Lawrence Auster, Leftist

The Rumpelstiltskin Of The Right has referred to my defence of John Derbyshire against his astonishingly ad hominem verbal assault in the following terms -

"The truth of the theory is seen in the fact that I, in violating that rule and criticizing Derbyshire, seem to be going after him in a personal way that deeply offends some people. Thus one blogger has spoken of my 'astonishingly ad hominem verbal assault on John Derbyshire; damned by Auster for nothing more than writing about his religious beliefs.... so poisonous is Auster’s contempt for any view other than his own.... All hail Lawrence Auster, conservative purist with a Chekist’s heart.'

Nice try, Larry, but unfortunately no cigar is coming your way.

The basis of my piece was Auster's mindboggling misrepresentation of what John had actually written. Any of Auster's readers who have followed his links are invited to read my piece again, and tell me if I'm wrong. I don't think so.

And then they can tell me whether they think Larry hasn't just cherry-picked the sections of my piece that he thinks are most helpful to him. Of course he has.

There is a very deep strain of pitilessness in Auster's criticism of his targets.

That he is deeply jealous of Pat Buchanan seems clear, to these eyes at least, with him once even having gone so far as to help perpetuate the scurrilous and unfounded insinuation that Buchanan is an anti-Semite in an Internet publication which is a stranger to the truth.

His critique of John Derbyshire was riddled with either deliberate or assumptive misrepresentations. Either way, it was sloppy.

However, the real flaw in Auster's character were exposed most clearly by his treatment of Paul Craig Roberts.

On March 29 this year, Auster wrote,

"It’s a disgrace that the websites NewsMax and vdare regularly publish the insane rants of Paul Craig Roberts. NewsMax is a mainstream-conservative, patriotic website; vdare bills itself as a non-general interest website solely devoted to immigration restriction. Why do they taint their pages—and the conservative ideals they profess to believe in—with this poisonous fruitcake, whose hatred of and delusional conspiracy theories about President Bush surpass anything seen on the far left?...

The free rein the hate-monger Roberts enjoys at these websites suggests that the loss of reasoned restraints, the breakdown of minimal standards for public discourse in this country has not only affected the America-hating left and right, but has become general. I call on NewsMax and vdare to exercise some judgment and turn off this maniac. "

He woud have his enemies be silent.

I once wrote of Auster,

"Someone should get Larry a talk show, a book deal or a regular paying print gig. Maybe then his mood will improve. "

My flippancy could have been mistaken for generosity. Or charity.

Auster's consistent lashing out at all those he deems unworthy servants of conservatism indicates that he is a very bitter man, perhaps angry and thwarted that others he deems less worthy have higher public profiles.

But the tactics that this conservative commissar uses to put across his case - personal attack; selective quotation; misrepresentation; innuendo; open desire to see their opponents silenced - are not conservative tactics.

These are the tactics of the left, wherever it's found.

To advance the cause of the right with the tactics of the left is to endorse the view that the ends justify the means - an unwholesome and unsupportable proposition in any walk of life, to be expected from a leftist but unbecoming in a conservative.

But that's what Auster does - and in my book that makes him a leftist in rightist's clothing.