| Re: "Used or abused," by Amy Steele, News, August 31-September 06, 2006.
Shotgun blog of hate? I don't think so. After reading Ezra Levant’s interview I went to the Western Standard website and toured the blog. The Fast Forward article was very accurate in describing the site. There I found an unedited cross section of people’s thoughts and feelings. This allows me to absorb information, and make up my own mind.
It's very positive that someone out there believes enough in the intelligence of the average citizen to host an open forum. Sure, there are racist, and what I consider to be uninformed and intolerant remarks posted. I've had enough people shout their opinion in my direction lately, without any opportunity for rebuttal. This is the real power of the Internet – there is no longer anywhere for weak arguments and rhetoric to hide.
Amy Steele's piece about the Western Standard's blog made for an interesting and thought-provoking read, but falls afoul of the same trap of overstatement and sensationalism that makes a lot of people steer clear of Levant's paper in the first place.
First off, what stupid adults do when they're hiding behind names like Honey Pot and Big Makk'is the same thing that stupid 14-year-olds do in their guises as AnG3L ov D3AtH and H4xx0r Bo1 do: spout off big about things they have no power to do anything about, in ways they would never dream of doing in public.
Second, printing Alaa Elsayed's comments verbatim leaves an oversight unaddressed: when Elsayed says that "this Canadian publication actually posts such trash on their website," it ignores the fact that the magazine itself did not actually make these posts; rather, the forum's members did, as Levant points out later on. It's nitpicking, but it's also the difference between a person smashing a window and a person seeing someone else smash a window and not stopping to pick up their mess.
Levant is his usual charming self, to be sure, baiting the paper with his "unlike Fast Forward" comments, but he stands firm on not censoring others. I could dust off a hoary old Voltaire maxim about disagreeing with another's opinion, but what would be the point?
I suspect that if someone went off on an Internet messageboard about
how the Old Testament was a big old hate literature manual for extremist Christian fascists, citing fire-and-brimstone scriptures and skipping over all that love-thy-neighbour stuff to prove their case, their opinion would be tossed in the file marked "Wingnut" and never looked at again. What makes this any different?
Let the Western Standard play host to these people if they so desire. By dedicating coverage in your paper to the inane ramblings of blowhards, you play right into their hands by offering them yet another podium to do it from.
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