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Our Friends At “Youth For Western Civilization” Take Us On

Patrick Young is a proud employee of the Treason Lobby. —From Youth for Western Civilization’s web site

A group that describes itself as America’s Rightwing Youth Movement has decided to devote some pixels to me. Here is what Youth for Western Civilization says.

The article takes me to task for not covering a traffic accident involving an immigrant who hit several girls on Long Island. Frankly, at the time I was unaware of the accident, but even if I had known of it I don’t ordinarily cover such incidents. As I pointed out in a comment I left on the Youth for Western Civilization web site, I don’t cover native born people hitting Latinos on bicycles either.

In the comment I left on the site, I also expressed my hope that the accused man, if guilty, be fully punished for his crime.

The article also said I was an employee of the “Treason Lobby”. I wrote back to them asking for the address of that lobby so I could get reimbursed for my last trip to Hell to discuss strategy with Satan.

Youth for Western Civ deleted that comment as well as one from Ted.

People reading Long Island Wins know that we are not afraid to print comments vehemently opposed to our point of view. In fact, if you look at the Arizona Boycott page there are dozens of comments disagreeing with us, mocking us, and all but threatening us. And there are dozens of replies from Ted and I. One of the elements of the Enlightenment, which used to be considered a flowering of Western Civilization, is allowing for a broad discussion of issues. Even if opposing viewpoints don’t convince us that we are wrong, they do force us to question our evidence and sharpen our focus. In other words, they keep us from trying to get away with bulls@@@.

Some of our readers are uncomfortable with the comments we leave up on our site. There is a danger, of course, that others’ comments will be imputed to us. But I think that anyone who reads Ted’s and my own blogs knows where we are coming from. Sometimes a commenter posts a challenge to me and readers feel my response was inadequate. If my argument was weaker than the commenter, so be it. It would not have been rendered stronger through the deletion of the embarrassing comment.

We have deleted a few comments over the years, and believe me they have been extremely few. One was a specific, and potentially libelous charge against a person that neither Ted nor I knew. A few others have been really vile things said about Marcelo Lucero immediately after his murder that we did not think his mother should have to read. When someone uses an obscenity, we delete the word, but leave the post up with the notation that it was edited.

Frankly, while some of the critics that comment on this site offer arguments that are well informed and that help us develop our thinking, many serve the opposite purpose. They help to illustrate the deep emotionalism of many opposed to immigrants and the extreme and impenetrable animus they feel.

After our comments were taken down from the Youth for Western Civilization site, a commenter on that site using the name repsac3 posted the following observation:

And for the record, deleting the comments of those with whom you disagree is kinda cowardly. You called those folks at “Long Island Wins” out, and they each responded with their side of the story—which to me, seemed pretty reasonable, by the way. They write about the immigration issue, and their whole point—and mine, as well—is that this accident has nothing to do with the perp’s immigration status, just as it wouldn’t if he was native born, and the girls were illegal… ...or if Elias Garcia had been the bystander who chased the native-born perp down. (Show that he ran ‘em down because of his status or theirs, and I’d be right there with you. But simply having an illegal involved doesn’t make an issue an illegal immigration issue. It just doesn’t…)

To call them out, but then delete their comments when they answer your call—and answer their comments after deleting them, besides—makes it look like you’re afraid to take them on in a fair exchange of ideas.

It’s your blog, and you can certainly moderate for content if you like, but as far as I’m concerned, it makes you look like you lack strength in your convictions. (And yeah, I know what my saying this likely means for my own comment(s)...) repsac3

I note that subsequent to repsac3’s criticism, the Western Youth have said that some comments were deleted inadvertently. As far as I could tell, no comments supporting Western Youth were deleted yesterday, including comments in the thread that Ted and I posted on.

 

 

 

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