Labor of Love Lost
The link is to a site dedicated to the taxonomy, biography and publicity of the creature known alternatively as the liberal/leftist/progressive/radical/marxist/communists (or simply by the non-sectarian term idiotarian, my personal favorite).

I have been enjoying the latest manifestation of internet power, something I've written a bit about on this blog (as has Mike "unvarnished glee" Guy). Over the past year alone, the internet revolution has wrought blog/citizen's media bringing unparalleled transparency to once shadowy corridors of power, in particular by bringing a new accountability to the mainstream media. I think it's fair to say that this process has of late been harder on lefties (see Raines, Rather, Jordan and Kerry). At the same time it's been something of a boon to right-wing culture warriors and electoral hopefuls, though by no means will this necessarily remain the case. But I hope that we can put partisan politics aside and enjoy together the greatest benefit of citizen's media, which is more diverse, better, and more accurate information for all (well, maybe for all who look for it, at the moment, though that's improving).

As someone with a strong populist streak, I can dig this revolution. But as someone with a strong populist streak, perhaps I should remind myself not always to be so damned up with people. Though I think there's not yet been a major example of the phenomenon, citizen's media/the blogosphere can and likely will someday soon actually resemble, if only for a brutal moment or two, the scalp-hunting angry mob Mike Guy and others in the MSM fear are about to crash down the gates (btw, there are no more gates). I hope not, but careers and/or lives may be undeservedly ruined. To many people, the website linked to in the title will appear a harbinger of this moment.

Maybe certain factors particular to the exploding medium will keep citizen's media more responsible than old media ever was, even its grand heyday. There are a few things that citizen's media has going for it, among them thousands of fact-checkers, its instantaneity and its conversational model, that will help it recover its bearings and senses quickly, if/when it loses them, in any case.

Which brings me back to the website I linked to. I spent a couple of hours there today. I read about some people I regard very highly, even a personal hero or two, and about many more people I hold in much lower esteem. The site is the work (primarily) of David Horowitz, of FrontPageMagazine demi-fame. He's a former leftist, and this site is apparently something he's been working on for a long time, though it's just opened (that's where my clever title comes from, for those whose boiling blood has impaired their sense of humor). There are some jarring juxtapositions there, such as the appearance of Barrack Obama's picture right next to Ayatollah Khomeini's when you click the "Individuals" link. More generally, grouping prominent figures of the left, from Katrina van den Heuvel to Rashid Khalidi, with outright terrorists is bound to raise some hackles.

People will find a lot to hate and fear in the website. I'm a little creeped out by it, and I sympathize with muscular anti-communism and anti-anti-Americanism. More than anything else (yes, more even than McCarthyism and the HUAC), the site reminds me of some of the signs I've seen in Union Square park protests, linking every powerful white man of the past 200 years through their affiliation with the Trilateral society or some collegiate fraternity.

Except for one critical difference. The quality of the information at the site is much higher. While strong bias and pungent ideology abound, outright mendacity and tinhat theories do not (or they're concealed by a thin veneer of temperate prose, if you prefer to get conspiratorial, which is fair given the site's name and purpose). There are (quality) links, too.

There is, increasingly, no place to hide. Even if you think this is a good thing, as I do, it will take some getting used to.
- posted by Anonymous @ Tuesday, February 15, 2005