The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A. Charles Johnson

Posted on | June 27, 2010 | 106 Comments

Q. What’s more boring than soccer?

We might assume, arguendo, that regular readers have been following The Other McCain’s relentless mockery of the 2010 World Cup. However, for those who may have joined the mockery in progress and missed the set-up for this particular running gag, let’s recall how liberals have portrayed American contempt for soccer as inherently racist:

“I was reminded about why when the United States wins in international tournaments, it can bring a nasty undercurrent in its wake. . . .
“It’s yet another reminder why it is so important for progressives to not just thrill to the joys of sport but be conversant in the politics of sports. The right will forever try to pump the worst kind of racist, nationalist garbage through our play, even at moments that by all rights should be above and beyond politics and just about the electric thrill of the moment.”
— David Zirin, The Nation, June 23

Anyone who has read Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed (as everyone should) recognizes in this a signature trope of elitist liberalism: “We are enlightened and sophisticated, whereas conservatives are benighted and bigoted.” 

Sowell summarizes the danger of this tendency in his book’s subtitle: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy. That is to say, liberals support certain policies not because those policies are demonstrably effective, but because supporting such policies makes liberals feel good about themselves.

This nonsense about conservatives hating soccer because we are xenophobic jingos is merely a variation on the argument that conservative opposition to nationalized health-care is motivated by racism. The liberal worldview needs to be mocked, and often, and by someone who knows how, which was the primary motivation of World Cup Fever — Catch It! — here:

This recap is not necessitated by any need to allay fears that I’m turning into a soccer-loving elitist faggot, but rather to set up the punchline:




At one point in our Twitter exchange, Johnson used the term “wetback,” and asked what slur I would apply to the Ghana team.

This demonstrated that he did not recognize the premise of the joke, i.e., to employ derogatory terms for various nationalities — French “frogs,” Irish “micks,” Italian “dagos,” etc. —  whereas Johnson had in mind racial slurs, which terms I had of course avoided. At one point, I asked readers to suggest an epithet for Algerians, a situation where generic anti-Arab terms would not do.

Charles Johnson is simply too dull-witted to get the joke. Members of the Mexican soccer team are obviously not “wetbacks,” a term referring specfically to illegal immigrants. If they were “wetbacks,” they’d be playing for the USA and voting for Obama. Had the U.S. team ever played Japan, I might have been in trouble, but we need not waste much thought on that moot possibility now that America’s World-Class Losers have been eliminated.

Too bad Charles Johnson didn’t seek my advice before contacting R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., as I might have warned Charles that it has been a standard policy of The American Spectator since its inception to report all disgruntled letter-writers to the FBI for investigation as subversives.

We’ll wait and see whether I collect that $20 from Weigel.

UPDATE (Smitty): Clarification of “s32porchmanque” can be located here. Summary: ya got nothin’. Keep trying.

UPDATE II: Well played, Admiral, well played, indeed! Smitty’s penchant for Carrollesque word-play is notorious, as his authorship of Oedipotus Wrecks and Waiting for O-Dough demonstrates. His choice of monikers when installing SiteMeter for the new WordPress version of the blog was, perhaps, not what I would have advised. Yet he did not seek my advice, so I suppose he must suffer whatever pun-ishment is apt.

Johnson’s obsession with the SiteMeter calls attention to an interesting fact: Little Green Footballs does not display a SiteMeter link, so that no one can study LGF’s traffic trends. Whereas, as recently noted, June has been the Best. Month. Evah! hereabouts, and anyone can study the SiteMeter to analyze the trend.

While you’re mentally extrapolating November’s traffic based on a trend of April 106K to June 165K, take a gander at The Rules, a/k/a “How to Get a Million Hits.” Among the growth strategies advised is Rule 3: “Make Some Enemies.” So I guess that worked pretty good.

This recent drama — including an evidently authentic comment by Mad King Charles himself — occurred while I was briefly asleep. Donald Douglas at American Power displays the unfunny cartoon that one of the lizards composed.

We now have a Memeorandum thread,  so I suppose I’ll be drinking free next time I run into Dave Weigel. Many conservatives have asked me about Dave — “How can you be friends with that dirtbag?” — and I admit that this is becoming a difficult thing to defend. But I’m averse to the Total Vengeance mode of blogging, the compiling of Enemies Lists, trying to get people fired, and so forth.

The propaganda of dehumanization, turning individuals into symbols — Emmanuel Goldstein in the Two-Minutes Hate — is what incites such episodes as Michelle Malkin being swarmed by an Alex Jones-led mob in Denver. Having been vilified in that manner, I don’t hate the player, I hate the game.

Charles Johnson has played the game so long that he has forgotten it’s a game. He is now just a semi-professional bully. As I said of his vindictive campaign against Pamela Geller, if CJ was a Sioux, his tribal name would be Fights With Girls.

Bullies are not attractive, except to people who admire sadism. And I wasn’t raised that way. Generosity and kindness ultimately triumph over selfish cruelty, and honesty over lies. I don’t owe Bob Belvedere a hat-tip for this lesson.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city . . .”

We know how that story ends.

Category: Blogging, Charles Johnson, Foreigners, humor

Comments

106 Responses to “A. Charles Johnson”

  1. CGHill
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

    I tried to work “Ghaniffs” into the mix, but alas, I lack clout.

  2. CGHill
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:21 pm

    I tried to work “Ghaniffs” into the mix, but alas, I lack clout.

  3. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:26 pm

    CGHill
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm edit
    I tried to work “Ghaniffs” into the mix, but alas, I lack clout.

    You might be interested in this exclusive audio of Saturday’s game.

  4. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:26 pm

    CGHill
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm edit
    I tried to work “Ghaniffs” into the mix, but alas, I lack clout.

    You might be interested in this exclusive audio of Saturday’s game.

  5. Ray.
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:41 pm

    Chuckie,desperate to dish the dirt on R.S.M.Any sort of dirt…

    http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/222/chuckiebeclownshimself.jpg

  6. Ray.
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:41 pm

    Chuckie,desperate to dish the dirt on R.S.M.Any sort of dirt…

    http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/222/chuckiebeclownshimself.jpg

  7. Charles Johnson's Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:46 pm

    Stacy, I can understand your — shall we say, clannish — sympathy with a fellow journalist. He is suffering similar fallout as you did from statements in a forum outside the world of publication.

    Bur really — this guy is no friend of yours and he is no friend to his readers.

    The first time I ever heard of this guy was following a link to his Etheridge story. His outrageous downplaying of the incident (not posting the full video, calling Etheridge’s assault a “hug”) and attempt to shift the story away from Etherdige’s behavior and towards “who are these miscreants, what is their agenda, and who is financing them” was a clear indication of his approach to “journalism.” He’s an anti-conservative douchebag writing a column that is supposed to “explain” the conservative moment to the nation’s elites.

    He followed the same script that liberal journalists always follow when confronted by an attack on liberalism — downplay the incident and shift the story towards the accusers. That’s what the NYT did with the Swiftboaters. That’s what the media does with union thug attacks of Tea Party members. That’s what this douchebag did with the Etheridge assault.

    I’m sick of it. I’m sick of no representation of my beliefs in the MSM. I’m sick of lying douchebags who are called honest-hard-working-reporters-who-play-it-straight-and-I-had-a-couple-of-drinks-with-the-guy-so-don’t-be-mean-to-him journalist defenders.

    You want to know who you’re defending? Check out this picture dated 4-19-09 at http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/27/no-seriously/

    This is your friend? This is a guy you stand buy? This is a guy who’s stories are untainted by bias?

    If you want to practice loyalty, Stacey, be loyal to ideas and then to men who hold them — not the other way around.

  8. Charles Johnson's Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:46 pm

    Stacy, I can understand your — shall we say, clannish — sympathy with a fellow journalist. He is suffering similar fallout as you did from statements in a forum outside the world of publication.

    Bur really — this guy is no friend of yours and he is no friend to his readers.

    The first time I ever heard of this guy was following a link to his Etheridge story. His outrageous downplaying of the incident (not posting the full video, calling Etheridge’s assault a “hug”) and attempt to shift the story away from Etherdige’s behavior and towards “who are these miscreants, what is their agenda, and who is financing them” was a clear indication of his approach to “journalism.” He’s an anti-conservative douchebag writing a column that is supposed to “explain” the conservative moment to the nation’s elites.

    He followed the same script that liberal journalists always follow when confronted by an attack on liberalism — downplay the incident and shift the story towards the accusers. That’s what the NYT did with the Swiftboaters. That’s what the media does with union thug attacks of Tea Party members. That’s what this douchebag did with the Etheridge assault.

    I’m sick of it. I’m sick of no representation of my beliefs in the MSM. I’m sick of lying douchebags who are called honest-hard-working-reporters-who-play-it-straight-and-I-had-a-couple-of-drinks-with-the-guy-so-don’t-be-mean-to-him journalist defenders.

    You want to know who you’re defending? Check out this picture dated 4-19-09 at http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/27/no-seriously/

    This is your friend? This is a guy you stand buy? This is a guy who’s stories are untainted by bias?

    If you want to practice loyalty, Stacey, be loyal to ideas and then to men who hold them — not the other way around.

  9. Ray.
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:48 pm

    http://twitter.com/McCainBoobette/status/17139405245

    LOL.

  10. Ray.
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:48 pm

    http://twitter.com/McCainBoobette/status/17139405245

    LOL.

  11. Charles Johnson's Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:56 pm

    I stand by all grammatical errors, invoking the “heat of passion” defense!

  12. Charles Johnson's Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 1:56 pm

    I stand by all grammatical errors, invoking the “heat of passion” defense!

  13. Dave C
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:05 pm

    Would it be safe to say that RS McCain is the windmill to Charles Johnson’s Don Quixote?

  14. Dave C
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:05 pm

    Would it be safe to say that RS McCain is the windmill to Charles Johnson’s Don Quixote?

  15. molonlabe28
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:09 pm

    The NBA gives soccer a close run for the money.

    It’s the national sport of every third world dump in the world.

    Cases in point:

    1. South Africa has one of the very highest murder rates in the world. A few years ago, J’burg had the highes murder rate in the world. The next year it came in 2d, being edged out by some city in Rwanda.

    2. Why on earth are our athletes on the same field with a bunch of totalitarian misogynists, who sexually neuter their daughters at puberty, from Ghana (the home of Kofi Annan (and hopefully the new host city of the UN General Headquarters)), Algeria, etc.? Who cares if we beat or lose to these people? They can have their boring sport.

    3. One of the political undercurrents of the world soccer games is to legitimize these third world ratholes by putting the athletes of the USA, Great Britain, etc. on the same field with them. For all of our faults, we aren’t pari passu with these thugocracies.

  16. molonlabe28
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:09 pm

    The NBA gives soccer a close run for the money.

    It’s the national sport of every third world dump in the world.

    Cases in point:

    1. South Africa has one of the very highest murder rates in the world. A few years ago, J’burg had the highes murder rate in the world. The next year it came in 2d, being edged out by some city in Rwanda.

    2. Why on earth are our athletes on the same field with a bunch of totalitarian misogynists, who sexually neuter their daughters at puberty, from Ghana (the home of Kofi Annan (and hopefully the new host city of the UN General Headquarters)), Algeria, etc.? Who cares if we beat or lose to these people? They can have their boring sport.

    3. One of the political undercurrents of the world soccer games is to legitimize these third world ratholes by putting the athletes of the USA, Great Britain, etc. on the same field with them. For all of our faults, we aren’t pari passu with these thugocracies.

  17. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:22 pm

    molonlabe28
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:09 pm edit

    Looking for the Argument Clinic? Sorry, this is Abuse.

  18. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:22 pm

    molonlabe28
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:09 pm edit

    Looking for the Argument Clinic? Sorry, this is Abuse.

  19. serr8d
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:31 pm

    Love it when you stir up the loonbat, RSM~!

  20. Count Vikula
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:31 pm

    Did this Charles Johnson character actually write that letter? Seriously?

    He really does have a few screws loose.

  21. serr8d
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:31 pm

    Love it when you stir up the loonbat, RSM~!

  22. Count Vikula
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:31 pm

    Did this Charles Johnson character actually write that letter? Seriously?

    He really does have a few screws loose.

  23. zf
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:37 pm

    Q: Who’s the most uptight humorless self-righteous smear artist of them all?

    A: All together now: Chuck Johnson of course!

    And hey, Chuckie, you can post all the jazz records you want, but it’s not going to fool anyone into thinking that it makes you enlightened. Or even cool for that matter.

  24. zf
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:37 pm

    Q: Who’s the most uptight humorless self-righteous smear artist of them all?

    A: All together now: Chuck Johnson of course!

    And hey, Chuckie, you can post all the jazz records you want, but it’s not going to fool anyone into thinking that it makes you enlightened. Or even cool for that matter.

  25. proof
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:45 pm

    Ah, Stacy! This may be the most attention that Little Green Gonads gets all week!

  26. proof
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:45 pm

    Ah, Stacy! This may be the most attention that Little Green Gonads gets all week!

  27. Stephanie
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:50 pm

    Beaners call themselves beaners. I call myself a beaner.(Sometimes) George Lopez calls himself a beaner. But uh….hell is raised when people other than beaners apply the term. Hm.

    And if you had pretended you were TPain and used the N word, maybe you could have gotten away with using it. And gotten Charles Johnson’s attention. (I jest. Really, I do.)

    And oh my god, that video is hysterical. I’ll have to watch more from that series.

  28. Stephanie
    June 27th, 2010 @ 2:50 pm

    Beaners call themselves beaners. I call myself a beaner.(Sometimes) George Lopez calls himself a beaner. But uh….hell is raised when people other than beaners apply the term. Hm.

    And if you had pretended you were TPain and used the N word, maybe you could have gotten away with using it. And gotten Charles Johnson’s attention. (I jest. Really, I do.)

    And oh my god, that video is hysterical. I’ll have to watch more from that series.

  29. Charles Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 8:03 pm

    Will my Johnson please get back where it belongs? Although all of me is synonomous to my Johnson. The Yiddish word for me is schmuck. And Kilgore is my little tuchas leker.

    I loved Breaking Away, I was the kid who idolized the Italians. Until of course they screwed me in the race. But like that other Charles with the last name Brown, I keep running up and trying to kick the football.

  30. Charles Johnson
    June 27th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

    Will my Johnson please get back where it belongs? Although all of me is synonomous to my Johnson. The Yiddish word for me is schmuck. And Kilgore is my little tuchas leker.

    I loved Breaking Away, I was the kid who idolized the Italians. Until of course they screwed me in the race. But like that other Charles with the last name Brown, I keep running up and trying to kick the football.

  31. kansas
    June 27th, 2010 @ 8:14 pm

    Two new books out: One is Called Whiny Assed Bitch about Obama. The other is about a Whiny Assed Bitch called Trolling for Blog hits, or Why I Stalk RS McCain.

  32. kansas
    June 27th, 2010 @ 4:14 pm

    Two new books out: One is Called Whiny Assed Bitch about Obama. The other is about a Whiny Assed Bitch called Trolling for Blog hits, or Why I Stalk RS McCain.

  33. Lee
    June 27th, 2010 @ 8:20 pm

    A real bunch of brilliant posters you have here, RSM. None of you collectively have the brains to blow yourselves to tie your shoes. You must be so proud, RSM, to have such a moronic following. They are so easily led, huh?

    A true conservative.

  34. Lee
    June 27th, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

    A real bunch of brilliant posters you have here, RSM. None of you collectively have the brains to blow yourselves to tie your shoes. You must be so proud, RSM, to have such a moronic following. They are so easily led, huh?

    A true conservative.

  35. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 8:26 pm

    ¡Va La Argentina!

  36. Robert Stacy McCain
    June 27th, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

    ¡Va La Argentina!

  37. buzzsawmonkey
    June 27th, 2010 @ 9:27 pm

    Never been to this site before, but it has come to my attention that the delusional Mad King Yertle of Little Green Footballs is spreading lies on his cult site to the effect that I am “impersonating” him here.

    He should live so long.

  38. buzzsawmonkey
    June 27th, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

    Never been to this site before, but it has come to my attention that the delusional Mad King Yertle of Little Green Footballs is spreading lies on his cult site to the effect that I am “impersonating” him here.

    He should live so long.

  39. Jay Tea
    June 27th, 2010 @ 10:05 pm

    Well played, sir. Very well played. You baited the hook masterfully, and LargeMouth Johnson bit and bit hard.
    I doff my hat to you.

    J.

  40. Jay Tea
    June 27th, 2010 @ 6:05 pm

    Well played, sir. Very well played. You baited the hook masterfully, and LargeMouth Johnson bit and bit hard.
    I doff my hat to you.

    J.

  41. 1389AD
    June 27th, 2010 @ 11:11 pm

    CJ evidently fell off his bicycle too many times without wearing a helmet. I learned not to take stupid risks like that when I was about seven years old, and that was before bicycle helmets were invented. That’s why my prefrontal lobes are intact, and his are not.

    I suspect that the email from CJ has ended up in the spam bin at The American Spectator, to be read by nobody.

  42. 1389AD
    June 27th, 2010 @ 7:11 pm

    CJ evidently fell off his bicycle too many times without wearing a helmet. I learned not to take stupid risks like that when I was about seven years old, and that was before bicycle helmets were invented. That’s why my prefrontal lobes are intact, and his are not.

    I suspect that the email from CJ has ended up in the spam bin at The American Spectator, to be read by nobody.

  43. DEZ
    June 27th, 2010 @ 11:13 pm

    Anyone wanting to impersonate Chuckles, merely needs to eat a can of beans.

  44. DEZ
    June 27th, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

    Anyone wanting to impersonate Chuckles, merely needs to eat a can of beans.

  45. Macker
    June 27th, 2010 @ 11:21 pm

    RS: You DO know that Diego Maradona is an unapologetic Dirty F**kin’ Communist, right?

  46. Macker
    June 27th, 2010 @ 7:21 pm

    RS: You DO know that Diego Maradona is an unapologetic Dirty F**kin’ Communist, right?

  47. savage
    June 27th, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

    Chuckie is just pissed off at us because we took 70% of his traffic away from him. haha

  48. savage
    June 27th, 2010 @ 7:22 pm

    Chuckie is just pissed off at us because we took 70% of his traffic away from him. haha

  49. vagabond trader
    June 27th, 2010 @ 11:23 pm

    This is almost as good as He Who Fights with Girls nazifying the Tennessee flag or the little boiled froggie incident. Well done! 😀

  50. vagabond trader
    June 27th, 2010 @ 7:23 pm

    This is almost as good as He Who Fights with Girls nazifying the Tennessee flag or the little boiled froggie incident. Well done! 😀

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