Hey, everyone, it's my last post on all this foolishness. I'd like to get back to the fun stuff. First, a tremendous thank you to everyone who's emailed, linked or IMed me in the last few days. I've learned a lot and am quite pleased overall with the end results of what's transpired. After replying to every one of the emails I've gotten so far, and visiting sites where the topic's been discussed, I think I've had a chance to talk to people on all sides of this issue, and it's been engaging, illuminating and educational.
To break it down to raw stats, I sent about 150 emails and read or wrote comments on about 35 websites, and I had 4 people apologize, 3 or 4 begrudgingly afford me their respect, and most satisfyingly, 7 people who changed their minds. I couldn't really have asked for a better response. Another handful of people told me that they read LGF for the news and links but were afraid to voice the same objections I had for fear of facing, well, what I did.
Charles posted his last word on the subject, including a reference to the fact that on one thread I called him a racist in the heat of anger based on having read a different version of the text being discussed at the time. Though I didn't use the word "retract", I did retract my statement as soon as I realized my error. I had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that when I said yesterday "But let me be clear. I don't think Charles is a racist." that it was clear that I was saying I don't think Charles is a racist. Some of the same people who missed that point may have missed the implicit :) smiley after my invitation to kiss my big brown butt. I had thought that would be obvious as well, as my butt is not very big.
Regrettably, I had to turn off comments on that discussion. It had devolved into a shouting match between people who had long since lost sight of whatever points they were ostensibly trying to make. But I do think these are important topics that are worth discussing, and it's been fascinating just from an objective standpoint to watch the sociology and human dynamics involved in all of this.
As a show of good faith that I'm still interested in engaging in a dialogue with anyone interested in this topic, I'd like to offer some future ways to talk to me about this, as I won't be posting about it on my site anymore. Anyone who's interested in discussing these topics can, of course, email me at anil@dashes.com or IM me on any of the major instant messaging services at the name anildash or call me at +1 917 892 5519. I can't promise I'll answer that phone right away, as I don't usually take calls while I'm working, but if you leave a message, I'll call you back.
Also, anyone who is a regular visitor or commenter on Little Green Footballs who is, or will be, in downtown Manhattan in the next month is welcome to contact me via one of those methods if they want to meet up for drinks or coffee, on me. If there's enough response, we'll put together a dinner, my treat. And we don't have to talk about any of this stuff, we can talk about the potential and future of weblogs as a medium, or discuss the finer points of soul music, or whatever you're interested in. Mr. Taranto, if you're still reading, the offer still applies, but you have to pay for your own drinks.
I look forward to your responses, and thanks again to everyone for taking part in the conversation.
after that maelstrom, you’re offering to buy folks drinks…
you’re a good man, charlie brown.
You just earned my respect.
Somehow I don’t think I could justify a flight to the US for this… could do with a holiday, though. (o:
Good to see that you and your calm resolve come strengthened at the end. I’ve learned a couple of things and I’m grateful for your initiative and resolve to tackle the LGF case. Cheers.
This is not a retraction or an apology. It’s merely a justification for why, at the end of this post, you called Charles a racist. A retraction would be “I take back the statement calling you a racist.” An apology would be “I’m sorry I called you a racist.” Both involve admissions that you were wrong, which you seem constitutionally unable to do.
And it is exactly this kind of behavior that raises the hackles of Charles and the rest of the LGF faithful. It’s the constant “We regret the loss of life blah, blah, blah but root causes blah, blah, blah.
Anil, you are clearly too bright and articulate not to get the difference. I know it’s far easier to focus on the anger expressed on LGF, and the occasionally inappropriate wording, than on the tough questions that are raised there daily, but that’s what makes LGF stimulating and brave.
Questions like how do you remain tolerant of a group that demonstrates its intolerance of any other religion, in your own country as well as abroad? How do you maintain internal security without reducing the individual freedoms that make this country great, when they are used as a weapon against us? How do we handle immigration issues such as tourist or student visas for citizens of countries which would never admit a sizeable portion of our population? How do we handle the air of entitlement of those foreign visitors from a country whose residents have killed 3000 of our residents in less than an hour, when their country holds American women and children hostage, severely restricting their civil rights?
Yes, we’re angry, and sometimes we hate, but it’s very difficult to play by someone else’s rules when the main rule is that we have to be held to a higher standard of morality than they.
Your offer of drinks, dinner, etc. is financially very generous, but it’s an easy gesture to make when you know none of us will take you up on it. What we want to see is much easier and infinitely harder. We want to see you apologize for calling Charles a racist, with no equivocation. Here, and on MSNBC.
Are you intellectually honest enough and man enough to do so?
Anil,
After all that has transpired over the past few days, you continue to disappoint me. I thought you would at least be honest enough and decent enough to apologize to Charles, and take responsibility for all that you have created. Instead you continue to split hairs and modify your original statements, making it easier for your 10 supporters to swallow. I notice how you forgive yourself the name-calling done in anger, but afford that graciousness to no-one else.
All that it seems to come down to, for you, are those little stats you posted above. 4 people apologized to you? For what, I don’t know. And you’re smugly satisfied because you managed to “convert” 7 people to your way of thinking.
If that doesn’t about sum you up…
There may be 3 or 4 people (which is it, 3 or 4) who begrudgingly afford you their respect, but again, I wonder, for what? For successfully orchestrating a smear campaign? For the hate that you’ve inspired? And you continue to focus on the comments on LGF rather than confronting the real issues that plague our world today. That’s your cause. The comments on LGF.
I, for one, will respect you when I see you being honest with yourself, and owning up to who you really are. So far you haven’t, and I won’t be holding my breath.
You have let everyone down Anil, yourself especially, and are not brave enough, or honest enough to admit it. I still expected you to do the decent thing, but clearly that is not happening. You’re a control freak, who refuses to respect any opinion but your own.
I read your comments section last night. I hope you were ashamed of it. I’m sure the same thing will happen on this one.
But continue patting yourself on the back, pretending that there is something noble in smearing a decent man’s name.
Block commenting in this thread before it’s too late. Not a call for censorship, but concerns for your personal sanity.
I second that.
Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.
Or whatever that saying is.
To those crying ‘Not enough! We want more!’:
When someone offers an apology or a truce and, in the process, meets me only halfway instead of the all the way as I (rightly or wrongly) may expect, I generally consider it a bigger action to swallow my pride and extend myself over the rest of the breach, shake hands, and be done with it.
The man offered an apology, a truce, a coming to terms. Are all of your apologies so flawless, so glistening with remorse and humility that you have a right to call foul, stamp your feet, and demand more? I doubt it. I’ve rarely met a person in all my 37 years who possessed that sort of grace and birthright. And generally, the person who would offer a perfect apology wouldn’t have the temerity or the arrogance to demand the same in return, in my experience. There’s as much wisdom in knowing how to accept an imperfect apology as knowing how to produce a perfect one. Perhaps even more wisdom in the former, come to think of it.
Take the gesture for what it’s worth. If it doesn’t satisfy you, move on and expend your energy, time, goodwill, and respect to those you feel deserve it instead. You waste your time trying to continue to make war where peace has been offered.
And Anil? You and I don’t see eye to eye on a number of political issues, but I respect your attempts to keep the dialogue open, however flawed others may find that. If we had more people in the world willing to reconsider and reevaluate, perhaps we wouldn’t have as much unrest and unhappiness as we do.
And if I’m ever in NYC (which I may in fact be toward the end of the year), I’ll take you up on that drink. Likewise, if you’re ever in the Boston area, drinks are on me.
Anil
I think you are a good guy.
Most people who read and comment on LGF agree that over-the-line commentary is uncalled for. How and when to censor such commentary is something many commentor-friendly sites have struggled with.
I think it is unfortunate that you and some of your more prominent blogging friends are unaware of how you foster hatred towards those with different political opinions. That is sad.
Apologies without the buts… are hard, but they are the only apologies that will be truly accepted.
Anil, I’ll be ordering the soup and salad for the appetizer and possibly get the nachos too.
To those who asked for an apology, I again thought that was implicit. Still unclear? Charles: I’m sorry I called you a racist. That statement isn’t what precipitated the emails I received, so I hadn’t focused on that.
To those who have come here to criticize: Will you apologize for having hurt the fight for peace?
Anil,
As I said in the now-nuked comments section of the previous thread, I agree with the substance of your LGF criticisms. I think it was something that needed to be said, particularly because I suspect that many people are thinking the same thing but are reluctant to say so.
However, I think your attempt to continue a dialogue with the LGF defenders is an exercise in futility. Anyone who is honest enough to admit that at least some of what you said is true has already done so. As for the others, you have a better chance of changing the course of the Mississippi than of changing their minds.
It’s your blog, and you can do what you want, obviously. But it occurs to me that you might spend your time more pleasantly and productively by putting on a cat suit and running through the Rottweiler section of the city dog pound.