Sympathy for the devil

Halloween seems appropriate to my theme today.

I think we're going to make this a regular feature at Dawg's, so henceforward I'll dispense with the numbers and do the Kate McMillan thing ("The Sound of Settled Science," etc.) The emerging influence of explicit neo-Nazi thinking on the starboard side of the blogosphere, as previously mentioned here, has even made notable right-wingers like Charles Johnson twitchy. And its sticky tentacles are long and numerous.

Today's sympathy award goes to Kathy Shaidle. The Richard Warman website that she cites is of somewhat dubious provenance, but appears to be well-known on Stormfront, a well-known neo-Nazi website that shall get no link from me.

Here are some of the folks who have ended up on the wrong side of the law for promoting hatred, the "victims" of activist lawyer Richard Warman. Please try to hold back your tears.

Fred Kyburz

Alexan Kulbashian

Tomasz Winnicki

Jessica Beaumont

Marc Lemire

Paul Fromm

Bobby Wilkinson/Canadian Nazi Party

Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team

World Church of the Creator

One might expect, if one believed their rhetoric, that conservatives wouldn't be prepared to lose a lot of sleep over this sorry lot, much less utter ear-shattering blogwhines about their alleged ill-treatment. Most if not all of those listed here are Holocaust-denying anti-Semites, for example. But the cranky Right, which loves to label progressives "anti-Semites" for being the least bit critical of Israel, suddenly have nothing but concern and sympathy when the real thing shows up.

Supporters of peace and non-violence are refused entry to Canada; no problem. Desmond Tutu banned from a university campus? Yawn. A university student Tasered by cops for asking a question at a campus meeting? He was asking for it. Cops trying to start a riot in Montebello? Not a peep--after the story turned out to be true. But then these same freedom-loving folks get all sniffly and weepy when Nazis find themselves on the wrong side of the law, and they start lighting candles to the gods of Freedom of Speech. Why am I not convinced of their devotion to principle? Am I just being--cynical? You tell me.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

UPDATE: (November 1)

The conservative Shire Network News has split internally over the podcasting of an interview with neo-Nazi Filip DeWinter, signaling the widening of a schism precipitated by Little Green Footballs owner Charles Johnson who had the moral courage--or good common sense--to repudiate neo-Nazis in conservative ranks. This didn't sit well with a lot of his erstwhile allies.

Listen to the podcast and decide for yourselves what manner of political animal is Filip DeWinter. I liked the part where, confronted with a statement in which he defended "white Europe," he earnestly explained that he meant "white" as a metaphor.

H/t Mark Collins. And see what Damian Penny, of the conservative blog Daimnation, has to say about all this.