I’ve made no bones about the fact I don’t like Kevin Williamson. I’ve called him “Sloppy Williamson” and a “gold-plated phony” for years. I think his quill pen act is just that, an act intended to make his otherwise mediocre views appear sophisticated. I know that is probably unfair of me, but some people just bug the crap out of me and Williamson is one of them. I fully accept that I could be wrong in my opinion.
The point is, I take a back seat to no man in my disdain for Williamson and all of the Buckleyite-Conservatarian-Libertarian cabal. To borrow a Derb phrase, I’m a low number hater on this score. That said, what the Atlantic Magazine has done to Kevin Williamson is despicable. In fact, it looks like they plotted it, hiring the guy knowing they would soon fire him, because the lunatics would start howling. Even if the execrable Jeffrey Goldberg simply folded to pressure, firing Williamson is immoral.
Kevin Williamson is a guy with bills and responsibilities. He needs an income like most everyone else in this world. Firing someone is never something to be taken lightly, because it is a life altering experience. To hire a guy away from one company, only to fire him a week later, is to recklessly cause harm to another, for no other reasons than a failure to do your job. If Jeffrey Goldberg was really upset by his hiring of Williamson, he should have quit as editor-in-chief, but that would require personal integrity.
There’s a larger point here. The Atlantic is basically succumbing to the mob, one that is most likely entirely artificial. It is the ultimate heckler’s veto. A relatively tiny cabal of lunatics get to determine who is and who is not allowed on the public stage. It’s exactly what can never be allowed to happen if you want a civil society. The reason is, torch wielding mobs encourage the formation of counter mobs, who see that their only rational option is to meet force with force.
Just as important, from our perspective, is what our Progressive oppressors are trying to establish with this move. All of a sudden, a guy who is slightly to the right of center – maybe – is now beyond the pale. Williamson’s views on social issues like abortion and gender delusions are held by the majority of Americans. What this is about is a new push by our oppressors to make any criticism of their increasingly deranged opinions a disqualifying act. If Williamson can’t get work, imagine what happens to us.
One of the great mistakes of the Buckleyites has been to think they can cut a deal with the Left, by purging people to their right. The various groups in polite conservative circles have been silent as people on our side have been systematically attacked by the orthodoxy and shut out of public debate. Now they find themselves facing the same challenge. Kevin Williamson has just learned that no matter how much he disavowed our side, Progressives would never accept him.
Welcome to the party pal.
Edit: I dashed this off in five minutes, so I was not clear on a couple of things. One is the dumb cuck had it coming. If you get in bed with Lefty, expect to wake up with a lot of problems. The other thing is these guys give legitimacy to Progressive media by going on their platforms, so I have no sympathy for them when they get thrown off of them. I just wanted to make the point that we either have a public square or we have mob rule. I’m good with either, but I don’t think the people in charge want the latter.
The Left are terminators – they can’t be bargained with, they can’t be reasoned with, and they will. not. stop. until we are all assimilated. I used to believe in rules and principles. But they’ve destroyed that. At this point, the only thing that will even slow them down is a counter-mob. Make their own tactics hurt so much that they disavow them, and then we can have principles again.
How much hurt will make them disavow their tactics? Part of the deal is that they “think” and operate with the emotional part of the brain, that is in it for the phychochemical jollies that it all provides. Not much different than the guy who can’t stay out of girl trouble because he “thinks with the wrong head”. How much grief does that guy suffer before he changes his ways? Way, way more than he should, rationally speaking. You contradicted the second part of your statement with the first part. Tipping them into a vat of hot melted slag is… Read more »
I don’t know how much pain will make them stop, but I’m pretty sure someone’s going to give it the old college try here before too long. Look at the nutburger who shot up YouTube. Saner minds than hers might well conclude that “if I’m gonna be accused anyway, I wanna be guilty.” I really hope not, but then again, I really hoped the Left would wake up, too.
I find it necessary to hold Williamson’s firing in context with The National Review’s history of firing conservative/right leaning columnists. I don’t know what Williamson’s opinions are about NR firing Steyn, and Derb, and Sailer(?), and whomever else, but I find it more cowardly that a publication calling itself conservative would fire conservative writers, as opposed to a non-conservative publication doing it for the same reasons. We have seen this before: Progressive media hires token conservative, fires him shortly thereafter for saying conservative things (Limbaugh on ESPN years ago). Why Williamson thought he would avoid that treatment is hard to… Read more »
John Derbyshire says Williamson opposed his being hurled into the void.
Your point about knowing better is correct, but Williamson is about as watered down as it gets. I can see him thinking he was safe.
That said, this is good for us. I welcome our new milquetoast comrades into the valley of the damned.
We need a new valley. Before this is over there won’t be room enough for everyone.
“That said, this is good for us. I welcome our new milquetoast comrades into the valley of the damned.”
Classic Zman. Funny as hell.
Yeah he counseled Derb to claim “the Talk (white version)” was satire to slip the noose. Derb: No it wasn’t. Derb has integrity. Derb also claimed that he believed that Williamson was clued into race realities which he keeps to himself. I suspect He has been angling for the Atlantic job (or its equivalent) for some time. NR became dead to me when they fired steyn and Derb. I wish VDH would leave so it would just collapse already.
My impression is that Deroy Murdock isn’t bad. And McCarthy makes yapping noises with the pack but is not completely immune to facts, which added to actual expertise makes reading him on the Russia hoax mandatory.
I just hope word gets out to some poor hick that’s always wanted try his hand at Proggie writing. You know, some yokel stuck in a shitheel town, one that’s been devastated by 50 yrs of bad trade deals, immigration, & opioids, this is golden opportunity.
That fella needs to be polishing up a resume, making an appointment w/Jeffery Goldberg, and renting a U-Haul, ASAP.
Next to the chick shooting up YT, this qualifies as the “feel good” story of the week.
For the record… as noted below, Derb thinks KDW opposed his defenestration. And Steyn fired NR for cuckishness in the suit against him, not the other war around.
Other names of those pushed out… Brimelow (and maybe O’Sullivan over Briomelow), Coulter, Buchanan, Sobran… Who am I missing?
He was hoisted on his own petard:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/03/donald-trump-white-working-class-dysfunction-real-opportunity-needed-not-trump/
He needs to get a U-Haul, and move to where he can find another job.
I have ZERO sympathy.
I was thinking about going that way, but in the end, it’s more rational for me to defend the public square. But, yeah, it is understandable why some people would be snickering now.
Lets do a GoyFundMe to raise funds for Williamson’s U-Haul!
You can defend the public squares without defending villiage idiots.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/working-class-whites-have-moral-responsibilities-defense-kevin-williamson/
Why is the public square more sacrosanct than a gypsum factory (well, we need more toxic stinky Chinese made drywall, but not hypocritical limosine liberal RINO commentators should be protected?).
Creative destruction! Free Trade! Williamson is just obsolete so he should learn something useful like plumbing or cleaning toilets or running the cash register at a gas station.
The way I see it, Williamson is free to be an idiot and I’m free to call him an idiot. This event is an “I told you so moment” for the more high brow of our side. That’s the point of the post. We told these idiots that they were fools to be the palace guard. Now they are suffering.
Gloating is not always the best course.
No, but it’s fun. Williamson staked his future as an opinion-boy with that assault on middle America, and he lost. Now everyone hates him.
Tough shit, buddy. I’ll be making a living tomorrow; will you?
I hear that. As I said, I take a backseat to no man in my disdain for Sloppy. I’m the guy who gave him the nickname.
Bravo. KW is a victim of ‘creative destruction’. He may have to get a job actually making things or performing valued services like the rest of us – the people he despises. There is a great Chinese film called ‘To Live’, from 1994, detailing the life of a man who blew all his inherited wealth in the gambling dens, and had to reconstruct his character by going on the road as a puppeteer – to support his family, the glue that bound him to real life. Williamson should watch and contemplate the lessons of this film. It deals with shattered… Read more »
Just out of curiosity, where were you introduced to the film. If you mind, I’d like to know. I have a huge interest in they film.
It’s one of the best (and saddest) films of all time imho.
We all hate U Tube here, but that’s where I discovered it; it’s a wonderful picture, one of the twenty or so films I’d want with me on a deserted island.
There’s no contradiction between snickering at Williamson and noticing that Jeffrey Goldberg is a shit. In fact, the fact that KDW was oblivious to the possible implications of the latter ai all the better reason to snicker.
Unless he was pushed out at NR and had nothing to lose.
Oh, so he’s that guy. Yeah, FUCK that guy with a railroad tie.
Speaking of Gender Delusions (great term) I’m reading “When Harry Became Sally”, slowly, to keep my blood pressure under control. The author did a great job overall, but I don’t agree with his recommendation of showing “compassion and understanding” for the liberal viewpoints. I think I prefer Ted Nugent’s attitude, if you don’t call out the assholes, you become one. We have been too polite, too long.
Agree, Williamson is a total POS and quisling. Look writing a piece about wanting white people to die off faster.
This guy is as low as you can go. Bad things deserve to happen to him for advocating genocide.
Compassion and understanding are what triumphant peoples express toward the vanquished. But they have no place in an existential war.
Lefties don’t need compassion or understanding; they need hard discipline, total commitment to shit jobs at shit pay, with daily reminders that no organic diet and no daily fealty to the gods of plastic recycling will save them from Hell.
We shouldn’t expect anything else from the Enemies Domestic, but I never like seeing them take another scalp. Williamson is going to have to rent a UHaul now, move to where the jobs are, and learn to code.
There is only one thing I had hoped for; why couldn’t this have been the jelly-faced dicksucker Jonah Goldberg?
Give it time 🙂
Like you I am also not a fan of Williamson, and hold the same opinion regarding his firing. What makes it worse, if I understand the story correctly, is that he was fired because he is unapologetic in his belief that abortion is murder and should be treated as a crime.
This is a view held by a substantial segment of the U.S. population. Why the heck would they hire this guy if not to allow him to hold opinions different than those of other Atlantic writers?
This is not the first time a big time Progressive outlet has hired someone, only to fire them soon after. I suspect it is on purpose. The NYTimes hired and fire Razib Khan, despite his views being well known.
I doubt it is purposeful. Anecdotally, I know a few people in leftist literati and there is a war on between neolib and prog power on the board and editorial staff. The neolibs, largely diaspora, want neocons in the Dem fold. The prog gentiles, and some diaspora meretz nutters, hate the idea and have thus-far kept them out. Given that neocons are, for all intents and purposes, a null entity for votes, it’s going to come down to donor dollars. Patronage is wobbly with all the demographic hustling going on now. It should be amusing to watch. Had I to… Read more »
Late reply- excellent observations there, especially since the Dems are on a big recruiting drive for military intel careerists.
Another revolving door is developing on the nomenklatura ladder.
Williamson doesn’t get it, this is no country even for cucks. The progtards won the cultural, education and corporate battles. Right now cukcs are tolerated by the progtards as useful idiots. But sooner or later they will all end up on the enemies list like the alt-right and old school conservatives. Look at GW Bush, he was as much a globalist and open borders POS as Obama, yet he was totally reviled by the progtards. You cannot appease the Left. That said too many at-right types still operate in 1985 mode. They don’t get that war has been declared against… Read more »
I can guarantee that Sloppy will learn nothing from this episode, and will remain the same untrustworthy cuck he always was. He can’t do anything else as this is who and what he is, to the core.
Good point. Perhaps he’ll write a column about it soon, about how this experience has made him grow as a person, how he totally respects the people that fired him, about how the right to fire an employee is part of what makes America great, (in Russia only the thug Putin can fire people!) Williamson will learn nothing, and he will remember nothing.
I don’t know KW personally, and I don’t know – as you do – how he’ll roll in the days to come. Williamson wrote a short book (The Dependency Agenda) a few years ago detailing the LBJ plan of capturing the black vote by flooding them with freebies; quoth Williamson: “I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for 200 years” – Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1964. It’s a good book, examining the entirely cynical merger of hard leftists with old-time Klansmen and southern segregationists to overpower the middle America then represented – if only just – by the GOP. The point being… Read more »
Hitler did good things too. It’s the bad things Sloppy represents that are critical.
Uh oh. I added a comment here that “was awaiting moderation”. And now it’s gone. I quoted Williamson – quoting LBJ – in his short book ‘The Dependency Agenda’; it included the n-word and my guess is that it triggered something that now has me on the FBI database as we chat.
EDIT: And now, there it is. Never mind.
Earlier today, when I first heard the news, I muttered to myself that Williamson would probably land at Commentary. Sure enough:
https://www.mediaite.com/online/conservative-magazine-swoops-in-to-give-newly-unemployed-columnist-kevin-williamson-next-article/
Williamson probably quickly farted out an article attacking Trump for wanting to pull out of Syria and sent it to John Podhoretz along with ten pounds of Katz’s pastrami. He’ll be fine.
I really wish these people would stop working so hard to prove me right.
This NR response is hilarious. All the cucks are scared tonight. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kevin-williamson-firing-by-the-atlantic-cowardly/
Of course, David French is one of the mewling twats who tried to take Trump down when he said that women should be “punished” for having an abortion: “Yesterday Donald Trump did what he does best: opened his mouth and inserted his foot. In an interview with Chris Matthews, he said that women who receive abortions should face “some sort of punishment” if the practice is made illegal. He reversed himself hours later, but in the meantime the radical pro-abortion Left seized on his comments and did what they do best: distorting the English language and common sense to paint… Read more »
I take pride in having spotted French as a nutter a long time ago. As soon as he turned up, I could tell he was a guy that swung wildly from one topic to another.
On the contrary he was Lowry’s faithful attack poodle in both the Trayvon Martin and Michelle Fields hoaxes, determinedly churning out multiple articles in support of Lowry’s cuck takes on each of those subjects in the teeth of the mounting evidence, even as Rich “Al Sharpton is Right” Lowry fell silent.
Abortion is a tragic thing, however, be careful what you wish for in wanting to ban abortions. I’m relieved that the tens of millions of low-IQ, violent black and latino unwanted fetuses were aborted rather than being carried to term and growing up to make more violence and costly problems in the U.S.
All those white babies who will never be — now that hurts my heart and I wish I could change that.
White leftist babies.
French is a weasel. Read the article carefully. He says Trump inserted foot in mouth by SAYING women should be punished, but is very careful to never deny that he, French, thinks thinks they should be punished. Instead he complains about feminists saying woman are already punished for abortions and that nothing more than inconvenience is at stake.
This is not an accident.
Thanks for the quote. I’ve bookmarked that article in my David French is a Shit folder.
Modestly funny that Commentary is labeled conservative.
Williamson is controlled opposition. The left needs him in place as a foil and as line of demarcation–thou shalt move no farther right than Williamson. This is why Williamson is constantly punching right.
Williamson is a circus clown. He’s like the fat kid in high school who got an audience with the popular crowd by performing zany antics that amused people. But at the end of the day he’s not in the popular crowd, he’s simply the object of their attention and derision.
Here’s the funniest part, his first piece of writing post-national review not only viciously trashed the extremely intelligent and gentile Victor Davis Hanson and fundmentally the national review in general. Mr. Hanson wrote a reponse column a few hours before sloppy’s firing explaining that Sloppy might regret getting into bed with lefty and he might miss nationalreview environment very soon. Then boom, karma. I think he might have burned his national review bridge. What other skills does he have as a shitty blogger with zero skills or expertise? He wrote for small town papers. At least the other guys were… Read more »
To Williamson’s credit, I’m sure the place gave him an opportunity to roll over and apologize for his badthinks, and to swear to make amends forevermore. The apology session is done to exert control over and exercise a power trip on someone, and he didn’t give in. But as Karl and Mike x3 point out, Williamson was dumb as a box of rocks, if he thought he wouldn’t be put through that type of exercise.
First off, fukk Williamson, hard in the ass. Second of all, then kick him in the balls. You are of course welcome to your opinions ZMan, but for me this just desserts for Sloppy and his ilk. If you jump into the lion cage, you shouldn’t expect to come out of it unmarked.
It might be different if he’d jumped into the cage intending to do battle with the lions, rather than giving them belly rubs.
Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in his memoirs how he tortured Palestianian prisoners in Israel and now he is the editor of biggest Liberal rag in the US? He is also friend with Bush’s speech writer David Frum and employed him in The Atlantic.
Most of these liberal rags hire plently of neocons. In fact, it’s the only kind of conservative they hire. What’s worse a theortical Twitter discussion on abortion penalities or actually killing hundreds for thousands of iraqis, thousands of American soilders and mortgaging our future for nothing? It’s disgusting. The hire nutjob war criminals but Sloppy is beyond the pale.
Sloppy was fired in less than a week? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
No, Goldberg did not “wr[i]te in his memoirs how he tortured Palestianian prisoners”. Sheesh.
I’ve enjoyed some of his lectures, but he lost me when he made his views of the white working class (i.e., me) known. I can’t imagine how he thought that he could function at The Atlantic. How obtuse do you have to be to think that you can gainsay the Leftists and still have civil relations with them?
He probably looks in the mirror and sees George Clooney looking back.
Or George C. Looney’s wife.
Goldberg is neocon. Williamson is a neocon. It was intended to work and could have. But then the dude’s comments about killing women because of abortion come to light. And Goldberg couldn’t save him if he wanted to.
Not sure why this is so hard to understand.
What’s hard to understand is why you think Williamson’s “views” were unknown to Jeffry Goldberg/
I dislike Williamson as much as Zman does. That said, Zman is right that firing Williamson after a week is a despicable act.
Those things said, how’s that UHaul advice sounding now that you have to take it yourself, Kevin?
Anything anyone does to a shit bird like Sloppy is fair game. You are the kind of confused soft “conservative” that the left feeds off. Please never vote, or at least ask me who you should vote for. Seriously.
Williamson was intentionally targeted and setup for financial and professional assassination. The takeaway lesson is that Progressives are playing for keeps and only the strong among us will survive, which is as it should be. Be strong out there.
Many Trump supporters, and others on the right and elsewhere have made the point that the American middle/working class was “intentionally targeted and setup for financial and professional [destruction]”. Williamson’s response was to write several articles that not only blamed the victims, but slandered them in the most vituperative, demeaning way possible. Now I doubt Williamson will reach for the crack pipe or the needle, but he’s already accepting charity from John Podhoretz, which is pretty low. The only way for him to save himself is to write an article that says “I deserved it”. I doubt it will happen.… Read more »
“No sympathy here.”
Nor from me either. Weak and stupid are not traits you want to see reinforced in our specie’s hereditary development.
East is East and West is West.
It’s true that the Progs play for keeps. They are interested in the conquest of the enemy. They are so invested in triumph over us – everyday people – that they can no longer tell you what they are “for”. They’d launch the “Doomsday Device” rather than accept us as human beings. Maybe HG Wells was on to something when he wrote ‘War of the Worlds’. Nothing we could do stopped the invaders, and they grabbed everything; only, the invaders did not take stock in primordial conditions, they died off from cold germs and such that we earthlings had long… Read more »
Yeah, he’s probably going to get a nice parting check out of this.
Does NR take him back now?
I have never wanted to mess with another man’s income or family. That said, I couldn’t care less what happens to him . I’m sure he will always be way better off than me, at least financially. Ef him.
Kevin is young enough to pitch hay bales onto flat-bed trucks; it would slim him down and give him a new take on the nature of life. The experience might make him a more incisive writer; if nothing else it would make him into a tanned and slender stud – good for his wife, and for the revival of that vigor essential to the literary craft.
Just look at this bullshit:
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2018/04/05/must-read-ben-shapiro-drops-stone-cold-truth-about-kevin-williamsons-firing-and-the-left-wont-like-it/
Butthurt Ben was, of course, all over Trump for saying women should be “punished” for having an abortion.
Yes, it’s despicable. is that news to anyone? The left has been doing despicable things for a long time. Williamson tried to dine with the Devil and it ended with entirely predictable results.
I can have some empathy for the man, but he made his choices and he has to live with them. The rest of us have to live with ours. Similarly, The Atlantic. There was no lack of knowledge here, and they weren’t being coerced by mob rule. They did exactly what they wanted to do.
Williamson was clocking 200 g’s + from one of those shadowy neo-con think tanks that also pay Goldberg (Jonah) to think the Really Big Thoughts for the rest of us. So don’t bother taking out your violin to play The Song of Poor Kevin, The Man With Bills & Responsibilities (as though the rest of us don’t have them). Incidentally, I second the guy who said “fukk Williamson, hard in the ass.” I realize the misspelling was likely on purpose to evade the censorware, but I like that touch of the hoi polloi it carries. Particularly when you kick him… Read more »
Cucks never learn. They are rarely teachable. Williamson got what he deserved.
Hey, this guy expressed that my little Nova Anglian town was dying. How can I mourn his loss of a sinecure.
Apparently he wanted the job. My thoughts are, “be careful what you wish for…”
Another learning opportunity.
Maybe the people in charge do want mob rule. When mobs take over, the rulers have a wonderful excuse to increase their own powers and reduce citizen liberties in the name of restoring order.
Zman: “Williamson’s views on social issues like abortion and gender delusions are held by the majority of Americans.”
This and other comments are sidestepping the immediate and glaring reason for the firing. Williamson isn’t just echoing the “majority of Americans”. If that was all, he’d still have a job. He advocated for the actual legal killing of women who’ve had an abortion.
Not a firing offense to me. But let’s not just see what we want to see here. We’re dodging the obvious.
I’ve heard him make this point. If you think abortion is murder, then you have to treat it as murder. The death penalty for intentional, premeditated homicide is not unreasonable, if you think abortion is murder.
That’s not my view, but there’s nothing unreasonable about it.
Wasn’t questioning the eye-for-an-eye thing. My point was that by downplaying the main reason for his firing, you allow yourself to take ideological flights of fancy around the subject. I can’t stand Goldberg and The Atlantic, but saying we should kill women for abortions isn’t going to be tolerated there. There’s nothing complicated here. His comments weren’t “slightly to the right of center”. He declared we should kill American women who have abortions.
You can’t have a “debate” about abortion or anything else unless you give a respectful hearing to the full range of opinions, even if they offend you.
It’s obvious Williamson is staking out a position that follows a train of thought to its logical conclusion. That’s a valid place to stake out in a real debate for purposes of clarifying the argument.
It’s quite obvious a lot of people on different sides aren’t interested in a real debate.
I take it that he was going full Coulter on the issue, not that he wanted to initiate mass executions. But all the folks who claim that abortion is murder but only providers should be punished clearly signal the unseriousness with which they make that claim.
Except that in 2016, during the campaign Trump, in an interview with Chris Matthews, said that women who have abortions should be punished. Almost all of Conservatism Inc. rose in fury, shrieking that this was NOT the conservative position, that only abortion providers should be punished, not the women. And Trump wasn’t talking about execution, only jail time. Trump was lambasted, called an embarrassment to conservatism, accused of setting back the pro-life movement 100 years, etc…. Now these same purity twats (paging Ben Shapiro, Michelle Malkin is calling!) are having Twitter melt downs because Williamson was fired for holding “conservative… Read more »
For hygiene’s sake, note that KDW said the TOWNS should die, not the people.
Towns are made up of people. He meant the people, regardless of the obsfucating. His outright disgust was too nakedly on display to honestly argue otherwise.
I only want to live long enough to see a handful of the people I loathe suffer/die. (You have to be realistic in your goals).
Williamson’s name is on that list. For a myriad of reasons.
No, saying the towns should die is NOT the same as saying the people should die, and your conflating the two is nonsense. His actual advice was, “For a better life, move out of Garbutt.”
Wan’t having expressed that opinion in his Wikipedia article?
Goldberg wrote that Williamson had said he would give up twitter and thought he had recanted abortion=murder… but has no explanation or excuse for not asking directly if it was a real concern for him, either before or after hiring KDW away from his $250k/yr NR gig.
Is the money was still there for that? Was Lowry threatening a belt-tightening? Can KDW get his old gig back? Is there a winnable suit against The Atlantic? Questions, questions…
Do you suppose Williamson has figured out, at long last, who the enemy is in the Culture War the Right has finally decided to fight after years of conceding the field?
I hope Williamson had a good contract and can collect a few years’ worth of salary.
Yeah, I’ve often wondered about that. Only an idiot would take a job at a media company without a bullet proof contract.
Unless his tenure at NR was up.