Clearly this is a rhetorical question. It is of course possible that Johnson could criticize some person who has drawn his ire (usually by being religious) without resorting to making up facts to support his assertions, but the reality is that he is simply too lazy and intellectually dishonest to do so. Johnson has left a long list of libel across the Internet (why Robert Spencer doesn’t sue him I’ll never know) mainly intimating that some blogger he’s on the outs with is a racist or neo-Nazi of some sort. Even Jewish bloggers like Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs have been smeared as neo-Nazis in one of the most offensive and disgusting lies ever to be spread through the Internet.
So I wasn’t surprised when a slow trickle of visitors from LGF started arriving at this old post I wrote claiming I was in fact a Christian who wants to replace science in schools with Creationism. I’m also apparently big in Stormfront, and not “ethnically tolerant” according to some White guy, who went on to call me an Uncle Tom. Not that any of those things were actually in the post I wrote, which waxed philosophic on why so many atheists were almost evangelical in their furor to convert others; no these are simply lies Charles Johnson has made up about me (or more correctly anyone who criticizes him) that his unthinking cyber-groupies simply repeat at his behest.
The post was in my Pagan and Proud category which should have clued Chuck’s minions in. That and the long paragraph in which I elaborate on my non-Christian religious beliefs. But the trolls who have bounded to the defense of mademoiselle Johnson wouldn’t know that because it requires reading the post, they are happy to simply take Chuck’s word for it that I’m a kook smearing him. That’s pretty much a direct quote.
Kook thinks he has me figured out — I’m a sekrit atheist who hates religion:
[Link: www.red-alerts.com…]
Notice the links to Eurofascists.
The Eurofascist he points to is born-again Christian blogger Lionheart (who has told me himself he is not a racist and I believe him) who was attacked by LGF. Notice how if you’re a groupie, Chuck’s comment on his Sunday night open thread gives you all the information you need to formulate an opinion of me and what I wrote. I’m a “kook” (religious) who links to racists.
He reinforces the view a few minute latter with this comment:
If there’s anything that might convince me to become an outright atheist, by the way, it’s the completely deranged attacks and hate mail from the religious right.
If you weren’t convinced I was the rabid offspring of Pat Buchanan and Benito Mussolini who deserved some good old fashioned Internet invective before, this implied cry for help from Johnson who is simply beleaguered by we mean old fundamentalists would be the breaking point I’m sure.
Case in point, here are some comments left for me:
Reine said,
on April 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Your article is so misleading, I hardly know how to respond. I don’t know if Charles Johnson is an atheist or not. I do know that I am an actively practicing Christian, and I am also registered and a regular commenter at LGF, where I have made no secret of my religious beliefs. LGF is not an “anti-religion†site.
Religious or not, anyone should be appalled at the attempts to replace science with “creationist†views in the classroom. You say you are not a Christian; do you agree that Christian belief should replace the teaching of scientific knowledge? I know I would not want my child being taught the state’s version of “Christianity†– it is my right and my responsibility to teach my child the religious views we believe in; it is not the right of the state school system to choose which version of religion will be taught to her.
I believe God created the universe and all the processes by which we have evolved. I am not a scientist, and I have no fancy language nor fancy links to give you. But an acceptance of evolution as the process, and a belief in God as the creator, are perfectly compatible.
Er. O.K. But the article this comment was put on said no such thing. The post, entitled Charles Johnson and the Truth about Atheism, puts forward some of my personal theories on Atheist behavior and what drives their derision for the religious using Johnson as an example. It does not say that I think Science should be replaced with Biblical creationism. This is what happens when a person with a personality cult realizes he can manipulate his followers. In our subsequent exchanges it was very clear that “Reine” had no idea what I had written, but was simply responding to what people in the LGF comment thread were claiming I wrote.
Then there was this nugget:
Sharmuta said,
on April 12th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
The criticisms of ms. geller and mr. spencer have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with their support for ethnic-nationalist groups in europe. It is geller and spencer that are hailed as heros by the neo-nazis at stormfront, not Mr. Johnson. But don’t let facts get in the way of your attack. Maybe stormfronters will now love your blog too. Lucky you.
The Geller that this person is talking about is Pamela Geller from Atlas Shrugs, a Jewish woman. It is vile and insulting to say the least to claim that a Jewish woman is a hero to neo-Nazis. I defy any Johnson fan to find a Stormfront forum where she, or Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch for that matter, are called heroes. There is not, this is simply another slander Johnson throws around at these bloggers after his falling out with them.
But my favorite LGFer so far is this guy, who claims I’m the web’s only Biracial neo-Nazi because I criticize teaching theory as facts and made a personal observation about atheists I happen to know:
Salamantis said,
on April 12th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
No, the point is that the Big Bang is so well established by checkable-and-recheckable-at-will empirical evidence that the difference between its probability and apodictic certainty is vanishingly small. That, my dear noncognoscenti, is empirical science, readily accessible with a few simple internet clicks.
As to religion, I have been an eclectic Wiccan for 30+ years. Wicca has no problem with science. You impress me as Odinist or Asatru, and not the ethnically tolerant kind.
I also note that you contradict yourself in a single post, by first saying you don’t judge people solely on their metaphysical opinions, then imediately stating that most of the many atheists whom you claim to know are bad people.
My guess is that you have been booted from LGF for being a troll yourself, most probably for defending the indefensible idea that antijihadis should climb into bed with eurofascists, and harbor a visceral animus concerning it.
But wait, it gets better. After I corrected him, he pressed on with his assertion that I was a Biracial neo-Nazi. And he has absolute moral authority to do so. You see, he’s a whole 1/4 native American:
Salamantis said,
on April 12th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I myself am one quarter Native American. The fact that you claim biraciality does not insulate you from charges of ethnic intolerance, and especially does not insulate you from sharing the religious intolerance that is infamous among many Odinists.
I know what was in your post about atheists – after all, I paraphrased it. But all it amounts to is an unsubstantiated assertion claiming to be a personal anecdote. The statistics speak differently; atheists as a group are underrepresented in US prison populations.
It appears that I was on the mark with my guess that you are Odinist, and equally on the mark with my guess that you are a booted LGF troll. No email notification occurred and in fact none was necessary; the fact that your idiotarian emotional convictions dominate your rational intellection was more than enough of a clue.
And I find it unintentionally ironic to the point of hilarity that an Atlas Shrugged-Brussels-Journal-Gates-Of-Vienna groupie would accuse me of groupieism.
Anyone pulling the “I’m (random percentage here) Native American” card on me should be referred to my “Ward Churchill’s a White Guy” series. He went on to claim I had an affinity for Nazi regalia and was probably a pedophile. By way of explaining his behavior here I should mention Salamantis is a lefty divorcee who once called for the U.S. to militarily intervene in Europe if Jihadists ever found themselves being attacked by Europeans and works as Chuck’s secret policeman, ferreting out people who don’t toe the LGF line on other sites so Commissar Johnson can ban them. Here’s his MySpace page. Surprise! He’s friends with teen girls. And he’s 53.
You can read our exchange on that post if you’re interested.
My point in looking at this is to show that there is something rotten at LGF and it starts at the top and works it’s way down right to every last sad unemployed attic dweller who waits with bated breath for Charles Johnson to tell them what to think and who to attack. Johnson linked to a post that he knew they wouldn’t read, but my more recent post about him would have been more germane. That’s the one where I point out that despite Johnson’s constant carping on others’ unseemly associations, he himself is supported by a Canadian neo-Nazi group.
I doubt Johnson would ever link to that one in the comments though, it would make him look like a hypocritical liar.
Johnson and his followers all make a habit of deflecting criticism and making up facts on the spot to prove some point. Even though I’m Biracial (proudly so), a Polytheist (proudly so), and work with a group dedicated to fighting child molestation these people have already begun creating a myth that I’m some fundamentalist Christian Nazi pedophile who has gone out of his way to attack poor old Charles Johnson.
It’s almost as if they knew they couldn’t win in an honest debate.
