Swompdonkey

You Do Him No Credit

Is it just me, or is Mark Steyn also a bit irritated by the closed mindedness and dismissiveness of some of his fans?

I mean, don't get me wrong... I think Steyn is bang-on 90% of the time, but I have noticed that any time someone does not appear to bow down and unquestioningly accept the Gospel of Mark, some Steynies feel that that is their cue to immediately begin leaping to conclusions, bashing and/or tossing around the labels dismissively, e.g.:Well, this person is obviously a liberal/ leftist/ trudeaupian/ hippy scumbag… so therefore I despise them and dismiss them summarily.

I know that is just the nature of the blogosphere, the greatest echo chamber yet devised, but one needs to remember that Steyn is a journalist and political commentator as well as a conservative hero (to some), and that broader debate and discussion of the kind we have seen recently in the “mainstream media” (i.e. outside the right-wing echo chamber) is Steyn’s bread and butter. He ain't always preaching to the converted.

Snarling pitbulls who emerge every couple of weeks from the basement to bite and tear at his critics and drones who mindlessly absorb and regurgitate every notion and sometimes parrot Steyn ad nauseum are not much use to him or anyone else in the larger marketplace of ideas. In fact, I suspect they may be a hindrance: Oh no, not another one of those Steyn wingnuts!

I don’t think Mark Steyn has much use for unthinking, reflex denouncers and “hyperpartisan halfwits”, to use his own term… and apparently he does not approve of those who would automatically and unfairly blast people like Heather Reisman and Strombo, who were quite reasonable with him, in a misguided effort to support their hero. Ezra Levant chides some of these more zealous folks on his site, albeit in an elegant and gentle fashion.

I wrote the following to my sister in exasperation the other day:

Frankly, sometimes I find it hard to hold conservative opinions when I see the collection of close-minded reactionaries and bigots that share my political views.

Unthinking and slavish obedience to the Gospel of Mark should be anathema to a true believer in enlightenment and modernity. Hey if you agree with him all the time, good for you!... but leave the enforcement of orthodoxy to the ayatollahs, will ya?