Charles Johnson, the Islam-smearer who attacks serious Islam critics as Nazis

Ian writes:

One of the contributors on the 2Blowhards site had a hilarious post recently, in which he pointed out that if the liberal assertion is true that “homophobes” are actually repressed homosexuals, then it would also be the case that people who hate Republicans are really repressed Republicans.

The article got me thinking about the recent issue with Charles Johnson of LGF’s criticism of other conservative bloggers. I long ago wrote off LGF as a site to regularly check. This was because it seemed to me tin-eared, shrill, and hateful—the tone was less one of the conservative project of creating a better world through maturely and unsentimental facing the true nature of things, and more a pure simple polarized hatred, fear, and stereotyping of Muslims. I would sometimes end up at LGF, usually by following a link from another conservative website, and think to myself, “Oh, this site again—boring—here comes more lack of anything resembling analysis and recommendations—let me guess, more articles implying Muslims are pure subhuman demons.” I differentiate that tone from the tone of conservatives such as you, Steve Sailer, Fjordman, Pat Buchanan, and, yes, Paul Belien, who seem, in contrast, to have a more nuanced and mature analysis, and have an implied recognition of the shared humanity of Muslims, but hold them to reasonable civilized standards for their collective barbaric behavior and lack of mature social organization and point out how much work they will need to do to be anything like global citizens.

When Charles Johnson shrieks about “race hatred,” he seems to me to be saying more about himself than about anyone else he accuses of it.

LA replies:

So, assuming Ian’s account is correct (I haven’t read enough of LGF to know for myself), it turns out that Charles Johnson belongs to the Ralph Peters School of Islam Criticism! Meaning that he attacks Muslims in very strong, overly sweeping language (Peters for his part has repeatedly said that we must kill lots and lots of Muslims), then he turns around and attacks thoughtful Islam critics as Nazi-types and race haters.

The behavior represents a typical pattern in our late-liberal society I will try to get back to this later to explain what I mean.

Diane L. writes:

I don’t think Charles Johnson’s current position is hateful towards all Muslims, and he doesn’t advocate killing lots of them. Lately, he’s been banning commenters who advocate anything like that. He seems to be in favor of assimilating everyone into Western culture, including Muslim immigrants. It’s hard to tell, because he’s all over the place lately. But it would be a mistake to lump him in with anyone who advocates genocide.

LA replies:

Thanks for the clarification. Ian’s description of Johnson seemed to fit a familiar pattern on the “right” which I’ve often talked about, particularly in relation to Peters, of a self-indulgently bellicose attitude toward Muslims combined with an aggressively anti-racist attitude toward one’s fellow Westerners, which led me to draw the parallel between Johnson and Peters. This was risky, given that I was doing this on the basis of Ian’s description of Johnson rather than my own reading.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 14, 2007 11:57 AM | Send