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Maybe Consistency Isn’t His Forte

16 Responses to “Maybe Consistency Isn’t His Forte”

1. vastleft Says:
   February 16th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

   The official Corrente Hope Officer lives!

   In three years of blogging, I’d written about a half-dozen posts referencing David Sirota, and mostly in a favorable context. If Lambert ever cites him, it’s at a comparable interview,

   It made his citation of us as deranged Sirota “hate stalkers” rather curious, and an abuse of the term. YMMV.

   dmd76 has made it his business to pounce on virtually every comment either Lambert or I post on any blog on any topic to vilify us for a Godwin’s Law misdemeanor of Lambert’s from last May. What is the correct term for such behavior?

   Please check your log book — nope, Lambert didn’t support Obama. So, he’s lost the right to such things as calling out creepy intimidation when he’s the victim of same.

   You’ve certainly made a pet project of wagging a finger at our site. I’ll consider that attention flattering for the moment, for want of an applicable word.

   Though it’s certainly great sport for you to pretend otherwise, we are loath to use terms like “Obot.” I can’t recall that I’ve ever used it.

   Given the volume of posts in the heated primary, I don’t know with certainty that it never came up.

   Given the culture of independent thinking and acceptance of criticism that was the hallmark of the Obama movement, it is astounding that such a locution would come into existence at all.

   And given how robotically dmd76 camps out and seizes upon us, perhaps the invocation of those two phrases is not the really significant sin against civility in this picture.

2. lambert strether Says:
   February 16th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

   Hi–

   There’s a difference between using a word where it applies, and using it where it doesn’t.

   The difference in this case is that Sirota, of blessed memory, is defining “stalking” as linking to one of his posts or comments and then responding to it; since the links were, I think, a grand total of three, that hardly counts as stalking (although I confess I posted a few joke posts after the whole tempest in a teapot).

   I’m not following Sirota around, and on every post, every comment, wherever he goes, flaming the man, by posting the same comments, over and over, and over, and over. That was what was happening to me there for awhile, though it died down. I’m sure, though, with your kind encouragement, it will start right up again!

   Check the definition from urban dictionary — that’s why I gave it, to distinguish the cases. Sorry that wasn’t clear.

3. AltHippo Says:
   February 16th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

   Lambert,

   If you had said that you were not stalking by your comments at OpenLeft, fair enough. But no. You went on to say that its use was inappropriate because of violence done to women.

   If that’s what you believe, then your use to describe dmd76 is also inappropriate.

   I have seen comments left by dmd76 at Open Left after posts you made, and I fail to see what he does is different from your relationship to Sirota.

4. AltHippo Says:
   February 16th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

   Vast Left wrote: “Though it’s certainly great sport for you to pretend otherwise, we are loath to use terms like “Obot.” I can’t recall that I’ve ever used it.”

   Indeed, I noticed after our last exchange, it was rare to see similar examples at Corrente. But, you’ll note that I was quoting Lambert. He does kind of run the Corrente site, and ought to be setting an example.

5. dmd76 Says:
   February 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

   My intent is and has always been to discredit Lambert and the Correntewire Senior Fellowship by pointing people to a particularly egregious example of Lambert’s progressive criticism (I use the term very loosely) of Obama (he warned his readers of the ominous similarities between the Obama campaign and the Nazis). This is the kind of insightful analysis that is proffered and defended by the denizens of the Mighty Corrente Building. They deserve to be mocked and shunned by everyone.

   Quelle horreur! Aussi.

   p.s. Is there some rule in PB2.0 where Lambert’s posts have a statute of limitations, after which it is uncouth to hold him accountable for his words?

6. AltHippo Says:
   February 20th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

   dmd76: “Is there some rule in PB2.0 where Lambert’s posts have a statute of limitations, after which it is uncouth to hold him accountable for his words?”

   There may be something in PB2.0 to that effect. As far as I can tell, PB2.0 is a revenge fantasy, and these things are apt to be emotionally driven. The rest of us recognize that Lambert is “spinning.”

   I know that what upset me about Corrente over the last year, is that rhetorical fallacy became acceptable at the site. I believe that’s what upset you as well, dmd76.

7. dmd76 Says:
   February 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm

   Right you are, althippo. Speaking of fallacies, the astute reader will notice that the comment quoted above, where I am accused of stalking, is the first comment by Lambert in that thread and is in response to a comment I had made - a kind of preemptive stalking, I guess. Lambert is nothing if not a perpetual victim, just like his PUMA pals.

8. gil mann Says:
   February 20th, 2009 at 8:41 pm

   I should say that stalking really is a serious problem for women, as this story in today’s Times reminds us. That’s why Sirota’s appropriation of the term to describe his feelings when posters link to him and disagree with his writing, is not merely wrong, and risible, but appalling.

   Hypocrisy aside, this is such sanctimonious bullshit. English’s strength is its fluidity, and plus, it’s not like “rape,” where it means one specific thing but gets appropriated for others; predators were “stalking” prey long before we decided that the word aptly describes the actions of obsessive creeps.

   Christ I hate language cops, especially when it’s obvious they aren’t actually offended and are just trying to score points.

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