I was encouraged to see Steyn hasn't joined the "hate on John" bandwagon, at least not as I can see. Steyn's career is too good to come out as a race realist (I reckon he is), give the demographic stew 10 or 15 more years and there might be enough fearful whites to allow Steyn to be more forthright as John has been.
On this Easter Sunday, it is time to meditate on Christ's words: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Rich Lowry and Jonah Goldberg should simply quit. When you have no honesty, no integrity, no character, and the world knows it - and more importantly, you yourself know it - what is left?
so The Derb was fired and he just got cancer. So now he needs donations.
Well, he needs donations because he lives in america. If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.
But he was always attacking those welfare states, and now that he needs one, he has none.
Why is it that in order to be a writer accepted by the Left in America you have be FOR certain things and against certain things. If you do not adhere to this prescribed set of points, you cannot be a writer on the Left in america.
Likewise, if you want to be a writer on the Right in america, you have to be for certain things and against other certain things. One of the things you have to be against is the welfare state.
In america, to be a political writer on the Left, you have to be for affirmative action, for multiculturalism etc.
In america, to be a political writer on the Right, you have to be against the welfare state. The Derb was against it, and now that viewpoint is killing him. No welfare state for you!
Why is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine. In other words, why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?
No such person is allowed to rise to prominence in america.
National Review is now completely unreadable, having fired their last quality writer for the unpardonable crime of having told the truth. My understanding was that Mr. Derbyshire was a freelance rather than a contract writer. I hope that he will be able to make up for the loss of income from National Review elsewhere. If there is a silver lining to all of this, his excellent article "The Talk: Nonblack Version" over at Taki's Mag will now be much wider read than it was before.
“If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.”
You are clueless. The welfare state in Sweden does not give anyone money enough to live an American upper middle class life. As a high income earner, you get perhaps $2-2500 in retirement benefits plus health care, which is more or less exactly what Americans over 65 get in SS and Medicaid.
The welfare state is large because lots of people live off it, not because it is generous in absolute terms. It is strange what utopian fantasies about Europe the left have.
I have donated. I have also sent e-mail telling him my support; he responded--and I am not a close friend--so I presume he is doing reasonably well.
I can't read minds, but I'm suspicious of the idea that he wrote a resignation column of some sort, or that this was a deliberate swan-song. He wasn't saying anything much different from what he's been saying all along--I think it just blew up into a media firestorm, to his surprise as much as anyone else.
It can't ever be fun to be fired, but I think there are more and less decent ways to do so. I hope Rich Lowry chose the better way--and I do think enough of him that I don't find the prospect unreasonable.
Eh..the European welfare state is not some magical entity that can cure cancer. Indeed, cancer survival rates are lower in the Europe than in the United States.
"But he was always attacking those welfare states, and now that he needs one, he has none."
He hasn't said that he needs one. Quit assuming. He may have insurance through his spouse, there may be other options. And the people who are donating (I just did) like his work. It's payment for services. Unlike in the welfare state, there's no coercion.
"...why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?"
Before mass immigration hit Europe, welfare transfers in European countries were not an ethnic issue. Though I guess in Italy they were that even then to some extent. It was kind of like parents spending money on their own adult, but lazy kids - they'll grumble, but by and large they'll pay up. What sort of a douchebag will abandon his own? But when the benefactors and the takers come, on average, from different races, there's usually less good will. I don't think this is specific to America. Seems like a universal principle. This phenomenon is enormously scalable. Have you ever wanted to cuddle with a reptile? See, cats and dogs are mammals, and so are much closer to us.
Japan and Korea also have welfare states. I'm sure China is strengthening its own as we speak. It's not an ethnic issue for them. Ethnic issues are often adversarial. That's how life on earth works.
One more thing, folks: another way to donate is to buy Derb's excellent books. I read and recommend Prime Obsession and We Are Doomed. Going to read Unknown Quantity now.
On his page, Derb should really link each one of them directly to Amazon: http://johnderbyshire.com/Books/page.html Steve, you can make few bucks and help Derb if you link to his books on Amazon.
"Why is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine. In other words, why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?
No such person is allowed to rise to prominence in america."
Because that would be too much like National Socialism and the PTB and people who control the media believe that Whites should not have these ideas. It might make the country and the populace too strong and healthy ... and then who knows what might happen. Only the ethno state Israel is permitted to have these types of policies or candidates.
Well, he needs donations because he lives in america. If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.
No nation has both cradle-to-the-grave social services and free speech. Derbyshire wouldn't have been able to make a living writing in any of the nations you mentioned. No chance. In some he'd be censored, in some he'd be fined, and in at least one, he'd probably be imprisoned. In no other country would this man be able to support himself for putting his honest opinions in print. America is the world's last best hope for free expression, and even here, it's not pretty.
Derb is just a decent guy. What happened, I guess, is he couldn't follow the Mandarin modern rules on public discourse - despite being gracious and reasonable and calm. Now he's the worst person ever.
Tells me alot more about how things are now than it does about Derb.
I think Derb, Sailer, and some of the other soon-to-be NR exiles should form their own site - one more honest than NRO and more intelligent than VDare. VDare has been disappointing of late.
"I can't read minds, but I'm suspicious of the idea that he wrote a resignation column of some sort..."
Ditto. He's said things that even I thought were over the line, but none were in the Taki column. It may have been NR's last straw. They may have not had stomach for the controversy. They may have been pressured by a donor. Or maybe they cut him loose to save money on their health insurance, given his current battle with cancer?
Derb is 67 I believe. He's eligible for Medicare, and presumably for social security. He's at least covered (I hope) on those fronts.
From what I've heard from Goldberg and Lowry, it sounds like they're not coming out and saying what Derb said was incorrect, just that it was unacceptable and offensive. I suspect those two are open-eyed and commonsensical enough to be reluctant race-realists, but are intensely aware that this position is out of the bounds of acceptable discourse in the mainstream of which they are a part.
I can't begin to describe the outrage that I feel right now. Derb was truly a national treasure. Mark Steyn and VDH are the only remaining writers worth reading at NRO now.
Seriously, where does this all end? Can anyone seriously point to a conservative victory over the last 20 years? What exactly has National Review accomplished? By the way, I would not be surprised at all if NRO goes after Steyn in the next few years. He is one of the few writers to discuss relative fertility rates. Maclean's has already fired him. So sad...
One would expect that in firing such a well-regarded writer that Mr. Lowry would marshall some reasons, that he would plant his batteries and hurl high-velocity facts at Mr. Derbyshire's Fortress of Hate, that his logician-sappers would tunnel beneath the Redoubts of Racism and blow them sky-high with vast mines of dialectic. But no. Mr. Lowry merely flung a few epithets. It's like a high school girl going "Ewwww!"
But personal attacks on Mr. Derbyshire won't work on me, because I've read a lot of his stuff online including the (illustrated)Tree House essay and the (illustrated) Boris the dog essay and unless he is as skilled and deceitful as Dr. Goebbels, the Dar el Darb is as delightful a family as could be found in a long day's searching.
The father of Mr. Derbyshire was a coal miner and former South Staffordshire Light Infantryman, Mrs. Derbyshire's an officer in the PLA who fought in Korea. That is, both were heroes in the old sense of "doing one's duty at risk to one's life in disagreeable circumstances".
Of course, if we ever met, Mrs. Darb could expect to get teased pretty hard about Boris's outstanding character. ["Admit it. You gave that pup THE TALK, didn't you? Took him to the kitchen where a vast pot gleamed on the stove top and gave him a Significant Look followed by a Meaningful Glance at the aforesaid container and Bingo! Instant devotion, instant obedience, no slipper-chewing in al dar al-Darb!"] I'm sure she'd not only get the joke but put me in my place.
There's an excruciatingly cute shot online of the toddler daughter crawling through the dog door-in-the-door. But I'm ravished by the video of the same creature grown into a slim young lady, blasting a pair of clays out of the sky with cool aplomb and a pump-action shotgun damn near as tall as her. And there's a snap of her brother looking cool as hell, sitting on a table edge and aiming his M-16 down range. Like his sister, he's skeptical of the modern "university" and wants to try the military instead. And he's funny ["Other guys' grandfathers fought in Vietnam; mine fought in WWI!"].
If I were wealthy I'd try to take the Derbyshire family out to dinner. I suspect it would be not only enormous fun but a valuable contribution to a liberal education.
In all the comment threads there is hardly a single person who attacks Mr. Derbyshire's facts or logic. But personal attacks won't do. Even if Mr. Derbyshire is a Moriarty of deception, his argument still stands untouched.
By attacking the writer rather than the essay, Mr. Lowry makes himself look spiteful and craven.
And I'll continue to believe Mr. Derbyshire's a good guy with a wonderful family.
Anyone who has read National Review knows it can be a deeply literate, funny, and incisive publication. It is also maddening, spineless, boring, and, let's be frank, a washed-up has-been. Its latest provocation, participating in a Two Minutes Hate in response to certain heresies against political correctness, is nasty and indefensible. I never would have read it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it was directed at John Derbyshire. NR is effectively using Mr. Derbyshire's name to get more oxygen for politically correct pieties that Mr. Derbyshire would never associate with otherwise. So there has to be a parting of ways. NR has long danced around the line on these issues, but this action is so offensive it constitutes a kind of resignation letter from American conservatism. It's a free country, and NR can publish whatever it wants, wherever it wants. It just won't have the credibility of being associated with Mr. Derbyshire any longer, and I have canceled my goddam subscription.
Always liked Derb and his work. Lowry et al are rank hypocrites, more eager to please their ideological enemies than support an ill colleague who had the temerity to speak frankly on a taboo subject.
I hope those of you who criticized Derb on these pages, and at Takimag, for knuckling under to the neo-cons at NRO are enjoying a heaping plate of crow this Easter Sunday.
I've now repaid Mr. Derbyshire for some of the great pleasure his writing has brought me, and I plan to do so regularly from now on. I encourage others to do the same, as many of you already have. He's too good a writer and thinker to have to suffer this shit.
Why is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine.
Someone needs a lesson on the meaning of "both". "Both" refers to two things, not seven.
It really does seem like Derb's views are slowly and hesitantly gaining traction in mainstream conservatism. Drudge's story choices, VHD's writings about California, even Instapundit seems to be making a few feints in that direction.
Derb lost this battle, but I wonder if he isn't winning the war.
An interesting thing I've been noticing since the London Riots - everywhere there is a place to uprate or downrate comments, the HBD or WN view is getting uprated while the mainstream liberal viewpoint is being downrated harshly. Here is an example on the latest:
Derb would obviously be much better off in a country with decent provisions for medical care, like pretty much every other advanced country but the U.S. Not sure why being a conservative means you have to blind yourself to such obviously crazy setups as the U.S. system for health care finance, in which we pay about twice as much as any other country for lousy access to care. Fortunately for him he is about 65 and will soon be eligible for Medicare if he isn't already -- the one oasis of single payer in the U.S. system.
this is the poster who posted above about how derby now needs the welfare state he used to demonize.
Not a one of you knows anything about what you are talking about. I have done the research. All you lot can do is regurgitate talking points. I have NEVER seen ANY commenter on the internet who knows as much as me. Period.
On the (very much justified) wave of good feelings towards John Derbyshire, let us not forget about Steve Sailer. Respectful to both, your Florida resident.
I'm sure it's scant comfort to Mr. Derb but this is the brouhaha that lit up a thousand flame wars (on the conservative-run sites, at least); very healthy, compared to the average Kos diary or Freeper thread. Perhaps Lowry/his publisher just may have inadvertently done a real service to the "blogosphere" if not Nat Review's reputation.
Adam Carolla is perhaps the foremost public voice of unabashed public honesty on the issues Derb discussed. You may know him as the guy from The Man Show or seeing him on various shows like Celebrity Apprentice, but he has the #1 podcast and a growing and very devoted following. He pushes the envelope in an intelligent, no fear of repurcussions fashion. HBD is not his main thing, he's a comedian, social commentator, but he is a cool dude who is very smart, witty, and has major cred in that he grew up poor, worked in construction, cleaning carpets, etc. before becoming successful in entertainment. He played high school football, wrenches on cars, guys' guy, would be impossible to dismiss as uncool or fringe or out there. It may seem out of the box to those unfamiliar but Adam is likely the most effective voice for issues discussed here on ISteve that is completely in the mainstream.
I can't afford to donate cos I'm one of those punk upper middle class east coast private school kids born just after Reagan and, appropriately, currently finishing up @ a major Ivey @ 22 and godawful poor as I pay off a bullshit, racist loan while mother (w money, from Dad) has ma nouvelle step-"father" lay out more cash for himself to "research" (vacation) in Europe. Academic purposes are as yet unestablished. My life's a dead WASP cliche absent the sole, essential, final comfoet implicit thereof: establishment backing.
"Why are there no comments under Lowry's piece at NRO's The Corner?"
Because he banned them, and also banned comments on his earlier post. Click on the comments link. It doesn't provide a comment field. But it appears Derb defenders have threadjacked the prior post (90+ comments as of now) to argue about Derb.
"Does anybody really not get care when they have cancer?"
Derbyshire's 66, nearly 67, and has been a US citizen for at least a decade or so. I'm pretty sure he qualifies for Medicare.
I don't know if he received any coverage through National Review, but the parting post by Lowry, while wrong, wasn't especially nasty. If he was earning coverage through them I think they may continue to provide it. To a degree NR's move was ideological, but a big part of it seems to have been PR/keeping the donors happy.
"he responded--and I am not a close friend" Empowered by globalized technology I've been able to shoot e-mail darts at scores of magazine/newspaper writers I don't know except in regard to their online work, ever since Al Gore launched the webs. Of the subset who write back, some tend to be curt; some are almost parodically formal (Brendan Nyhan & James Bowman to name two at random); a few are just peevish jerks, while others have occasionally served on me laugh-out-loud exasperated short missives e.g. a Weekly Standard writer who is clearly a good guy and likely wasting his time replying to yours truly. Anyway it's surprising I think and ought to be noted how Derbyshire--on the evidence of a couple dozen interactions over the last decade--is unfailingly polite, never surly, and oddly cheerful (in fact I initially suspected this for a put-on). It has an element of the surreal to watch someone get castigated over something relatively mild-mannered by the standards of modern blogging; I think Derbyshire himself once mused that he could never foretell which pieces would or wouldn't reap the whirlwind.
Anyone donating or defending or just linking to him should have no doubt he's a more courteous and good-natured breed of polemicist, at least vis-a-vis cyber-etiquette, than the mean. Incidentally I find Steve a bit more Jekyll & Hyde in this department, but then again he probably also has to confront an inbox bursting from the upper plains of chaotic vitriol.
"Anyway it's surprising I think and ought to be noted how Derbyshire...is unfailingly polite, never surly, and oddly cheerful"
Ditto. I've sent him three or four emails over the years. One I clearly must've written in a drunken stupor, but he even responded politely to that one.
There are people who put on a good show in public but are a-holes in private. There are people who are a-holes both in public and in private (cough John Podhoretz cough!), and there are people who are blunt and infuriating (to some) in public, but unfailingly charming and polite in private. Derb has always been the latter.
Interesting that one of Derb's subpoints was to avoid large gatherings of blacks at beaches, and then we have this. (Watch the video starting ca. 1:30)
It may seem out of the box to those unfamiliar but Adam is likely the most effective voice for issues discussed here on ISteve that is completely in the mainstream.
I bought Corolla's book, "In 50 Years We'll All Be Chicks," and have listened to a number of his podcasts. While he's good on immigration, he's pretty careful about race and knows which lines you can't cross. He's no Derbyshire.
Joe Sobran and I debated the merits of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" by email not long before Mr. Sobran passed away. He was incredibly polite - and absolutely unpersuadable. ;)
"From what I've heard from Goldberg and Lowry, it sounds like they're not coming out and saying what Derb said was incorrect, just that it was unacceptable and offensive. I suspect those two are open-eyed and commonsensical enough to be reluctant race-realists, but are intensely aware that this position is out of the bounds of acceptable discourse in the mainstream of which they are a part."
An interesting thing I've been noticing since the London Riots - everywhere there is a place to uprate or downrate comments, the HBD or WN view is getting uprated while the mainstream liberal viewpoint is being downrated harshly.
Yes, check out this comment thread at The Atlantic, of all places, and look at the "likes" on the comments by "Severn" vs those he is arguing with.
Not a one of you knows anything about what you are talking about. I have done the research. All you lot can do is regurgitate talking points. I have NEVER seen ANY commenter on the internet who knows as much as me. Period."
That statement adds immeasurably to your credibility.
I donated and also bought one of his books. In my new blog post I allude to Derb's firing: "National Review confirmed this weekend that they covet the same status in the print and Internet media markets that Fox has for TV news: they let liberals set the boundaries of acceptable opinion for them. "
I respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better. Talking about teaching your kids to avoid groups of black people and then expecting to make a living as a writer in the mainstream media? Rediculous. There is the reality about human biodiversity and then there is hateful racism towards large groups of people that have all kinds within that group. You folks aren't doing the HBD cause any good at all when you mix it with blatantly racist comments like the Derb made, and methinks you are too stubborn to learn from your mistakes.
>I respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better. Talking about teaching your kids to avoid groups of black people and then expecting to make a living as a writer in the mainstream media? Rediculous. There is the reality about human biodiversity and then there is hateful racism towards large groups of people that have all kinds within that group. You folks aren't doing the HBD cause any good at all when you mix it with blatantly racist comments like the Derb made, and methinks you are too stubborn to learn from your mistakes.<
Try reading Derb's article before commenting on it. "Large groups of people that have all kinds within that group" is a point he made. Also look up and study the concept "on average." And when you do get around to reading Derb's article, follow the links (the bolded words) and read what they link to.
American Jews think blacks are the canary in the coal mine for them.
If it becomes accepted to criticize blacks as a group, will whites take a closer look at Jews? Hence the guarding of discourse in black/white matters by the Jews and their friends at NRO
Actually a lot of yuppie con-bloggers are picking it up (trashing Derbyshire). People I've never heard of, even less famous than hip young meritocrat Josh Barro. If you go over to Redstate, which I assume is meant to be the right-wing imitation of the Daily Kos bulletin board, there is some CPAC yuppie now whooping it up. The denunciations from Hannity-worshiping/illiterate con personage Jeffrey Lord (at the American Spectator site) have been easily the most humorous.
"Jonah vents back. Just so you know." -- there's a whole genre of blogs devoted to Nasty Emails From JonahNRO Address. I used to wonder if it was mathematically possible he'd really written all of them.
@ Dave I read the article, I am a fan of Derbyshire's writing, fine mind, good writer, but this article deserved the response it got. It crossed the line between what is and decency, it was mean not insightful. A lot of people here are mean, a lot of people in the world are mean, it is what it is. And the internet jabberers will go on waging their wars of hollow words.
dave chamberlin said... "I respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better."
It's collective mindsets like this that led the wimpization of the white race.
I read the article, I am a fan of Derbyshire's writing, fine mind, good writer, but this article deserved the response it got. It crossed the line between what is and decency, it was mean not insightful. A lot of people here are mean, a lot of people in the world are mean, it is what it is. And the internet jabberers will go on waging their wars of hollow words.
-dave chamberlain
Yeah, I get your point Dave. But Obama's been getting mean lately. I understand where the Derb is coming from. His response is totally fair play given what we've been subjected to over the Trayvon case.
However, I'm sure John Derbyshire knew exactly what he was getting into, and I only hope it's because he'd like to retire rather than a sudden break from protocol due to some bad news on the cancer front. Derb's a trooper. Some people have been kind to me, and I'd like to give him at least some token of appreciation for his work. I've read enough of his articles, and never paid for it before, so it's only fair...
I was a bit let down by the "instantly notorious" article because it was a bit on the feebly polite side even to my regular-Republican tastes, especially in comparison to some of the other fire-breathers on that site--but then again I may not be the best "Barrometer" for these things (see what I did there???)
Also have wondered, if he's up to it, whether he could do a monthly listener-supported celebrity podcast, since his Derb Radio segments at NRO were really quite funny and I will miss those, in spite of his not-mainstream radio voice which sounds like a very distracted 5th Beatle's.
I know a young woman born in Haiti with two mixed race teenage sons. Having heard the kind of advice she has given her children, I don't think she would have many problems with the Derb's piece.
>Actually a lot of yuppie con-bloggers are picking it up (trashing Derbyshire).<
Good.
This is a clarifying moment. Anyone even remotely intellectually honest will now abandon sooner these aptly named "con" sites; the Derbyshire Donnybrook will be the push that changes many a serious person's course.
Observing the uncalled-for, over-the-top reaction by neocons and libertarians to Trent Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond (2002) made me start smelling a rat where I had NEVER suspected one before.
"One evening early on in my career as an opinion journalist in the USA, I found myself in a roomful of mainstream conservative types standing around in groups and gossiping. Because I was new to the scene, many of the names they were tossing about were unknown to me, so I could not take much part in the conversation. Then I caught one name that I recognized. I had just recently read and admired a piece published in Chronicles under that name. I gathered from the conversation that the owner of the name had once been a regular contributor to much more widely read conservative publications, the kind that have salaried congressional correspondents and full-service LexisNexis accounts, but that he was welcome at those august portals no longer. In all innocence, I asked why this was so. “Oh,” explained one of my companions, “he got the Jew thing.” The others in our group all nodded their understanding. Apparently no further explanation was required. The Jew thing. It was said in the kind of tone you might use of an automobile with a cracked engine block, or a house with subsiding foundations. Nothing to be done with him, poor fellow. No use to anybody now. Got the Jew thing. They shoot horses, don’t they?"
Screw John Derbyshire. This guy has been trashing everyone to his "right", like Kevin MacDonald, for over a decade now. Now he's some kind of brave truth teller? Give me a break.
Will The American Spectator hire him now?
ReplyDeleteLooks like he took down the donation link?
ReplyDeleteJust click on the salmon colored Donate button on the left center of his homepage.
ReplyDeleteThe Derb should write for the American Spectator and the American Thinker, both superior to NRO. Steyn should quit National Review in protest.
ReplyDeleteI was encouraged to see Steyn hasn't joined the "hate on John" bandwagon, at least not as I can see. Steyn's career is too good to come out as a race realist (I reckon he is), give the demographic stew 10 or 15 more years and there might be enough fearful whites to allow Steyn to be more forthright as John has been.
ReplyDeleteHave you corresponded with him? How are his spirits? His battle with cancer?
ReplyDeleteDonated. Paypal makes it easy.
ReplyDeleteI'd guess Victor Davis is next in line for the chop. Those screeds from Mexifornia are getting a little too ... particular.
On this Easter Sunday, it is time to meditate on Christ's words: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
ReplyDeleteRich Lowry and Jonah Goldberg should simply quit. When you have no honesty, no integrity, no character, and the world knows it - and more importantly, you yourself know it - what is left?
A man's time on this earth is too short. A woman's too. At the end, what is remembered is courage, honor, dignity, and kindness. Not much else.
ReplyDeleteRich Lowry will be remembered for none of these.
Yes I assume Steyn and Hanson will be ousted as well.
I love paypal. So easy to donate.
so The Derb was fired and he just got cancer. So now he needs donations.
ReplyDeleteWell, he needs donations because he lives in america. If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.
But he was always attacking those welfare states, and now that he needs one, he has none.
Why is it that in order to be a writer accepted by the Left in America you have be FOR certain things and against certain things. If you do not adhere to this prescribed set of points, you cannot be a writer on the Left in america.
Likewise, if you want to be a writer on the Right in america, you have to be for certain things and against other certain things. One of the things you have to be against is the welfare state.
In america, to be a political writer on the Left, you have to be for affirmative action, for multiculturalism etc.
In america, to be a political writer on the Right, you have to be against the welfare state. The Derb was against it, and now that viewpoint is killing him. No welfare state for you!
Why is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine. In other words, why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?
No such person is allowed to rise to prominence in america.
With Matthew:
ReplyDeleteWould love to hear something about/from Derb on this. I hope you can pass that on to him, Steve.
"The Derb was against it, and now that viewpoint is killing him."
ReplyDeleteRiiiiight.
Because universal coverage means universal care.
If you're a complete, utter, Marxist retard.
Done. Everyone, please donate.
ReplyDeleteNational Review is now completely unreadable, having fired their last quality writer for the unpardonable crime of having told the truth. My understanding was that Mr. Derbyshire was a freelance rather than a contract writer. I hope that he will be able to make up for the loss of income from National Review elsewhere. If there is a silver lining to all of this, his excellent article "The Talk: Nonblack Version" over at Taki's Mag will now be much wider read than it was before.
ReplyDelete“If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.”
ReplyDeleteYou are clueless. The welfare state in Sweden does not give anyone money enough to live an American upper middle class life. As a high income earner, you get perhaps $2-2500 in retirement benefits plus health care, which is more or less exactly what Americans over 65 get in SS and Medicaid.
The welfare state is large because lots of people live off it, not because it is generous in absolute terms. It is strange what utopian fantasies about Europe the left have.
I have donated. I have also sent e-mail telling him my support; he responded--and I am not a close friend--so I presume he is doing reasonably well.
ReplyDeleteI can't read minds, but I'm suspicious of the idea that he wrote a resignation column of some sort, or that this was a deliberate swan-song. He wasn't saying anything much different from what he's been saying all along--I think it just blew up into a media firestorm, to his surprise as much as anyone else.
It can't ever be fun to be fired, but I think there are more and less decent ways to do so. I hope Rich Lowry chose the better way--and I do think enough of him that I don't find the prospect unreasonable.
“now that viewpoint is killing him."
ReplyDeleteEh..the European welfare state is not some magical entity that can cure cancer. Indeed, cancer survival rates are lower in the Europe than in the United States.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045%2808%2970179-7/fulltext?version=printerFriendly
"But he was always attacking those welfare states, and now that he needs one, he has none."
ReplyDeleteHe hasn't said that he needs one. Quit assuming. He may have insurance through his spouse, there may be other options. And the people who are donating (I just did) like his work. It's payment for services. Unlike in the welfare state, there's no coercion.
"...why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?"
Before mass immigration hit Europe, welfare transfers in European countries were not an ethnic issue. Though I guess in Italy they were that even then to some extent. It was kind of like parents spending money on their own adult, but lazy kids - they'll grumble, but by and large they'll pay up. What sort of a douchebag will abandon his own? But when the benefactors and the takers come, on average, from different races, there's usually less good will. I don't think this is specific to America. Seems like a universal principle. This phenomenon is enormously scalable. Have you ever wanted to cuddle with a reptile? See, cats and dogs are mammals, and so are much closer to us.
Japan and Korea also have welfare states. I'm sure China is strengthening its own as we speak. It's not an ethnic issue for them. Ethnic issues are often adversarial. That's how life on earth works.
One more thing, folks: another way to donate is to buy Derb's excellent books. I read and recommend Prime Obsession and We Are Doomed. Going to read Unknown Quantity now.
ReplyDeleteOn his page, Derb should really link each one of them directly to Amazon: http://johnderbyshire.com/Books/page.html
Steve, you can make few bucks and help Derb if you link to his books on Amazon.
"Why is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine. In other words, why is there not ONE prominent political writer in america that takes in economic populism from the left, and takes in social populism from the right?
ReplyDeleteNo such person is allowed to rise to prominence in america."
Because that would be too much like National Socialism and the PTB and people who control the media believe that Whites should not have these ideas. It might make the country and the populace too strong and healthy ... and then who knows what might happen. Only the ethno state Israel is permitted to have these types of policies or candidates.
Steve, I suggest you remove the link to NROnline from your blogroll.
ReplyDeleteWell, he needs donations because he lives in america. If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations. They have a decent welfare state.
ReplyDeleteNo nation has both cradle-to-the-grave social services and free speech. Derbyshire wouldn't have been able to make a living writing in any of the nations you mentioned. No chance. In some he'd be censored, in some he'd be fined, and in at least one, he'd probably be imprisoned. In no other country would this man be able to support himself for putting his honest opinions in print. America is the world's last best hope for free expression, and even here, it's not pretty.
The American Spectator is in some sort of turmoil at the moment: their publisher, Alfred Regnery, quit a few weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteThe American Spectator on Derb:
ReplyDeletehttp://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/08/rich-lowry-does-the-right-thin
Done and Done.
ReplyDeleteDerb is just a decent guy. What happened, I guess, is he couldn't follow the Mandarin modern rules on public discourse - despite being gracious and reasonable and calm. Now he's the worst person ever.
Tells me alot more about how things are now than it does about Derb.
Where is the podcast?
ReplyDeleteI think Derb, Sailer, and some of the other soon-to-be NR exiles should form their own site - one more honest than NRO and more intelligent than VDare. VDare has been disappointing of late.
ReplyDelete"I can't read minds, but I'm suspicious of the idea that he wrote a resignation column of some sort..."
Ditto. He's said things that even I thought were over the line, but none were in the Taki column. It may have been NR's last straw. They may have not had stomach for the controversy. They may have been pressured by a donor. Or maybe they cut him loose to save money on their health insurance, given his current battle with cancer?
Derb is 67 I believe. He's eligible for Medicare, and presumably for social security. He's at least covered (I hope) on those fronts.
From what I've heard from Goldberg and Lowry, it sounds like they're not coming out and saying what Derb said was incorrect, just that it was unacceptable and offensive. I suspect those two are open-eyed and commonsensical enough to be reluctant race-realists, but are intensely aware that this position is out of the bounds of acceptable discourse in the mainstream of which they are a part.
ReplyDeleteI can't begin to describe the outrage that I feel right now. Derb was truly a national treasure. Mark Steyn and VDH are the only remaining writers worth reading at NRO now.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, where does this all end? Can anyone seriously point to a conservative victory over the last 20 years? What exactly has National Review accomplished? By the way, I would not be surprised at all if NRO goes after Steyn in the next few years. He is one of the few writers to discuss relative fertility rates. Maclean's has already fired him. So sad...
Keep on going Derb! We support you!
One would expect that in firing such a well-regarded writer that Mr. Lowry would marshall some reasons, that he would plant his batteries and hurl high-velocity facts at Mr. Derbyshire's Fortress of Hate, that his logician-sappers would tunnel beneath the Redoubts of Racism and blow them sky-high with vast mines of dialectic. But no. Mr. Lowry merely flung a few epithets. It's like a high school girl going "Ewwww!"
ReplyDeleteBut personal attacks on Mr. Derbyshire won't work on me, because I've read a lot of his stuff online including the (illustrated)Tree House essay and the (illustrated) Boris the dog essay and unless he is as skilled and deceitful as Dr. Goebbels, the Dar el Darb is as delightful a family as could be found in a long day's searching.
The father of Mr. Derbyshire was a coal miner and former South Staffordshire Light Infantryman, Mrs. Derbyshire's an officer in the PLA who fought in Korea. That is, both were heroes in the old sense of "doing one's duty at risk to one's life in disagreeable circumstances".
Of course, if we ever met, Mrs. Darb could expect to get teased pretty hard about Boris's outstanding character. ["Admit it. You gave that pup THE TALK, didn't you? Took him to the kitchen where a vast pot gleamed on the stove top and gave him a Significant Look followed by a Meaningful Glance at the aforesaid container and Bingo! Instant devotion, instant obedience, no slipper-chewing in al dar al-Darb!"]
I'm sure she'd not only get the joke but put me in my place.
There's an excruciatingly cute shot online of the toddler daughter crawling through the dog door-in-the-door. But I'm ravished by the video of the same creature grown into a slim young lady, blasting a pair of clays out of the sky with cool aplomb and a pump-action shotgun damn near as tall as her. And there's a snap of her brother looking cool as hell, sitting on a table edge and aiming his M-16 down range. Like his sister, he's skeptical of the modern "university" and wants to try the military instead. And he's funny ["Other guys' grandfathers fought in Vietnam; mine fought in WWI!"].
If I were wealthy I'd try to take the Derbyshire family out to dinner. I suspect it would be not only enormous fun but a valuable contribution to a liberal education.
In all the comment threads there is hardly a single person who attacks Mr. Derbyshire's facts or logic. But personal attacks won't do.
Even if Mr. Derbyshire is a Moriarty of deception, his argument still stands untouched.
By attacking the writer rather than the essay, Mr. Lowry makes himself look spiteful and craven.
And I'll continue to believe Mr. Derbyshire's a good guy with a wonderful family.
Marcus Redman,
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Go to Amazon and buy his books. I did.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has read National Review knows it can be a deeply literate, funny, and incisive publication. It is also maddening, spineless, boring, and, let's be frank, a washed-up has-been. Its latest provocation, participating in a Two Minutes Hate in response to certain heresies against political correctness, is nasty and indefensible. I never would have read it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it was directed at John Derbyshire. NR is effectively using Mr. Derbyshire's name to get more oxygen for politically correct pieties that Mr. Derbyshire would never associate with otherwise. So there has to be a parting of ways. NR has long danced around the line on these issues, but this action is so offensive it constitutes a kind of resignation letter from American conservatism. It's a free country, and NR can publish whatever it wants, wherever it wants. It just won't have the credibility of being associated with Mr. Derbyshire any longer, and I have canceled my goddam subscription.
ReplyDeleteAlways liked Derb and his work. Lowry et al are rank hypocrites, more eager to please their ideological enemies than support an ill colleague who had the temerity to speak frankly on a taboo subject.
ReplyDeleteI hope those of you who criticized Derb on these pages, and at Takimag, for knuckling under to the neo-cons at NRO are enjoying a heaping plate of crow this Easter Sunday.
>Steve, I suggest you remove the link to NROnline from your blogroll.<
ReplyDeleteSounds petulant, but objectively, what does the NR have to offer of interest?
Perhaps Steve and Derbyshire could create a new site.
ReplyDeleteIf they wanted to.
They could add some columns from friends, and I think it would be much better than Taki's, NRO, VDARE, etc.
I've now repaid Mr. Derbyshire for some of the great pleasure his writing has brought me, and I plan to do so regularly from now on. I encourage others to do the same, as many of you already have. He's too good a writer and thinker to have to suffer this shit.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it in america that you cannot find a prominent political writer that is both FOR the welfare state, for progressive taxation, against idolizing the police, against multiculturalism, against mass immigration, against affirmative action, against the out of control war machine.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs a lesson on the meaning of "both". "Both" refers to two things, not seven.
It really does seem like Derb's views are slowly and hesitantly gaining traction in mainstream conservatism. Drudge's story choices, VHD's writings about California, even Instapundit seems to be making a few feints in that direction.
ReplyDeleteDerb lost this battle, but I wonder if he isn't winning the war.
An interesting thing I've been noticing since the London Riots - everywhere there is a place to uprate or downrate comments, the HBD or WN view is getting uprated while the mainstream liberal viewpoint is being downrated harshly. Here is an example on the latest:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126820/John-Derbyshire-Columnist-fired-writing-racist-article.html
I would say that it's an indication that there is the beginnings of a revolution of thought on this issue.
Derb would obviously be much better off in a country with decent provisions for medical care, like pretty much every other advanced country but the U.S. Not sure why being a conservative means you have to blind yourself to such obviously crazy setups as the U.S. system for health care finance, in which we pay about twice as much as any other country for lousy access to care. Fortunately for him he is about 65 and will soon be eligible for Medicare if he isn't already -- the one oasis of single payer in the U.S. system.
ReplyDeleteTrue Fact #1: no one dies in a welfare states.
ReplyDeleteIf there is an exception, see True Fact #1.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2126379/Sentenced-death-old-The-NHS-denies-life-saving-treatment-elderly-mans-chilling-story-reveals.html
If he lived in one of the other western nations, ones like france, sweden, australia, etc, he would not need donations.
ReplyDeleteIn some of the countries you mention, he might be imprisoned because of his opinions, and then I suppose he'd enjoy free room and board.
this is the poster who posted above about how derby now needs the welfare state he used to demonize.
ReplyDeleteNot a one of you knows anything about what you are talking about. I have done the research. All you lot can do is regurgitate talking points. I have NEVER seen ANY commenter on the internet who knows as much as me. Period.
Why are there no comments under Lowry's piece at NRO's The Corner?
ReplyDeleteOn the (very much justified) wave of good feelings towards John Derbyshire,
ReplyDeletelet us not forget about Steve Sailer.
Respectful to both,
your Florida resident.
"Someone needs a lesson on the meaning of "both". "Both" refers to two things, not seven."
ReplyDeleteSocially conservative and for a welfare state.
We still provide healthcare for everyone if they are really sick even if they are illegal. It's the preventative care that people don't get.
Does anybody really not get care when they have cancer?
I wouldn't mind have national healthcare at this point for citizens since we are paying for it anyway.
Europe is in the process of being ruined and the US is ruined.
I'm sure it's scant comfort to Mr. Derb but this is the brouhaha that lit up a thousand flame wars (on the conservative-run sites, at least); very healthy, compared to the average Kos diary or Freeper thread. Perhaps Lowry/his publisher just may have inadvertently done a real service to the "blogosphere" if not Nat Review's reputation.
ReplyDeleteAdam Carolla is perhaps the foremost public voice of unabashed public honesty on the issues Derb discussed. You may know him as the guy from The Man Show or seeing him on various shows like Celebrity Apprentice, but he has the #1 podcast and a growing and very devoted following. He pushes the envelope in an intelligent, no fear of repurcussions fashion. HBD is not his main thing, he's a comedian, social commentator, but he is a cool dude who is very smart, witty, and has major cred in that he grew up poor, worked in construction, cleaning carpets, etc. before becoming successful in entertainment. He played high school football, wrenches on cars, guys' guy, would be impossible to dismiss as uncool or fringe or out there. It may seem out of the box to those unfamiliar but Adam is likely the most effective voice for issues discussed here on ISteve that is completely in the mainstream.
ReplyDeleteI can't afford to donate cos I'm one of those punk upper middle class east coast private school kids born just after Reagan and, appropriately, currently finishing up @ a major Ivey @ 22 and godawful poor as I pay off a bullshit, racist loan while mother (w money, from Dad) has ma nouvelle step-"father" lay out more cash for himself to "research" (vacation) in Europe. Academic purposes are as yet unestablished. My life's a dead WASP cliche absent the sole, essential, final comfoet implicit thereof: establishment backing.
ReplyDelete"Why are there no comments under Lowry's piece at NRO's The Corner?"
ReplyDeleteBecause he banned them, and also banned comments on his earlier post. Click on the comments link. It doesn't provide a comment field. But it appears Derb defenders have threadjacked the prior post (90+ comments as of now) to argue about Derb.
"Does anybody really not get care when they have cancer?"
Derbyshire's 66, nearly 67, and has been a US citizen for at least a decade or so. I'm pretty sure he qualifies for Medicare.
I don't know if he received any coverage through National Review, but the parting post by Lowry, while wrong, wasn't especially nasty. If he was earning coverage through them I think they may continue to provide it. To a degree NR's move was ideological, but a big part of it seems to have been PR/keeping the donors happy.
There was also judge Napolitano.
ReplyDelete"he responded--and I am not a close friend"
ReplyDeleteEmpowered by globalized technology I've been able to shoot e-mail darts at scores of magazine/newspaper writers I don't know except in regard to their online work, ever since Al Gore launched the webs. Of the subset who write back, some tend to be curt; some are almost parodically formal (Brendan Nyhan & James Bowman to name two at random); a few are just peevish jerks, while others have occasionally served on me laugh-out-loud exasperated short missives e.g. a Weekly Standard writer who is clearly a good guy and likely wasting his time replying to yours truly. Anyway it's surprising I think and ought to be noted how Derbyshire--on the evidence of a couple dozen interactions over the last decade--is unfailingly polite, never surly, and oddly cheerful (in fact I initially suspected this for a put-on). It has an element of the surreal to watch someone get castigated over something relatively mild-mannered by the standards of modern blogging; I think Derbyshire himself once mused that he could never foretell which pieces would or wouldn't reap the whirlwind.
Anyone donating or defending or just linking to him should have no doubt he's a more courteous and good-natured breed of polemicist, at least vis-a-vis cyber-etiquette, than the mean. Incidentally I find Steve a bit more Jekyll & Hyde in this department, but then again he probably also has to confront an inbox bursting from the upper plains of chaotic vitriol.
"Anyway it's surprising I think and ought to be noted how Derbyshire...is unfailingly polite, never surly, and oddly cheerful"
ReplyDeleteDitto. I've sent him three or four emails over the years. One I clearly must've written in a drunken stupor, but he even responded politely to that one.
There are people who put on a good show in public but are a-holes in private. There are people who are a-holes both in public and in private (cough John Podhoretz cough!), and there are people who are blunt and infuriating (to some) in public, but unfailingly charming and polite in private. Derb has always been the latter.
Interesting that one of Derb's subpoints was to avoid large gatherings of blacks at beaches, and then we have this. (Watch the video starting ca. 1:30)
ReplyDeleteCome on people, let's Donate To the Derb!!
ReplyDeleteThink about all the money you wasted on Mainstream Media newspapers and magazines in the pre-Internet era.
Isn't the Derb worth at least a small percentage of that?
I've been dashing off emails and tweets to Rich Lowry, Jonah Goldberg and the guy at Forbes as well as others. It helps me vent. I'll donate too.
ReplyDeleteHow much did Derbyshire actually rake in being a writer for NR? Is it really a significant source of income?
ReplyDeleteDonated today and encourage others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteSupport the truth tellers.
"Think about all the money you wasted on Mainstream Media newspapers and magazines in the pre-Internet era.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the Derb worth at least a small percentage of that?"
I my opinion, no.
The ones who really deserve support, are the whites that gets jailed for their opinions in Europe today.
It may seem out of the box to those unfamiliar but Adam is likely the most effective voice for issues discussed here on ISteve that is completely in the mainstream.
ReplyDeleteI bought Corolla's book, "In 50 Years We'll All Be Chicks," and have listened to a number of his podcasts. While he's good on immigration, he's pretty careful about race and knows which lines you can't cross. He's no Derbyshire.
Joe Sobran and I debated the merits of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" by email not long before Mr. Sobran passed away. He was incredibly polite - and absolutely unpersuadable. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said:
ReplyDelete"From what I've heard from Goldberg and Lowry, it sounds like they're not coming out and saying what Derb said was incorrect, just that it was unacceptable and offensive. I suspect those two are open-eyed and commonsensical enough to be reluctant race-realists, but are intensely aware that this position is out of the bounds of acceptable discourse in the mainstream of which they are a part."
In other words, they're cowards, punks, idiots.
Derbyshire is the opposite. I just sent him $100.
Hypocrisy is the Vaseline of social intercourse.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing I've been noticing since the London Riots - everywhere there is a place to uprate or downrate comments, the HBD or WN view is getting uprated while the mainstream liberal viewpoint is being downrated harshly.
ReplyDeleteYes, check out this comment thread at The Atlantic, of all places, and look at the "likes" on the comments by "Severn" vs those he is arguing with.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteNot a one of you knows anything about what you are talking about. I have done the research. All you lot can do is regurgitate talking points. I have NEVER seen ANY commenter on the internet who knows as much as me. Period."
That statement adds immeasurably to your credibility.
I donated and also bought one of his books. In my new blog post I allude to Derb's firing: "National Review confirmed this weekend that they covet the same status in the print and Internet media markets that Fox has for TV news: they let liberals set the boundaries of acceptable opinion for them. "
ReplyDeleteI respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better. Talking about teaching your kids to avoid groups of black people and then expecting to make a living as a writer in the mainstream media? Rediculous. There is the reality about human biodiversity and then there is hateful racism towards large groups of people that have all kinds within that group. You folks aren't doing the HBD cause any good at all when you mix it with blatantly racist comments like the Derb made, and methinks you are too stubborn to learn from your mistakes.
ReplyDeleteLowry is not fit to carry water for the Derb. This is just another sign of the decline of a once auspicious publication.
ReplyDelete>I respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better. Talking about teaching your kids to avoid groups of black people and then expecting to make a living as a writer in the mainstream media? Rediculous. There is the reality about human biodiversity and then there is hateful racism towards large groups of people that have all kinds within that group. You folks aren't doing the HBD cause any good at all when you mix it with blatantly racist comments like the Derb made, and methinks you are too stubborn to learn from your mistakes.<
ReplyDeleteTry reading Derb's article before commenting on it. "Large groups of people that have all kinds within that group" is a point he made. Also look up and study the concept "on average." And when you do get around to reading Derb's article, follow the links (the bolded words) and read what they link to.
American Jews think blacks are the canary in the coal mine for them.
ReplyDeleteIf it becomes accepted to criticize blacks as a group, will whites take a closer look at Jews?
Hence the guarding of discourse in black/white matters by the Jews and their friends at NRO
>I've been dashing off emails and tweets to Rich Lowry, Jonah Goldberg and the guy at Forbes as well as others. It helps me vent.<
ReplyDeleteJonah vents back. Just so you know.
Comment at 4/8/12 8:05 PM:
ReplyDeleteYes, this article by the Derb could eventually be thought of as something like the Tet Offensive of the Viet Nam war!
The very fact that it has been linked to in a lot of publications has lead other people to read it and click on the links, which is half the battle.
I can think of someone else who really, really needs to get his paypal button fixed, too.
ReplyDeleteWren is right. Please do as Wren says.
ReplyDeleteActually a lot of yuppie con-bloggers are picking it up (trashing Derbyshire). People I've never heard of, even less famous than hip young meritocrat Josh Barro. If you go over to Redstate, which I assume is meant to be the right-wing imitation of the Daily Kos bulletin board, there is some CPAC yuppie now whooping it up. The denunciations from Hannity-worshiping/illiterate con personage Jeffrey Lord (at the American Spectator site) have been easily the most humorous.
ReplyDelete"Jonah vents back. Just so you know." -- there's a whole genre of blogs devoted to Nasty Emails From JonahNRO Address. I used to wonder if it was mathematically possible he'd really written all of them.
ReplyDelete@ Dave
ReplyDeleteI read the article, I am a fan of Derbyshire's writing, fine mind, good writer, but this article deserved the response it got. It crossed the line between what is and decency, it was mean not insightful. A lot of people here are mean, a lot of people in the world are mean, it is what it is. And the internet jabberers will go on waging their wars of hollow words.
dave chamberlin said...
ReplyDelete"I respect Steve for trying to help out his good friend the Derb, but there are lines you don't cross if you want to make a living as a writer and the Derb should have known better."
It's collective mindsets like this that led the wimpization of the white race.
Money talks. So grateful I was able to send that message to this hero. You will have to enable cookies for Paypal.
ReplyDeleteI read the article, I am a fan of Derbyshire's writing, fine mind, good writer, but this article deserved the response it got. It crossed the line between what is and decency, it was mean not insightful. A lot of people here are mean, a lot of people in the world are mean, it is what it is. And the internet jabberers will go on waging their wars of hollow words.
ReplyDelete-dave chamberlain
Yeah, I get your point Dave. But Obama's been getting mean lately. I understand where the Derb is coming from. His response is totally fair play given what we've been subjected to over the Trayvon case.
However, I'm sure John Derbyshire knew exactly what he was getting into, and I only hope it's because he'd like to retire rather than a sudden break from protocol due to some bad news on the cancer front. Derb's a trooper. Some people have been kind to me, and I'd like to give him at least some token of appreciation for his work. I've read enough of his articles, and never paid for it before, so it's only fair...
Best wishes JD
I was a bit let down by the "instantly notorious" article because it was a bit on the feebly polite side even to my regular-Republican tastes, especially in comparison to some of the other fire-breathers on that site--but then again I may not be the best "Barrometer" for these things (see what I did there???)
ReplyDeleteAlso have wondered, if he's up to it, whether he could do a monthly listener-supported celebrity podcast, since his Derb Radio segments at NRO were really quite funny and I will miss those, in spite of his not-mainstream radio voice which sounds like a very distracted 5th Beatle's.
I know a young woman born in Haiti with two mixed race teenage sons. Having heard the kind of advice she has given her children, I don't think she would have many problems with the Derb's piece.
ReplyDelete>Actually a lot of yuppie con-bloggers are picking it up (trashing Derbyshire).<
ReplyDeleteGood.
This is a clarifying moment. Anyone even remotely intellectually honest will now abandon sooner these aptly named "con" sites; the Derbyshire Donnybrook will be the push that changes many a serious person's course.
Observing the uncalled-for, over-the-top reaction by neocons and libertarians to Trent Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond (2002) made me start smelling a rat where I had NEVER suspected one before.
Thank you, Mr. Derbyshire.
This seems kinda ironic now, eh?
ReplyDelete"One evening early on in my career as an opinion journalist in the USA, I found myself in a roomful of mainstream conservative types standing around in groups and gossiping. Because I was new to the scene, many of the names they were tossing about were unknown to me, so I could not take much part in the conversation. Then I caught one name that I recognized. I had just recently read and admired a piece published in Chronicles under that name. I gathered from the conversation that the owner of the name had once been a regular contributor to much more widely read conservative publications, the kind that have salaried congressional correspondents and full-service LexisNexis accounts, but that he was welcome at those august portals no longer. In all innocence, I asked why this was so. “Oh,” explained one of my companions, “he got the Jew thing.” The others in our group all nodded their understanding. Apparently no further explanation was required. The Jew thing. It was said in the kind of tone you might use of an automobile with a cracked engine block, or a house with subsiding foundations. Nothing to be done with him, poor fellow. No use to anybody now. Got the Jew thing. They shoot horses, don’t they?"
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/article/2003/mar/10/00025/
Derb gives a terrific interview to anti-white hate site Gawker.com this morning. (I won't link; please Google it.)
ReplyDeleteHas the Derb issued a statement, or sold a paying article about the event?
ReplyDeleteSteve,is there a book possibility for all of you with similar experiences at the NR?
goatweed
Screw John Derbyshire. This guy has been trashing everyone to his "right", like Kevin MacDonald, for over a decade now. Now he's some kind of brave truth teller? Give me a break.
ReplyDelete>Will The American Spectator hire him now?<
ReplyDeleteNo, they love denouncing him too much.
Steve,is there a book possibility for all of you with similar experiences at the NR?
ReplyDeleteHey, that's a great idea! Bunch of interesting authors, all pushed out of NR - an anthology: I Once Wrote for National Review.