Sully Is Not Just Tone-Deaf and Colorblind. He's Flat-Out Dumb Too!

Sully is told just how much of a bigoted jerk Will Saletan is. Our zero learns important lessons about the folly of using standardized IQ tests to determine genetic and racial absolutes. Robert Farley delivers a mighty body blow calling out Saletan for his utter failure to research the racist source of the very research upon which he based the worst of his recent ignorant and inflammatory columns. You'd think this sort of thing would be important if one were about to write that science sure does prove them black folks are dumb. Then again maybe not. It's not like people actually read Slate, right?

Upon being learning the truth about the deeply flawed basis of Saletan's argument, Andrew Sullivan's response is so typically Sully:

A chastened Will Saletan...deserves mad props for raising this important but frustrating issue.

Is Sully for real? Could he really be that clueless? At best Saletan is an egotistic hack nonpareil "accidentally" peddling bigoted bullshit. At worst he's a nasty racist. For Sully's part he time and time again fails to examine his active role in disseminating such nonsense. Then he puts the topper on this by giving Saletan a compliment!

I'm officially speechless.


AF

h/t Atrois

Atrios Gives Sully A Poke or Two

Atrios finds fault with Sully's fantasy world within which we would all agree...with him (natch):

"National Consensus"

I'm always puzzled when this phrase is thrown around, as Andy Sullivan and others do. I don't know why it's assumed to be a good thing. I don't know how we'd know if we had it when we did. I don't know why Andy and the gang imagine they'd feel better if such a thing were achieved, or why it seems to be important to them.

Exactly. Andy, the retro-cons and his formerly close friends, the neo-cons, yearn for the days of yore when everyone thought the same and lived in perfect harmony. The reality is that there hasn't been anything close to resembling a national consensus in either our country or his in 50+ years. It's a dirty little historical secret that even in in the dark days of World War Two, dissent was commonplace especially among the socially marginalized. The African-American community was particularly ambivalent. Why fight for a country that tried Nazi saboteurs in court while lynching black men for minor slights real or imagined?

But I digress. Sully's fervent wish for a national consensus reflects a deep inferiority complex at the core of the conservative baby-boomer. Having been raised by the Greatest Generation, it's only natural to want to blaze your own trail. But with the Cold War won (by pre-boomers no less) and Vietnam lost there has been scant opportunity to do so. Until 9/11. Thus a war for oil is marketed as a "global war against islamofacist terroristas" or what have you. This is position is born not just out of the need to mollify the masses but also is a desperate attempt to convince themselves that they are continuing in the honorable legacy of that "greatest of generations."

Which leads nicely into where Atrios gets to the nub of what drives Andrew Sullivan and his compadres. He goes in for the kill:

...I mean, I guess I do basically understand - it's the need of the narcissist for the world to line up completely with their views, along with the ego to be convinced that one's rightness transcends all.

AF

Manifesto

Welcome to the party.

The impetus behind this modest blog is my burning desire to stop "progressive" bloggers from uncritically disseminating the views of one Andrew Sullivan. Bringing positive attention to this fraud only serves to legitimize him. This must end now.

Why so angry Anacher? I’m glad you asked. Andrew Sullivan is an opportunistic hack. A weather vane if you will. I freely admit that Sully is a gifted writer and upon occasion makes a cogent point or two. His ability to tap into the zeitgeist of whichever side he's taken on any issue is impressive.

Unfortunately, Andrew Sullivan is not to be trusted. For starters, he sinned too long in the service of the neocons and retrocons. In spite his partial public repentance, Sully remains permanently damaged. I cannot and will not accept his supposed mental makeover. It’s too convenient how his “changed“ position has largely allowed him to avoid bearing responsibility for so enthusiastically beating his Iraq war drum. $100 says that under the right circumstances Sully would flip-flop rejoining the other side so fast he’d throw his back out. Make that double-or-nothing.

That's the least of it. It has been ignored how the biggest ramification of Andrew Sullivan’s “conversion” is also the most beneficial. Let’s be honest. The Right was never going to embrace a gay conservative blogger. He was an oddity -- a freak. (Not that there's anything wrong with that). Suddenly Sully is perceived to be far more "relevant" than previous. This transformation has conveniently made him a hot commodity:

Tada! It’s the new improved Sully! Now with Progressiverol (TM). He’s not too far left… He’s not too far right… He’s juuuuuuust right!

His installation at Time magazine alone proves how eminently more marketable Andrew Sullivan’s carefully crafted “new” image is.

After this greatly hyped ideological “Presto! Change-O!,” the vast majority of progressive bloggers have fallen all over themselves to haul out the welcome wagon. Sure Atrios, Ezra Klein and a scant few others direct consistent criticism towards Sully (tempered by their occasional “Atta boy” and a pat on the back). But what’s with the rest of the crowd?

Their compliant response is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. Exactly as the freepers need to believe in the false neocon/retrocontm mythology, the lefty blogosphere desperately wants to swallow Andrew Sullivan’s cock-and-bull story of how a conservative HIV-Positive out gay man renounces his years of gushing support for the most corrupt administration in this nation’s history. Hey, if Sully admits that we were sorta right all along then we really must be right. Right?

Even more disturbing than his intellectual dishonesty, Andrew Sullivan is a barefaced liar. Sully frequently misrepresents himself as an American citizen. As recently as last week appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher Andrew Sullivan claimed, that though he had "voted for Bush in 2000," he could not bring himself to do so in 2004. Damn straight he couldn’t again “vote” for his former crush George W. Bush. Sully can’t even “vote” in a local school board election. He’s not a United States citizen!

This is no small matter considering the column inches Andrew Sullivan has dedicated to whomever he has purported to have "voted" for in our elections. A writer's credibility begins and ends with his or her integrity. In this respect Sully is sorely lacking. Integrity cannot coexist with falsehood and manipulation.

Andrew Sullivan is a Fraud will not be a one-trick pony. I'll be sure to examine other topics for your perusal and entertainment.

Stay tuned...

AF