Dean's World

I was recently described by a left-wing hate-blogger who goes by the anonymous handle "Mithras" as:

...popular among right-wingers as one of those centrists who just happen to hate liberals and Democrats. A proud dry drunk, he works out his unresolved childhood issues of being raised in a union household by writing about his crackpot theories on HIV/AIDS, feminism, and capitalism.

I'm not going to link it. I resolved long ago not to give links to people who attack me or my family personally, nor to host their trackbacks (disagreement is fine, attacks are not). But you can read more about it from David Bernstein.

I was only one of ten bloggers attacked, but Bernstein rightly singles out the slurs against Michelle Malkin, since she was subjected to the most sexist and racist attacks of all. But all of the attacks served to illustrate Mithras and his fans are vicious racists, sexists, and crypto-fascist creeps---sort of like Michael Moore but without the good looks, or Ann Coulter without the cojones.

For the record: I don't hate liberals, nor Democrats. I do hate fascists and fascist apologists, some of whom wear liberal clothing--and some of whom wear conservative clothing. I also despise the hate-America left: the Noam Chomskys, the Howard Zinns, the Pepe Escobars, and so on, along with vile people like Jerry Falwell or James Dobson or Pat Buchanan. I am also very much a defender of the honorable people who work in our military.

I've never hidden any of that, nor the fact that I view my liberalism as the old-fashioned, patriotic variety: anti-fascist, anti-totalitarian, open-minded, favoring ideas for reform, and eschewing tradition for tradition's sake.

If it's any consolation, a lot of conservatives and libertarians make the mistake of counting me in their number--then become shocked when they learn about my views on things like education and health care, gay rights, immigration, "family values," abortion, Islam and other non-Christian religions, large corporations, language, fashion, premarital sex, and so on. I simply don't fit into the neat little boxes that people on the left or right want to put me into.

I didn't grow up in a union household. Also I am not a "proud dry drunk," I am a much-more-often sober, less-self-indulgent drunk, not proud of it at all, and I only talk about it because I want to help other people.

My "crackpot theories" on HIV and AIDS are not mine at all. They are those of world-class biologists with numerous peer-reviewed papers to their names (including at least one Nobel laureate), practicing medical doctors, and HIV+ people I have spoken to. In other words, whether they're right or wrong, they are hardly "crackpot."

I have no particular theory on capitalism except that government-regulated, generally-free markets generally work, while Marxism is a dysfunctional philosophy of murder and hate.

"Feminism" is a null concept until you explain what you mean by it. I'm certainly a staunch advocate for women's rights in oppressed countries like Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, and so on, and without reservation. I am generally an advocate of fairness and freedom of choice between the sexes. I'm also an unabashed advocate of men's rights, since so much of our system of law here in the U.S. is extremely hostile to men, most particularly fathers.

There are those I suppose who looked at Mithras' piece as humorous. I admit, I chuckled more than a little reading it--but only because I can think of little that belies the fundamentally reactionary and intolerant worldview that has come to define so much of the left today.