your idea of trying to figure out what the facts are? To get your perspective on the world from the most rancid purveyors of right-wing dishonesty out there? But that's not even the worst part.

Consider all of your latest postings on that main page. Almost without exception, they represent nothing but links to, or straight reproductions of, hard-right news pieces. FOX News. Front Page Magazine. The National Post. Adam Daifallah, fer Chrissake! But it's not the sources that are so irritating, it's that there's not an original thought of yours anywhere there.

As far as I can tell, Wayne, you have contributed absolutely nothing to the online discourse. Not a sentence. Your entire production consists of nothing but other peoples' work. In short, you could just as effectively stop posting and have nothing but a blogroll, and readers would get exactly the same information. You've shown absolutely no interest in doing any research of your own, and yet you have the nerve to show up in my comments section, claiming that you're just interested in "facts."

Let me give you some advice, Wayne, and here's hoping it sticks. If you really want to know what's happening, stop reading those worthless neo-con sites. And if you want one, just one, recommendation for a site that shows you what real research and writing is all about, you can't do any better than Glenn Greenwald who, coincidentally, has some recent articles on that whole New York Times idiocy. Glenn is a model of what real blogging is all about and, if you have the sense God gave a urinal deodorizer disc, you would make yourself comfortable and invest an hour or two over at his site. But there's one more thing I want to mention, Wayne, about how you've pissed me off lately.

In a recent comment of yours, you actually had the nerve to thank me for bringing your attention to the web site "Proud to be Canadian," which I see you've added to your blogroll. So, if I understand this correctly, I have exposed PtbC's Barbara Kay as a dishonest hack, and Joel Johannesen as a whiny, petulant sleazebag, and your response is to add that site to your blogroll? Can you now understand why I consider you to be a total prat?

I mean, really ... think hard. It'll come to you.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is so thoroughly enjoyable to read such a dressing-down to someone who so clearly deserves it.

My only fear is that as clear as you were, he's either too stupid or too dishonest to learn from it.

But to people of that ilk: I respect your humanity and I wish you progress. I wish you would progress from being morons in large enough numbers that you stop fucking up the planet during my life-time.

Anonymous said...

Ummmm...has anyone considered the possibility that "Wayne" is just a troll? It just doesn't add up, does it?

CC said...

At the moment (and, let me emphasize, at the moment), I don't consider Wayne to be either a troll or beyond salvaging.

I have, with the best of intentions, given him enough information to work with. What he does with it is entirely up to him.

Unknown said...

Point taken.

I was getting one side of the story. The links you gave me showed a different opinion.

I was always wondering why the sites I read were a 360 of what yours said.

I am sick of spin left or right. I just want to know what the hell is really going on.

I will start to add my own comments to my blog, when I can get both sides of the story.

I think I have a long way to go before I can get sites I can trust, and know enough to comment properly.

I don't want to spit out propaganda, just facts.

Next time I make a comment I will check it out well, and will shut up if I have nothing to say.

Thanks CC.

Anonymous said...

I don't know any of the background... but that certainly sounds like a very candid and honest thought Wayne.

I firmly believe that critical thinking is the most common attribute to progressive thinking.

Anonymous said...

I think honesty is critical to progressive thinking (conservative or liberal), and if Wayne's being sincere, I think that's great.

Anonymous said...

I've spoken to "conservatives" pretenging that they are trying to seek answers and engage in honest debate, who turn out to be shameless liars and apologists for mass murder and atrocities.

I've also spoken to one witless fool who continued to maintain that news reports about ordinary explosives looted from unsecured Iraqi ammunition dumps [remember that story] "proved" that Saddam Hussein had had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Various people argued with him over the course of 3 days and he never changed his stupid mind.

Then again, one guy ranted about how Abu Ghraib was nothing, until he was shown the pictures and then he said that what happened was sickening and the guilty (all the way to the top) should be punished.

Wayne, I hope you'll be like guy number 3.
There were no WMDs.
US soldiers are raping and killing.
Canada's First Nations are being cheated and robbed and abused.
There were more homeless people after Paul Martin and Mike Harris than before.

There is precious little truth to the things right-wingers say.

Pacanukeha said...

The gentleman in question has subsequently added Glenn Greenwald & Daily Kos