N.Z. Bear is the latest observer to chronicle the decay at the once interesting web site, Salon, in One of these things is not like the other
“Salon continues its descent into liberal insanity. Nice photo montage. No, I don't care if it's explained later in the article, thank you very much.”He’s pointing to “Who's a fascist? The ultimate political insult is making a comeback,” illustrated thus:
One can only imagine the glee that this picture stimulated in the cube farm publishing this hapless fossil. Lattes on the house at whatever espresso bar the staff repairs to after extracting paychecks from whatever Silicon Valley mogul is underwriting Salon this week.
“Cool graphic, Laura. Really framed your fascist piece.”
“Ah, David, I don’t think it really reflected what I wrote.”
“Don’t fret, Laura. They’ll remember it long after your review is forgotten. Besides, most of your review is in the pay zone. Nobody goes there. It’s what’s up front that counts. That’s why me editor, you writer.”
One could go on at great length on the question of “Whatever happened to Salon?” Many have, more will. The real story on Salon can be given in just a few paragraphs.The decay of Salon parallels the decay of the Left, the liberal establishment, and the Democratic Party since 9/11. Once the shock wore off and time passed, the process of laughter and forgetting took hold and the old obsessions came swarming back. As Gary Snyder wrote, “Once a bear is hooked on garbage, there’s no cure.”
Looking at Salon’s spiteful graphic this morning, a biblical phrase came to mind. I am not a religious man. My knowledge of scripture is scant. Still, my first thought was, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Being unsure of the phrase, I found the original passage:
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”By their fruits ye shall know them.” Let’s apply that to the picture above for a meditation on the persistence and flowering of bad Americans in this time of war and terror.
-- Matthew: 7
In the aftershocks of 911, Salon’s editor David Talbot underwent a brief conversion experience in which he actually seemed to support the culture and the country that made Salon possible. Alas his revelation soon dissolved. His was the faith of fear. When the fear faded his faith faded as well. Like others of his ilk, as soon as it became clear that the First Terrorist War was going to be something more than a Special Forces social call on Afghanistan, Talbot and his crew began to see the real enemy not as those who killed 3,000 Americans and swore to kill hundreds of thousands, but those Americans who were determined to eliminate the killers root and branch.
Why? Because those Americans were led by the one man more dangerous to Salonistas than Osama, Hitler, and Milosevic combined -- George W. Bush. Bush of atrocities such as “Guantanamo,” “The Patriot Act,” and “The Marriage Protection Act.” Bush who said “Adios Kyoto,” and “Hit Iraq.” In minds now relieved of the feeling of a clear and present danger from terrorists, Bush became a condensed Satan: Adolf Osama Slobodon Bush -- War Criminal, Mass Murderer, Christian, Homophobe, Chimp. And, worst of all, Thief .
Once they felt safe in cultural hamlets such as the Bay Area, surrounded by tens of thousands of others who provided ideological insulation, the Salonistas reverted to the central obsession of the Left and the Democrats -- It is not really the loss of American soldiers that motivates them (although they will say it is). It is not the risk of Americans being killed here at home that drives them (although they will say it is). It is not the fretting over the “loss of our freedoms” that seems to have been, so far, delayed, or the “suppression of dissent” which seems instead -- if the picture above is any guide -- to be thriving. None of this powers the bozo eruptions spurting daily from house organs like Salon. Their primal energy source remains “Florida, 2000.”
Today no one can say what might have been the course of the last few years had the Butterfly ballots of Florida been a bit more clear as they spread their wings before addled voters in that graying state. Nor can one say what would have been the result if Ralph Nader’s Pinto has been tee-boned by an SUV on the Interstate in October of that year. But the post-mortem effects are with us every day as a large block of our more educated citizens refuse, in their bones, to accept the fact that -- by law -- George Bush is President until our citizens, educated or otherwise, vote him out or 2008, whichever comes first.
Instead the Salonistas eat the bitter fruit of their corrupted tree every morning. They eat it cold and since, by dint of the makeup of their characters, they inhabit a large section of the mass and minor media, we can expect them to pass on this fruit to us in heaping portions.
As their diet, low in carbs and high in the toxicity of hate, it ulcerates tissues deep within them. The gnawing pain from those tissues overcomes their political good sense. Surrounded only by others who consume the same fruit, they drive more and more Americans away from their fixation on the past and towards those who see that the way to peace is forward, not back to a future that never was.
Salon remains an example of subsistence farming in this blighted orchard, limping from one disappointing day to the next on the kindness of Sorosesque “backers” who sigh and kiss their money good-bye as soon as they hit the PayPal button. Still, Salon is an important site in that it allows you to see the mindset of the Left in a slick interface.
Like a canary in an ideological coal mine, Salon will wheeze along in the dusty dark for a few years more. After all, it is not just a product of institutionalized BushHating, it is an institution of San Francisco and the Bay Area; a safe seat for sitting out the Terrorist War.
Sensible San Franciscans long ago realized they were in no danger from Terrorists. Looked at from a military point of view, the city has little value as a strategic or economic target. The elimination of San Francisco would not have as crippling an effect on America as the reduction of New York, Washington, Los Angeles, or a couple dozen other prime targets. At the same time, San Francisco has great value as a city congenial to fellow travelers, quislings, and sleeper cells of all colors and affiliations. San Francisco is, indeed, the reigning capitol of anti-Americanism in America. As such it is both a safe haven and a bastion of useful fools. Our enemies know enough to keep San Francisco intact and untouched. They’ll eat it last.
For now, it is enough to know that Salon, as one of the prime online house organs for surrender, appeasement, and BushHate, is doing its part to keep itself and San Francisco safe from terrorism. Civic spirit at its very best.
Posted by Vanderleun at April 22, 2004 9:07 AM | TrackBack