In my initial post on Max Borders, I wrote that his standard operating procedure is to
- (1) make assertions so outrageously stupid and/or vicious that they far surpass the worst caricatures of right-wingers;
(2) whine that those who either recoil in horror or laugh their asses off aren’t addressing his arguments.
Now that he has been so kind as to make my case for me (“If you read something you don’t agree with [or more likely, something you just don’t understand]”), I’d like to note that the misunderstanding of Max Borders has now reached epidemic levels:
*Matt Yglesias
*Justin Logan
*Gene Healy
*Will Wilkinson
*John Lopez
*David Beito
For the last time: I didn’t call for Borders to be fired, in part because I’m not such a grinch, and in part because the lousy advocate of bad policies is always preferable to the skilled one. I don’t think there’s anything improper, however, about letting an organization know that one disapproves of statements made in a public forum by its employees. I seem to recall a lot of grumbling about Dan Rather over the last several months, and Dan Rather never posted an essay on the web arguing that Bush should be defeated — why is it inappropriate to give IHS an earful about the arguments its program director makes on his weblog? This is not repeating a private conversation, or the details of Borders’ personal life. It’s commenting on his friggin’ blog, for Pete’s sake.
And to the Borders commenter who said I’d scream bloody murder if someone called for my head: get real. People do call for my head all the time, sometimes literally. Borders fans are welcome to do it themselves: here’s our contact info. I will probably disagree with the reasons someone wants me fired, I may argue against them, but I’m not going to pitch a fit about it.