I’m glad to see that Atrios and DougJ have been having a little fun at my expense. Fuckers.
I remember back when I was a wanker of the day for something (I’m askeered to look, because I am sure it will be wankerific and embarrassing). It used to just infuriate me when the Poorman, and the Bradrocket at Sadly No!, and Atrios, as well as others, would mock me. Like neck-vein bulging mad. Especially since half the time I was also taking shit from the right for insufficient fealty to the cause.
At any rate, one day it slowly dawned on me. If you hate people calling you a wanker, why don’t you stop being such a fucking gigantic wanker? Then Schiavo.
Things have been looking up ever since.
ReinWeiss
March 27, 2006 if you were curious.
Wag
With the current madness on the right, I hope others follow your lead.
but they won’t.
West of the Cascades
Indeed. Except you used to post more photos of Tunch.
Steve
You just get called a wanker by a different crowd these days, don’t you. But I think you wear it as a badge of honor!
One of my conservative friends always used to be bemused by Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” bit. He’d say to me, “Just once, couldn’t it be like the guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum, instead of Bill O’Reilly?”
Schlemizel
We love you (at least a little) John so don’t sweat the past, just don’t make the same mistake again 8-{D
salvage
And that’s why even back then you were never a wingnut. Wingnuts don’t get angry about being mocked because they don’t get the joke, it’s just white noise to their hive mind.
feebog
Had a revealing experience today. I am helping to put together a candidate forum for the California 30th Congressional District (Sherman/Berman slugfest). The forum is sponsored by our local Chamber of Commerece, My local Homeowners group and several local Neighborhood Councils. Today’s meeting was to review and select candidate questions submitted by Stakeholders.
I submitted a question regarding the Citizen’s United decision. Not one of the other four people at the meeting knew what the Citizen’s United decision was. Once I explained it, they knew what I was talking about, but no one recognized “Citizens United” The participants included an attorney, an engineer, a counselor and the Executive Director of the Chamber. All of these people consider themselves politically aware and connected to local and national events.
It brought home to me just how valuable this blog and the few others (DK, Crooks and Liars, Charley P.)I read daily really are in terms of my political awareness and knowledge.
On a lighter note, I just got a call from the leading wingnut candidate who will be attending the forum, asking for my endorsement. I could hardly contain myself from laughing out loud.
cathyx
I’m glad I never heard of you back then. I would have hated you.
schrodinger's cat
BTW what happened to the ocicat? I hope Tunch didn’t eated him/her.
AA+ Bonds
John Cole you are a decent man
Villago Delenda Est
This reminds me a bit of Wil Wheaton coming to the realization, years later, of what it was about Wesley Crusher that drove Trekkies bonkers.
Wil looked at some first season episode and it hit him, like a ton of bricks, just how much you could hate Wesley Crusher.
gogol's wife
@cathyx: @cathyx:
I often have that thought. In fact I have trouble believing it’s the same person when I see some of these ancient quotations.
bogdan
And those 2 times you voted for Bush and when you suppored the Iraq war. Yea those were real knee slappers eh.
The fact you voted for Bush twice who then appointed 2 of the 5 hard right supreme court justices means you forfeit the right to bitch about any 5-4 decision. Mmmmmkay!
Just Some Fuckhead
I think the first time I ever heard of you was when Duncan mentioned ya. I checked out the site but didn’t return until Markos linked to ya.
danimal
I remember when you were a “readable righty.” I think almost all of yesteryears’s readable right-wing bloggers are now full-blown Dems or notable apostates.
Independent thought has a liberal bias, it seems.
Corner Stone
Most normal people would’ve taken a step back and considered why these people were nailing you to the wall.
I mean, at least at some point in the first 5 years or so.
cathyx
@Villago Delenda Est: I always liked Wesley Crusher. I don’t like Wil Wheaton too much on Big Bang Theory, however.
LT
i’ve never gone back and read any of your wanker-era material. Until now. Da-hamn. And that’s all I’ll say.
__
And what the whyfuck for is Atrios doing a Wanker of the Decade in 2012? What the fuck? Is that an economist joke or something?
Malovich
I’m just impressed as all hell that you switched sides. Confirmation bias, self-protecting beliefs and community reinforcement usually keeps a person locked in for life.
Arm The Homeless
@bogdan: Since no one here personally put a bullet between the eyes of anyone involved in the Bush regime, we are all culpable, and therefore not qualified to speak about the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Gotcha!
Martin
@cathyx: He was actually pretty entertaining. I started lurking maybe a year before Schiavo, and you could almost hear the gears stripping in his head right through your web browser. That must have been irrisistible to someone like DougJ.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
I must have missed something important. It’s been hard to stay on top of Balloon Juice threads recently and I know I’ve skipped a lot more than I would like. But what ocicat?? This sounds as though it has a good story attached.
dmsilev
@LT: Atrios has been blogging for ten years, so it’s a decade of Eschaton, or something like that.
the antibob
I once bought a Rick Springfield album.
We are all works in progress.
LT
@dmsilev: Oh. Thanks.
__
He should have called it “Wanker of MY Decade.” Someone get a note to him. This is very pressing…
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
geez one more link back and forth between eschaton and balloon juice, and i would have entered the matrix.
never enter the matrix.
cathyx
@Martin: I bet. There’s nothing more enticing than a republican starting to see the light and opening his eyes to reality. Just like a newborn baby.
BGinCHI
Big hug, Cole, but in a really manly, sheepish kind of way. It’s always awkward the first time.
srv
It was so much more enjoyable to pick on you back then.
There should be a dsm-iv entry for masochisticblogasm
schrodinger's cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I found out only this morning about the ocicat.
Quaker in a Basement
Schiavo was the final straw?
Did not know that.
SatanicPanic
What’s a little kidding among friends?
Steve
@cathyx: For every converted Republican like John, somewhere out there is another idiot from the school of “ever since 9/11, I’ve been outraged by Chappaquiddick.” I’m not always sure I know which way the arc of the moral universe bends.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
IIRC, apparently Wheaton’s wife just watched her very first episode of ST:TNG.
They’ve been married for something like 15 years.
Villago Delenda Est
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
You want to take the Red Pill, then.
Avoid the Blue Pill.
chrismealy
Good lord I miss the Poorman.
Zandar
S’kay, bro. It’s all good.
PLH in NYC
I am glad you saw the light. I am skeptical of many following your example. The few discussions (in person and on line) that I have with people of the conservative faith usually result in my throwing up my hands and going “Well that was a terrific waste of energy and time!” There seems to be a cone of stupidity or wall of deafness or something because when you state some fact and cite has a decent source (say The NYT or the OMB) the reaction is “THAT ISN”T TRUE” or a non-sequitur. There is no willingness to actually understand a contrary argument. I am willing to be persuaded (Disclosure – I am an attorney) but there has to be backup! Now I have been know to spout off without a source at hand, but I am fairly engaged in the current economic disaster and am pretty confident I don’t make stuff up. The other side, not really. So enjoy the jibes. at least they are your comrades now!
kc
I remember those days. You were funny when you used to get riled up at The Poor Man.
Even though you were an asshole, I must have thought you had some redeeming features or potential, because I kept peeking at this blog, and not just to troll or insult you.
SatanicPanic
@danimal: Are there any readable righties anymore? Frum is the only one I can think of.
kc
@chrismealy:
Me, too. One of my faves of all time.
wvng
John, it’s people like you and Charles Johnson that give us hope. Also Bruce Bartlett, who proves it is possible to still be conservative, be rational, and not be an asshole.
Dave Ruddell
I remember back when ppGaz was the prominent liberal in the comments, and a long thread might be 30-40 comments long.
magurakurin
@bogdan:
yeah. but you’re still a dickhead, so there’s that.
We need bodies in the breech. If they come over from the other side tomorrow we should welcome them with open arms.
They can deal with their sins when they meet their maker. Right now we need bodies.
So, are you with us or not? Or are you voting Green?
hilzoy
Blast from the past:
Ann Coulter, goddesspundit …
Bribes
This post made me lol.
p.a.
I assume Tunch, the Dark Lord of the Cole household, dates from the wingnut era. I know Lily is post-redemption. Rosie seems to be the midpoint of the good-evil axis. Wonder what kind of dogs John would have if he were still winging nuts. Maybe their names would have been Rush and Sarah.
Narcissus
The Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory bothers me because he’s nothing like the actual Wil Wheaton. He’s what you might think Wil Wheaton would be like going solely by Wesley Crusher.
Chris
@wvng:
I didn’t know John back then, but I gotta say, if circa 2005 you’d have let me pick the Online Wingnut Least Likely To Come Over To The Light Side Ever, I’d have put Charles Johnson at the very top of that list. When identity politics is what drives you, I pretty much don’t hold out any hope for you.
Clearly, I was wrong. And I’m still somewhat shocked that it was him…
JC
@ReinWeiss:
Ah memories.
The “Jane Hamshers of the Left” that don’t include Jane Hamsher.
That really was a shining moment for DougJ. I laughed, and laughed, and laughed…
Also, through it all, Cole was a good example of someone who could argue strenuously for his position, without being a weakling in argument, or ‘too nice’, but still be able to recognize truth, do some inventory and self-assessment, ‘hey, maybe I’m NOT correct.”.
And do the above, with an entertaining writing style.
Baud
I never knew wingnut Cole. I’ve only known STOP EMAILING ME ABOUT THE WEB SITE Cole.
Anya
Cole, file it under “foolish youthful indiscretion.” Now you’re the often high-strung lovable Cole, we all adore.
Also, too, does atrios write anything more than one line?
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Ah, thanks! That’s a thread I was saving for later, so I guess I would have come to it eventually.
DFH no.6
John Cole,
First, fuck Corner Stone for being an asshole (but we all know that).
Second, and more importantly, you are the prime poster child online for someone who’s had the courage to admit he was wrong about his worldview and change. Took too long for some? Fuck them.
But your willingness to see how bankrupt modern movement conservatism truly is after defending that movement in writing is why BJ has been my favorite blog for some years now. I was reading you back in the dark years of Dim Son’s first term when you were regularly pointed to by Atrios and The Editors, etc., not just as a conservative “wanker” but as one of those rarest of beasts – a reasonable conservative.
I have a truly self-made businessman brother-in-law (an immigrant, not surprisingly) who I’ve known since high school who had a similar “road to Damascus” journey (took him a lot more years than you). We had many, many political and religious and “life, the universe, and everything” discussions over the years, and he went from vigorously defending Nixon in the 70s and Reagan in the 80s and everything those execrable monsters stood for to cheerfully attending Obama’s inauguration with me on the freezing Mall in ’09.
The War of Lies in Iraq, and Schiavo, is what finally did it for him. He had never been real comfortable with the Christianists, but found ways to excuse all that, for a while, anyway. Eventually he couldn’t maintain the cognitive dissonance.
I watched his transformation firsthand (we’ve always been very close friends) and it wasn’t easy for him to admit his earlier worldview was wrong.
Good for my brother-in-law, and good for you, too, and thanks for your intellectual honesty. And the snark, of course (yes, and beasties, also ).
hilzoy
@hilzoy: The point of my link: never, ever assume that you can infer someone’s future from their past, and never underestimate the ground a person of good faith can travel.
jl
@Anya:
I suggest, file it under Cole trolled by his own blog. It’s that irresistible goofy Balloon Juice magic.
Anya
Those of us obsessing over the ACA’s fate and the SCOTUS, maybe you should read: Why Jeffrey Toobin Is Wrong About the Supreme Court and Obamacare. Topher Spiro makes good points. I must say, it made me feel little better.
JPL
@cathyx: nah.. nah.. although John has always been cantankerous, he would try to support his opinion and admit if he was wrong. You would have respected his views, whether or not you agreed with him. He was not Bobo or Sullivan.
bogdan
@Arm The Homeless: So voters have no responsibility for Bush and his fuckups? All rightey then.
Clearly YOU got exactly the representation you deserved in the Bush regime.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
Larison is usually readable, though he’s far enough outside the mainstream right that it’s debatable whether he counts. And when he veers onto one of the topics where he’s personally wingnutty, you can see why he’s still a righty.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Narcissus: __
But if you read Wheaton’s blog, once he finally figured out the character, he’s having a gas playing Evil Wil Wheaton.
__
Wil is one of my favorite recurring characters. Best of all of ’em though is Chritine Baranski as Leonard’s psychiatrist mom. Author of the book “Needy Baby, Greedy Baby. Really fun.
\BBT Fan\
kdaug
Yey’ve done well, Cole.
No apologies.
Anne Laurie
@Narcissus:
Well, by all means avoid Leverage, because the evil-haxxor character Wheaton plays, conspicuously referencing his “HATE WESLEY CRUSHER SOOOO MUCH” anti-fans, will definitely chafe your sensitivies.
bogdan
@magurakurin: Awww isn’t that cute. Playground insults. I am sure everyone is so impressed. I know I am.
cmorenc
@John Cole:
Most of us have moments, and even extended periods, regarding which we retrospectively realize what full-of-crap douche-bags we were at the time, and our present selves cringe in embarrassment to mentally revisit ourselves at these earlier times. I have a childhood friend whom I lost touch with in college whom I became reacquainted with a couple of years ago, and since we exchanged emails, he’s ever-since intermittently sent me some of the most excruciatingly reactionary tea-party bullshit along with the more pleasantly chummy stuff. What’s truly aggravating about these winger chain emails is that I know the reason he’s sending them to me is that he assumes my political orientation now is similar to that back when we knew each other in high school and college – we lost touch just a year or so before my views began a sea-change transformation toward the progressive side, much like yours. His political emails remind me just how Ryan-esque full of shit I was back then. But like you, at least I eventually outgrew it.
VidaLoca
John, wasn’t it The Poorman, or one of the commenters therein, that first called you an “enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus”? So in a way, you’ve been elevated almost to the level of a meme. And how can that be a bad thing?
mcd410x
Amazingly enough, I just read a book about the Schiavo debacle a few weeks ago. “The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life” contains many original documents. Very well done.
I’d forgotten what a total wanker Santorum was about the whole thing. Along with the cat killer. Unbelievable.
JPL
Since this is an open thread, is there anyone who watches Breaking Bad? My son got me hooked and although I absolutely hate all the characters, I find the show compelling.
danimal
@SatanicPanic: God, I try to read Frum, I really do. But just when he starts to make sense, he remembers that he is still a partisan and comes up with really weird contortions along the “yes, conservatives are being stupid but it’s really Obama’s fault because shut up, that’s why…” vein.
For grins, I still read OTB. JJ is principled, but I’m not sure he’s still conservative. Doug is willfully stupid on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, but he makes sense the rest of the week.
srv
@salvage: oh, the lulz
https://balloon-juice.com/2005/08/13/like-i-said-2/
good times
cathyx
This topic is perfect for a quote I read this morning. It’s by Helen Keller.
People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
Catsy
@bogdan:
The second part of your sentence does not logically follow from the first.
Catherine
I still remember you going down to change your political party affiliation from Republican to Independent, and then just deciding to say fuck it, and go all in. It was awesome.
JPL
@srv: I think the way the left used her after the loss of her son was horrible although not as bad as the Shiavo case.
p.a.
@bogdan: how many here remember the post-1972 bumper sticker “Don’t Blame Me- I’m From Massachusetts”
freemark
Right before this thread started I clicked the Will Wheaton blog roll link to check out something new. (Been in a blog rut)
Watched this geek fest Table Games. And then came back to find people talking about Wil Wheaton. And before this I hadn’t seen a mention of Wil Wheaton in like forever.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Yeah he’s not bad. Bruce Bartlett’s ok.
magurakurin
@bogdan:
so, you’re voting Green. Thought so.
The Other Chuck
@Villago Delenda Est:
Wheaton hated his character while he was still playing him. He finally had his fill and quit the show.
The irony is, the characters he mostly plays now? Unlikeable smart-ass douchebags.
schrodinger's cat
I read the Ann Coulter link. John Cole was pretty wingnutty those days. Tunch must have has a disappointed.
J.W. Hamner
@bogdan:
Damn, so supporting a candidate and repudiating it later is no longer bounds for forgiveness?
Well guys, I suppose I have to level with you… I thought Ronald Reagan was really really cool when I was eight. So I guess that makes me a wingnut for life and you can just put Iran-Contra squarely on my shoulders.
opie jeanne
@Malovich: It was certainly an awakening in my case, gradual at first but then it was like a floodgate opening.
It started out when I noticed how blind and smug they were, and that I really hated that about myself.
My dad hasn’t noticed that they have become insane, but he’s 93. Even my sister hates these Republican candidates for President. Dad and one uncle (who no longer speaks to me because I called him on some nonsense he emailed me) are my only links to my Republican past.
Arm The Homeless
@bogdan: I don’t know about you, but my parents did instill in me the ability to look at the totality of a situation, a persons’ actions, and whether they seem to be contrite when presented with their faults.
Check yo self, fool
JPL
@p.a.: hmmm..me.. I’m proud to admit that I did vote for Nixon.
srv
@JPL: ah, well it’s all there. Andrew, Teh Erick, tBone, mac Buckets, Tall Dave and the lovely Doug
Gin & Tonic
@p.a.: I not only remember that sticker, I had one. Because at the time I *was* from Mass. Another variation was “Massachusetts, the one and only!”
Just Some Fuckhead
How about when he used to mock Obama as “Hopey Changey” or when he said Obama wasn’t ready to be President?
Oh wait, that was after he went through demopause. Nevermind.
opie jeanne
@Martin: I noticed him just about that time too. I didn’t quite know what to think of Mr Cole at first.
Jamey
@AA+ Bonds: This. Exactly. Even amidst the wingnuttiest excesses, I came here because John could be counted on to see reason on some points that mattered to me. The rest was a matter of degrees of inclination.
MCA1
@srv: Holy sweet baby jaysus! Just look at the raging wingnuttiness displayed by DougJ in that thread! Doug, were you the greatest troll of all time or have you come even further than Cole in the last 6 or 7 years? I honestly couldn’t tell – at first I thought “this guy was trolling the crap out of everyone” but then when you said liberals’ collective problem with the Iraq war was that the conservatives were stealing their crown as master nationbuilders after the fucked up in Bosnia, I couldn’t tell anymore.
I was someone who never came here until about 2008 or 2009. Had I known and experienced real time how Bushista this place had been back in those heady days of blaming all of society’s ills on Cindy Sheehan, I don’t know that I’d ever have come here in the first place. Sort of like how I hear he’s converted, but I’ll never set foot in LGF’s place because I know what a complete rightwing hack Johnson used to be. So, thank god I waited until after Cole’s lightning bolt conversion to bother hearing about him.
Agreed with others, I deeply miss The Poorman. Stunningly funny writer.
Jeffraham Prestonian
Love this post, John. You’re a trooper, and one of The Good Guys.
.
Halleck
Kudos Cole, kudos.
It is quite admirable to see a man admit he was wrong, then have a sense of humor about it.
SatanicPanic
@MCA1: Seriously, did people know that DougJ was trolling? He’s laying it on pretty thick
Ohio Mom
I always think people like John Cole, who are able to correct themselves in such major ways, should be studied by the best congitive scientists so we can find out the secret to changing minds for the better and bottle it. But he’d probably have to leave his lovely nest in WVA and uproot the menagerie, so maybe not.
redshirt
It was a more innocent time on the Internets. Trolls could roam more freely.
But really, Doug? You were trolling, right? Or you a born again, also too?
Felanius Kootea
@danimal: Reading balloon-juice in 2005 was the closest I could bring myself to acknowledging the “other side’s” viewpoint. And then the Terry Schiavo mess happened and John just changed gradually right before my eyes. That was something I never expected to see.
What happened to Darrell and Stormy and some of the other conservative characters that used to hang around BJ back in the day? Was Darrell DougJ?
Jeffraham Prestonian
@Villago Delenda Est: Watching ANY of the first two seasons of ST:TNG could have that effect on someone… about the entire series. I know I stopped watching halfway through Season One. If I hadn’t seen a really good Season Three episode, I would have missed a lot of good stuff.
.
DFH no.6
@MCA1:
Umm… DougJ’s missives back then were pretty good exemplars of Poe’s Law on the intertubes.
There were some fairly obvious tells here and there, however, but almost no wingnut could spot them. Self-awareness not being a strong suit on the right and all.
gex
Well if I have to choose between holding a grudge and welcoming someone over, I say welcome!
Steeplejack
@hilzoy:
Lord.
Also, very weird to see Cole’s old posts in the blog’s new “Vista moment” format. (h/t amk)
Jody
If it’s any consolation John, you USED to be a wanker. You are not anymore. You’re fucking awesome.
Keep fighting the good fight.
Schlemizel
@LT:
I assume since the decade ran from 2001 through 2011 he is just getting around to it now a few months late.
RSA
I don’t remember when I first starting reading Balloon Juice, but it was definitely during the Cole-is-a-conservative days. You had a core of decency then and now, which I guess was obvious to a lot of people.
Steve
@Felanius Kootea: Stormy is still out there. I ran into a comment from her the other day on some other blog.
opie jeanne
John, this is the post that really got my attention and made me a regular reader:
https://balloon-juice.com/2007/10/27/lets-be-blunt/
Evolving Deep Southerner
@wvng:
Yeah, Capitol Gains & Games became a husk of its former self when he left. Stan Collander is OK, but he’s not nearly smart or prolific enough to carry that blog.
SatanicPanic
John’s old posts do have a decent quality to them. He reminds me of an old friend of mine. Republican guy, but still an all around good person. I can’t blame him too much for his views- his whole family is that way. His brother, OTOH is a raging wingut who think teachers get paid too much. Guess where he works? School District. Guess what his mother, who paid all the bills because their wingnut dad couldn’t keep his mouth shut long enough to hold down a job did? School teacher. THAT guy just cracks me up.
DFH no.6
@Schlemizel:
Oh, and so what year exactly did the 1900s (wholly analogous to the 20th century) end? Was it perhaps the last year of the 90s?
And, since we’ll be there soon, what year will the decade of the 20s begin? You’re going to be consistent and say ’21 instead of ’20, right?
People who foolishly believe our current century began in 2001 instead of the Right and Correct 2000 (due to some nonsense about “no year zero”) should be drawn, quartered, and burned at the stake, not necessarily in that order.
chrome agnomen
@p.a.:
hah! me. had it on my car.
danimal
@MCA1: That thread from long-ago was great entertainment. I loved this from tbone:
Darkrose
@Anne Laurie:
I DEMAND to know why there isn’t more Chaos/Hardison slash out there. Wil + Aldis = COMEDY GOLD.
Suzanne Holland
@wvng: Amen, amen!
Irony Abounds
Cole and Charles Johnson are two prominent bloggers who have switched sides, and while Bartlett and Frum aren’t libruls by any means, they certainly haven’t joined in the wingnutfest that characterizes today’s conservative blogosphere. It leaves me wondering, which prominent bloggers started out as lefties and are now rooting for the bad guys? Is there anyone?
kdaug
@Martin:
Ditto.
hilzoy
In all seriousness, to the (mercifully small) number of people who fall into the “John Cole once said this thing that I think disqualifies him from ever having an opinion again” camp: imagine that just about every thought you’ve had over the last decade were available on the internet. For all I know, John might have a thicker skin than I do, but I used to have to *work* not to let that thought completely silence me. Most people know, at least in some dark corner of their minds, that they are sometimes wrong and maybe occasionally downright silly. Certainly I knew this about myself. The idea of enshrining those moments of idiocy in permanent form was something I just had to make myself determined not to notice.
And it honestly doesn’t help anything to know that there are people out there who will, for reasons best known to themselves, keep track of your dumbest moments and judge you forever on their basis. Does anyone think the world would be a better place if we did this routinely — if, say, at any moment someone could walk up to you and bring up your stupidest high school poetry, or what you said the first time someone broke up with you? Would you like someone who treated people this way on a regular basis? I wouldn’t.
josefina
I’m another longtime reader/lurker. Back in the day, Balloon Juice was about the only right-wing blog I could visit without risking a cerebral hemorrhage.
Cole, have you and Mr. Lizardoid ever discussed your separate road-to-Damascus moments? (I think his was when Pam Gellar was all but fellating some genocidal maniac because he hated the Ayrabs too. Otherwise known as Tuesday.)
I ask because I’m curious about the transition. It wasn’t really as simple as Schiavo/psycho, was it? I wonder about the thoughts leading up to that.
calling all toasters
Ah, the Poorman! Those were the days, before they let just anyone be a liberal. To smoke out the oh-so-reasonable Cole as a conservative all you had to do was say something positive about the Clintons. Then it was all “COLE SMASH!”
Good times.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Roger Moore: On foreign policy, Larison’s the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. I never have understood why (military) “isolationists” ever got such a bad name.
On anything else beyond foreign policy? Not so much. And I have to say, when he starts spouting out religious gibberish at various Orthodox intervals … well, I’d like to think the man lives his life in compartments, and I appreciate the good compartment, you know?
Irony Abounds
@hilzoy: Yeah, but Cole said some REALLY dumb things.
Seriously, though, you raise a great point, and the essential point of Cole’s 2006 post remains valid. People start frothing at the mouth at some guy’s post and immediately react without any sort of calm deliberation. I’ve been guilty of it and it doesn’t reflect well on me.
Also, too, for what it is worth, I loved your blogging. Your posts were intelligent and dignified. While Cole +4 is to be expected (and very much enjoyed), I don’t recall ever seeing a post where I thought “Hilzoy +4.”
Corner Stone
@DFH no.6: Shit. GFY.
Cole was waxing philosophic well after 2003. Ripping people who had been on the right side of the biggest question of our spread generations.
He got it right sure. About 4 or 5 years too late.
If you don’t like that inconvenient fact, my friend, you can do your best to fit that genie back into the bottle.
Roger Moore
@Evolving Deep Southerner:
I think his description of himself as a “non-interventionist” is a pretty good one. We should stay engaged with the world, but shouldn’t needlessly inject ourselves into other countries’ business.
He’s also usually correct when he calls out other conservative pundits for deluding themselves. He certainly doesn’t catch all the forms of conservative self delusion, which would be more than a full-time job, but he’s almost always on point in the criticism he does bring.
xaneroxane
Not sure why this was the first thing to pop into my head as a comment, but here goes: you’re a lovely man, John Cole, and I appreciate this place you got here. And few others wield the snark like you do. “I’m glad to see that Atrios and DougJ have been having a little fun at my expense. Fuckers.” Sheer poetry…
beergoggles
Mocking works. Some people say you catch more flies with honey than vinegar but I can’t imagine being sweet to you (or anyone) when they are wankers. It’s like rewarding bad behavior.
Mock well and mock often. Mock mock mock…
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Roger Moore: The one continuously resonant vibe I get from Larison is “BAH! I’m surrounded by fools on all sides!” And, to his credit, I guess, he pretty well dismantles anyone he disagrees with. I guess that’s why his comment threads may get (maybe) one or two comments per post. People are scared of him. :)
khead
I still get like this from time to time. At a lot of folks.
So it’s…. ok.
No really – it’s ok… just sayin’.
Sly
@Irony Abounds:
Not sure if the PUMAs ever counted as lefties. Fear of a Black President caused a lot of nominal Democrats to fly into an apoplectic rage in 2008. Some did not turn back, possibly out of fear of being turned into a pillar of salt for the transgression, while others only flirted with destruction somewhat briefly. Larry Johnson over at NoQuarter, for instance, is among those who didn’t turn back.
replicnt6
Shit, man, with both sides calling you out, you must have been doing something right, no?
Corner Stone
@hilzoy:
C’mon now.
Just Some Fuckhead
I wrote some pretty good poetry in high school:
She broke my heart when I tried to get close
She broke that part where the lovin’ goes
She broke my heart, so I broke her nose
I broke that part with a few quick blows
That gauze on her snout should serve to remind her
When it comes to my heart, she better be kinder
Oh wait, now I understand hilzoy’s point. Oopsie.
Ron
I started coming here well after your conversion, but I’ve gone back through some of the archives and read the wingnutty stuff you wrote. Glad to see you changed your mind, and you can tell the people who think you “took too long” or did it “too late” to go fuck themselves.
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead: But what was your pro-Iraq War poetry like? Was it just as facile and, frankly, wife-beateresque?
Corner Stone
@Ron:
HAHAHAHAHA!
Appreciates yas.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: No war poetry for me. I’m a lover.
Kib
I think the B-J Lexicon needs a new entry; History’s Greatest Monster. It seems Dr. Black is going to work it in to every post in the Wanker of the Decade series.
Sloegin
@Irony Abounds: There was Jane Hamsher for a while doing the lambada with Grover Fucking Norquist. Don’t know where she stands now, don’t care.
And yes, I’m pretty sure that’s his middle name.
IrishCC
And this is why I love you! Everything so YOU! The profanity, the honesty, and the humility. You are way more eloquent that Sullivan in many fewer words.
Corner Stone
G_D it Cole. Apparently you are now the White Jimmy Carter.
Plus, Kos wouldn’t piss on you if were the spiritual remnant of the mother from the TV series Supernatural.
Corner Stone
@Sloegin:
She doesn’t “stand”. She looms.
#LoooOOOoooming
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead:
That’s What He Said
kindness
It’s funny, over at the Atrios thread several comments suggest John has become an Obot. I don’t read the comments there so I don’t know any of them. Calling John an Obot though….
I will vote for Obama again but that doesn’t mean I won’t criticize him. I hope not to go fdl on him either.
AA+ Bonds
@replicnt6:
This repellent idea has been rightly rejected by Mr. Cole on many occasions
AA+ Bonds
The difference to me is that it is really fucking hard for Krugman to disown his blithe early-career idiocy over neoliberal trade policy so I respect him significantly less when he dismissively waves his hand at post-Keynesianism
Usually I would find that amount of balls charming in a retrograde way but Krugman incorrectly believes his celebrity is based on an illusion of consistent writing
Admitting error in a way that amounts to self-critique, instead of mere self-criticism, is rare and rarer still now than it was even a century ago
kc
@srv:
Haha, I posted on that thread (lower case kc, not to be confused with upper-case KC), and I fell for DougJ’s troll act! Well played, DougJ.
Walker
Wow. People in this thread honestlty do not know the history of DougJ? He was the greatest spoofer this site has ever had. The spoofers we get now are but shades of what DougJ was. Even after he became a front pager, spoofers (or apparent spoofers) were accused of being DougJ sock puppets.
p.a.
@kindness: Mr. D. Black to me comes under the heading “best blogger/worst commenters”. evertruetobrown
Mnemosyne
@Sly:
IIRC, Johnson was a lifelong Republican who briefly turned to the Democratic side after the outing of Valerie Plame, so his time with us on the left was more like a brief flirtation before going back to his wife.
Cain
@hilzoy:
I wish I could +1 one your comment, Hilory. Aptly spoken.
Privatize the Profits! Socialize the Costs!
John, as many commenters have beaten me to saying, it is rare for a cat to change his stripes politically, and I believe most of us here admire you greatly for your courage.
While I’ve gotten used to thinking of you and BJ as one of the best blogs in Left Blogistan, I still find it jarring whenever I see a link to Little Green Footballs!!!
And it’s even more jarring when I click on the link and find that it’s an honest-to-God approving link— not a snarky mocking one!
I remember back when Billmon used to have a quotation quiz called LGF: Late German Fascist? or Little Green Footballs?
slag
You kids are so cute when you fight. Maybe this eschatoniversary is good for something after all.
I’ll be saving this thread for the next time someone complains that the reason we hate our media is that we hate having to hear opposing viewpoints. (Maybe there are people in the world who aren’t scarred for life by thirty combined minutes of exposure to CNN in one day, but I, apparently, am not one of them.)
PTirebiter
You should have left it that. Self deprecating with a juvenile defiance that’s vaguely threatening. The heartfelt mea maxima culpa just doesn’t suit you. You had a change of heart, so what?
Steve
@Mnemosyne: Oh, I dunno. I sorta think Johnson might have stayed with the blue team a while longer if we hadn’t nominated that black guy.
TK-421
This is the step most conservatives either miss or just refuse to take.
I wish more people would have an Awakening. Cole and David Frum and that Charles freakin Johnson at freakin LGF(!!!) have all done it, so can everyone else.
someBrad
Come back to us, The Editor!
BlueStreak
@the antibob: How could you not? It had that great dog on the cover!
Barbara
I am seriously happy you listened to your inner voice and I would never mock someone who so evidently and publicly turned his mojo around, catcalls be damned. Redemption should always be applauded. I hope that doesn’t sound too patronizing.
Ohio_Cane
@chrismealy:
Amen to that, brother. Anyone know whatever happened to the Poorman? I’d thought he was doing occasional stints elsewhere, but I may be mixing him up with the Whiskey Bar guy . . .
MikkiChan
@chrismealy:
I miss The Poorman, too. Does anyone know why “they” aren’t active anymore?
Barbara
Billmon is the Whiskey Bar guy and he only intermittently comments, usually at DK, and not for a long time as I recall.
Ohio_Cane
@Barbara:
Billmon! That’s it! I realized after the fact that I was conflating The Poor Man with Norbizness. The Poor Man was good, but when Norby was on – he was ON.
Ohio_Cane
@Barbara:
Billmon! That’s it! I realized after the fact that I was conflating The Poor Man with Norbizness. The Poor Man was good, but when Norby was on – he was ON.