
Right-Wing Flame War - Flemlord
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24Footballs-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
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Tangurena
> _Johnson’s response, in thousands of cases, was to block their accounts and
> ban some of them from viewing the blog. "Get off my Web site" was a common
> farewell. (Johnson insists that this is not true - that no one has ever been
> banned from L.G.F. merely for disagreeing with him - but the anecdotal
> evidence to the contrary is voluminous, and the fact that the offending
> comments were instantly and permanently deleted makes it impossible to check
> others’ records against his.)_

> _Even longtime commenters have been disappeared for one wrong remark, or one
> too many, and when it comes to wondering where they went or why, a kind of
> fearful self-censorship obtains. He has banned readers because he has seen
> them commenting on other sites of which he does not approve._

His banning of anyone who disagrees with him is why LGF is also commonly
nicknamed "the little green echo chamber" because only those who echo his
sentiments are permitted to stay.

~~~
Alex3917
"'Running a community is hard,' says Markos Moulitsas of the liberal Web site
Daily Kos"

Same with Daily Kos. What's more, it's not a 'liberal' blog, it's a blog
dedicated to getting Democrats elected. The FAQ specifically says it's not a
liberal blog, and most of the people who get banned are liberals.

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pavs
I never thought I would say this, but what does this his to do with HN? I come
here to HN to get away from all the politics discussion everywhere else.

~~~
msluyter
Well, I suppose a lot of it has to do with online social communities can form
around social issues, the power they can exert, and how they can be destroyed.
I found it quite interesting, but perhaps it's little borderline.

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hga
One _tiny_ problem: Charles Johnson has never been a member of the "right
wing". He's a liberal who's eyes were opened by 9/11, but as the jihadist
threat receded he reverted to type.

It would be pretty silly to expect his "right-wing allies" to continue to be
such when he attacks so many of them on such scurrilous grounds. I've only
watched his feud with Stacy McCain, but that's enough for me.

~~~
wreel
That's a gross mischaracterization. Charles Johnson wasn't really a Liberman
style anti-jihadist democrat. He really was part of the strong defense/small
gonvernment style conservative base. His problem has been (for a very long
time) the hateful religious right who he feels has too much influence with the
GOP leaders.

Just because he's pro-science doesn't mean he's liberal per se.

~~~
cema
I do not think science has anything to do with it. My impression of Charles is
he is liberal in the classical sense of the word, not the modern American
sense (loosely related to the left side of the political spectrum). So I am
not surprised he is picking fights with the Right as well as the Left.

(Disclaimer: I never read the comment threads on LGF, only his postings. The
threads I saw were dreadful to me.)

~~~
hga
He may style himself as a "liberal in the classical sense of the word", but
his behavior is pretty illiberal in the old sense of the word, e.g. see
Tangurena's comment on his dedication to open discourse or rather lack
thereof.

He also has too many fixations that are characteristic of the Left/new style
liberals for me to take that self-characterization very seriously.

