(Post meant especially for longtime readers and old Eschatonians.)
Althouse imagining crazy shit after Blogger got bloggered last week is crazy fun bananas, and there is, surely, quite a bit of collateral comedy in the characteristic implosion.
But let's remember that Althouse is dishonest as the sociopath's day is long.
This post in particular is... fun.
The context is to do with this post from Brian Leiter, responding to an Althouse excretion about her school's search for a new dean of her own law school, where she asked her commenters to give their opinions... and since her commenters are the type of people who take Ann Althouse seriously, the rotating blades did their predictable work with the incoming brown missiles. Leiter posted a comment from a correspondent who read the thread:
[A] quick thought on Althouse’s post on the Wisconsin Dean finalists: the comments not only were negative on the candidates (as you note), but degenerated into a cesspool of vile misogyny and homophobia (not only multiple calling Margaret Raymond a token “diversity” candidate, but multiple posts opining that she should get the job only if she has “big tits” and speculating that she’s a lesbian). Isn’t Althouse at risk of letting her blog turn into AutoAdmit? She has the free speech right to run whatever cesspool she wants, but is she prioritizing her desire for a widely read blog over her obligation to be a responsible member of academia? I’d prefer not to say this for attribution...only because I’m a prof at [another law school] where Margaret Raymond was named a Dean finalist too – but that’s part of why I’m so offended on her behalf; she’s a fantastic and impressive woman who deserves far better than a professor (Althouse) at a school where she’s a finalist (Wisconsin) hosting this sort of festival of misogyny and homophobia.
I find Althouse's defense of her shithead commenters extremely fascinating in every possible regard. This in particular:
Titus said:
If the woman candidate has big tits I say hire her. Otherwise, go with one of the men.
You can't go wrong with big tits.
tits...yum
All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, by our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man. He's been talking like that on this blog for years. The regulars know him. And they know I love him. If that's what Leiter and the Anonymous Professor feel such angst about... it's because they don't understand the community here.
Fascinating.
Hello there, dark backward and abysm of time!
Specifically, 2005. A magical era.
In 2005, Ann Althouse decided to go into a comments thread at Eschaton, pull out totally random quotes, including one from a troll, and commence posturing as an alleged victim of Liberal Sexism.
I quote:
Atrios, who doesn't deign to link to my blog as he discusses me, sets off a spate of comments that is now over 800. Let's see how his folks respond, and perhaps we can get a sense of how the left really processes feminism:
Feminism is OK in its place.
Feminism is OK in its place.
in the kitchen.
Feminism is OK in its place.
in the kitchen.
Hey, yeah! Fetch me an eclair!
"Remember back last February when Kevin Drum wrote about why there are so few women in political blogging?"Because mainly ugly chicks and dudes are interested in politics. Pasty greasy faced (I saw the picture here and shivered in revulsion) fish belly white thighs and guts are not attractive.
That is why Pam Anderson can play a ditz and ROLL in cash.
Plus most Democrat women are real bow wows. One thing the Republicans have is a whole stable of hot blonde white women they can roll out for tv.
Who really wants to f**k her for her mind anyway?
But as an old black buddy of mine told me " Put a flag over her head and f**k her for old glory!
That's patriotism!
Hey, yeah! Fetch me an eclair!
You have to remove your pants first before I entertain that command.
Feminism is OK in its place.
So are Negroes. Once either gets uppity there's gotta be hell to pay.
but she looks like a man
It's pretty f**king awful to be a feminist, actually. You get called names by Rush Limbaugh and friends, you get to be ridiculed in the mainstream media and if the wingnut sources are anything to come by you are responsible for white women disappearing in Aruba, for the falling birthrate, for every divorce that has taken place and the demise of the Western civilization. You are even responsible for increased alcohol use among young women and male depression. In fact, you are pretty goddamnawful.
Yeah, but Echidne, every so often you get to use the Courts to beat the sons of bitches senseless and make them give you large amounts of money for having screwed you over. And that counts too.....
It was pointed out to Althouse that comments 1, 2, and 3 had nothing to do with Althouse, but were to do with certain Eschaton regular commenters of the time bantering. Comment 4 was a wingnut troll, obviously. Comment 5 was more in-joke banter. Comment 6 was by a black commenter, Kent. Comment 7:
The other instance of "name-calling" is "she looks like a man," which is in fact a reference to Daryn Kagan, not Althouse. And Althouse appears to have pasted that from a comment from a poster who was disapproving of its sexist tone. Thus making ridiculous Althouse's claim that nobody challenged the alleged sexism from the regular commenters.
And the last comment was a reply to Echidne on the part of a woman, an academic, who was referring to how she won a lawsuit against a government employer for grossly misogynist discrimination. The comment made no reference to Althouse; Althouse included it because she wanted to smear people posting at a certain place as sexist, and couldn't find anything much. It is not remotely misogynist.
This is the one that still angers me. Not that GWPDA can't take care of herelf. But that a victim of injustice fights back against all the odds, wins, only to be carelessly smeared as a proponent of that injustce by some self-absorbed twit with an asinine agenda... that is everything I hate.
This is a grudge I make no apologies for recalling bitterly.
And. Aparently. Gay men can make tit jokes. Black men can't joke about how blacks face discrinination, because that's, uh, sexist. Columbia-educated women lawyers making pies on the side for money can't make jokes about entrenched sexism. In Althouse land.
And now Althouse is saying tit jokes are totally cool in reference to a professional woman looking for a high-ranking academic position because according to the norms of her "community," tit jokes are fine and lovable.
And it's also perfectly fine that her commenters talk about how this woman is perhaps a lesbian because they think her CV is thin because like they're fucking experts. And Althouse says this is not insulting, or sexist.
gutless said:
Is Margaret a lesbian? One imagines so in that her background doesn't seem competitive and yet, here she is. If so, she has the job. If not, she is merely window dressing and the less offensive of the other two gets the nod.
That's obviously another criticism of law schools, reflecting an assumption that law schools make choices based on diversity factors.
So stop whining, Margaret. (Honestly...)
Ann Althouse is, quite simply, a disgusting human being. She'll go into other peoples' comments, lie about what she finds there, and try to smear other people including people she knows and cares nothing about as sexists, in order to claim sexist victimhood.
When obvious sexism appears in her own threads, well we love that sexist fucker. Don't you get it?
What a complete shit she is.