A Note to Conservative Readers

All right, conservatives. The time has come. You can say anything you want about me. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I have a hide like a rhinoceros (and a snout to go with it, some might say). If you think you’re saying things I haven’t heard before, if you think you’re ruining my day or keeping me up at night, you’re being delusional.

Say whatever you want about me, however stupid it is. The actual fact is that serious-minded people who’ve read me for a long time know that I’m a liberal critic of liberalism, a Sandelian before a Rawlsian, for those who know what that means.

That’s a big part of what I’ve done over the years, and I’ll be happy to launch such conversations the day you prove yourselves capable of having an intelligent conversation. In the meantime, I know that I have a position of great privilege here, and with privileges come burdens, and of course we do have freedom of speech, and I’m obviously glad we do, so you fire away at me.

But two things. First, you f---ing well keep my father out of it. He was a great man. He became a prominent lawyer, but he grew up in a coal camp. He never forgot that either, as was proven by the number of grown men who came up to me at his funeral with tears in their eyes as they explained to me the things he did for them, usually for free.

And yes, as it happens, his father died of black lung before he hit 60. Got that, President Dinkins? I hate to burst your fixed idea that Tomasky surely comes from a long line of elitists.

Second, how about you try to argue with the occasional fact? Looking back through these last few threads, I see a lot of “Comrade Tomasky” and “Obama hack” and so on, but I didn’t see anyone trot out a single fact, or even “fact.” Every once in a while, InLightened, who was around in my Guardian days, will try his hand at a fact. But from the rest of you, it’s just name calling, and as I said above, it washes off the rest of us pretty fast.

Is IkeWasRight correct when he writes: “Look, folks, this is a complete free-for-all here that blithely encourages ill-mannered paid hacks working for right-wing sponsors to set the tone and define the parameters of ANY AND EVERY discussion, via jack-boot brownshirt tactics.” Really? Paid?? By whom?? And how much? I feel so naive! I guess capitalism really must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere (that’ll drive ’em nuts, Ike, if any of them are literate enough to get it).

I throw down very hard on Republicans and conservatives. If you disagree with me, do the same to Democrats and liberals. That’s what we want. But it’d be nice to have a certain minimum level of decency and, more than that, intelligence.