Why do you come here?

[imomus]

Well, Saturday's entry -- in which I advanced the daring view that one Israeli life is equivalent to one Lebanese life -- really did seem to annoy a few Click Opera readers. "I'm arranging a Momus record burning in my yard tomorrow. Just listening to your voice makes me sick. I wish you ill you sick bastard," wrote one ex-satisfied customer with an IP address in Holland.

What puzzles me is why such right-wing people bought Momus records in the first place, or read this blog. Aren't there semantic filters, clues all over the place, political markers? Haven't my political cards always been on the table? Shouldn't right wingers have been rebuffed years ago? Shouldn't this "bigger-than-Jesus"-style record-burning have happened the moment people listened to my records? Shouldn't these people have played the stuff on headphones in Tower or Virgin, concluded "he's a radical", and just bought a Stephen Malkmus record instead?

Speaking of Malkmus, I could understand it if I'd expressed sentiments like those the pig libber shared with Index magazine last year:

"There are things about the West Coast that bug me. There is this really stupid leftism out here. It makes me mad. On September 11, I was at this health-food store on Hawthorne Boulevard called the Daily Grind. It's a ropy kind of place. These young, shiftless hippies hang out there. This one guy was like, "Those workers, man, they deserved it." At first, I wanted to collar him and put him up against a wall and get all Wolfowitzian on his ass. Then I turned into my dad, like, "This guy can hang out and play in his drum circle now, but in forty years he's just going to be a strain on our health-care system. He may be eating health food, but he doesn't know he's still part of the problem."

If I'd said that kind of thing, sure, I'd expect to have ultra-right wing commenters. But I haven't. I'm at a loss. Do these people come here just to "educate" me? Or do they think this white robe I'm wearing is KKK (in fact it's Moroccan), or that the big orange face in the poster behind me is Ayn Rand before she shaved her beard?

Come on, right wing people, enlighten me. What on earth are you doing here?

Comments

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Is it safe to assume that Zionism is a right-wing ideology? Wasn't Israel originally founded as a socialist project?

[thisisforreal.livejournal.com]

an opinion is an opinion. regardless, i still love you. but then i agree with everything you've been writing so i consider you with a different perspective than they (the right-wingers we can just call... wrighngers? wringers?).

the momus-record-burning is absolutely terrific, i must say.

[eptified.livejournal.com]

Being a portlander I buy my grains at the Daily Grind occasionally. I imagine in 40 years time the people who work there will be the only ones capable of tilling the sunburnt soil for their daily bread.

(God. What a douche. Glad I never liked him.)

Anywhom, could be that the rightists come for the frotty side of your idiom ("tender pervert" and "compassionate conservative" have a similar ring to them). Also could be that they're drawn to your power -- your opulence in Scene Cred, which functions just as well in the best markets as traditional capital. Shiny!

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

1. Maybe your posts aren't always as replete with political implications as you claimed here (http://imomus.livejournal.com/210211.html). They might not have noticed you were a lefty amidst all the unthreatening design criticism.

2. Maybe they enjoy reading things they disagree with - because the reading engenders gratifying indignation.

3. Maybe your "man equals man" post was ill-considered enough to make them think they'd be a shoo-in to win the debate. I didn't agree with it and I'm not an "Israel right or wrong" type.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering also if my love for Japan isn't something to do with it. Do ultra-conservatives love Japan too?

[(Anonymous)]

Gardening tips.

[evalien.livejournal.com]

Still on your left side.

off the top of my head

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

i think first, you do post in order to work with intelligence and education.
i think you do hope someone will point something out to you and you can learn from it.
mutual exchange. potlatch.
the intelligence may draw attention. reactions, good and bad but reactions nevertheless. it seems you situate yourself in demanding new positions with respect to classic for/against thinking without getting too meta.
some blogs are bigger than others as you once pointed out when you reached some blogging top twenty with a bullet.
yes, its classic trolling but freedom to express it is good isnt it?
i do wonder if as well as issues over geopolitical territory this also extends to personal identity issues as we change in this digital communication.
as we contemplate space invaders - think of personal psychic hurts, room at the bar, housing crises, "war on terror" and our own conceptions of space.
as a friend one said, "in the future we will be fighting over a little box of space"

you are either too popular or too revolutionary
intelligence irks.
they want you and they need you.

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

I was going to buy some imomus cds to burn specially, but I couldn't find any in the shops! Sort out your distribution, for God's sake!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Just download some mp3s, burn them, then... burn them.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

Stephen Malkmus: "Well, he's (Bob Dylan) a Gemini. So am I. There's a strong line of rock Geminis. Prince, Brian Wilson, Morrissey, Ian Svenonius, Neil Haggerty. There are tons of us."


THAT'S your problem, Nick: you're not a Gemini. But then, I'm left-ish, so I could be wrong.

[mo-no-chrome.livejournal.com]

But it's rather ironic that the health-food-hating Malkmus should put himself in a genealogy including Morrissey.

It's like a cafe we have in Sydney called Oscillate Wildly, which isn't vegetarian. Grrrr.

The Crackpot Realists

[subtechnique.livejournal.com]

I'll hazard a guess that visitors like Henry Perri and Cerulicante believe themselves to be hard boiled realists who must offer a 'corrective' analysis of your (in their view) blue sky liberalism. No doubt, they're 'reformed' ex-radicals in the David Horowitz mode (for those who're unfamiliar, Horowitz was an American 1960's left-winger who, in the 1980's turned right winger - his "conservatism" is as poorly thought-out as his "radicalism" was).

Although they see themselves as clear-eyed and logical, they are, to borrow a phrase from American social theorist C. Wright Mills, "crackpot realists". In "The Power Elite" Mills wrote:


"For the first time in American history, men in authority are talking about an 'emergency' without a foreseeable end," "Such men as these are crackpot realists: in the name of realism they have constructed a paranoid reality all their own."


Mills was writing about the American defense establishment of the 1950s and 60s but the term has wide applications beyond that specific group and time.



The realist persona is interesting: it confidently asserts a deep understanding of the way the world "really is" (a leitmotif for your right-wing visitors who strive to re-educate you) but is really a retreat into yet another kind of fantasy - from a romaticization of the powerless to a love affair with power.

Cerulicante, for example, rarely passes up an opportunity to instruct us in the supposed cultural perfidies of the Arab world (at one point, he offered the brilliant observation that Arabs live "in mud huts" which is surely true for some minority but apropos of nothing). His statements are little more than the racialist fantasies of a disgruntled young fellow given a simulacrum of geopolitical analysis by terrorism (e.g. people are more likely to believe his sort of absurdities when they're frightened).

Because you spend most of your creative energies here at Click Opera on design, musings about Japan and the global art scene the crackpot hard boiled realist is attracted to you as his natural opposite: the dreamer.

Of course, you can more than hold your own in political debate and this facility - ironically - only fuels their (quite literally) reactionary fire.

Re: The Crackpot Realists

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

Excellent post.

[(Anonymous)]

One of my best friends doesn't like blacks.

He's been a really good friend of mine for 20 years, but he doesn't like blacks.

I've argued with him for that amount of time about this subject, still do.

He still doesn't like blacks.

I've argued with myself about this too. Should I be hanging around with this guy who doesn't like blacks and has all these bad ideas about this kind of stuff?

He's still my mate. He still doesn't like blacks.

Aside from him not liking blacks, he is kind, funny, highly intelligent and uncommonly good in many ways.

Should I only seek the company of people who think the same way as me about everything?

Well no, 'cause there aren't any.

Should I only hang out with people that are all good?

Well no, 'cause there aren't any.

There are, however, always a lot of people to consort with that cherry-pick good attitudes as one would cheap neck-ties in a Sue Ryder shop.

"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man."

John Lennon was a multi-millionaire wife-beater.

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

"If you have a racist friend now is the time for your friendship to end"

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of the statistic that left-wing websites get fewer visitors, but each one stays longer (because they want to absorb information and take part in debate), while right-wing websites get more hits, but visitors don't stay as long (because they've just come to have their prejudices confirmed).

[dermfitz.livejournal.com]

That's rather a spurious conclusion to take, especially from what is essentially a number.

It could just as well be because left-wing people can't read as well as right-wing ones.

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

it wasn't me, momus, who wished you ill. it wasn'tme




erik

rotterdam
the netherland

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I didn't for a moment think the bonfire was going to happen at the Witte de Wit!

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

You're a hipster. This engenders as much scene cred among rightist hipsters - and there are many - as any other kind.

Beyond that, rightist otaku love to have people say nice things about Japan, the ostensible land of giant robots. I mean, look at the success of Japundit among that demographic: what neoconservative doesn't love a country with a strong patriarchal tradition where the newspapers openly mock the idea of apologizing for wartime atrocities?

Of course, there's always the convenient forgetting of the whole "pacifism" bit and all.

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing if extreme right-wing blockheads are indeed reading your blog. The world is too polarized a place.

I agree

[constructionism.livejournal.com]

It IS a good thing. They won't change their minds, but they'll spend a lot of energy thinking about how to re-tool their viewpoints to get around the last point you made. Exposing them to "alien" content is demoralizing to them. The extreme right is also extremely sheltered.

[(Anonymous)]

A few years ago I saw a post on the Tapeop message board (http://messageboard.tapeop.com/) which had the title "Momus has a blog!" I didn't know who Momus was but I followed the link and was fascinated by your essays.

As I've said before, I am a reformed leftist. I gradually turned conservative but continued to read your blog.

Of course I feel that I am "in the right" -- as does anybody who holds an opinion on anything. Being a former liberal, I'm familiar with the logic they use and the arguments they make. I know that other liberals don't understand conservatives because I see them making the same points that I did. I post simply to offer a glimpse into an alternative perspective. I'm aware that proselytizing is, on the whole, a hopeless endeavor.

I try to keep all of my posts civil and topical. If it's bothersome then I'll stop. I probably should anyway, as it's basically a waste of my time.

-henryperri

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying "Go away" to my conservative readers. That would be a refusal to countenance "the other". I'm interested in other ways of thinking.

The funniest thing, for me, is the way you recently explained that you'd deleted your own blog in an attempt to spend less time on mine! But even if "proselytizing is, on the whole, a hopeless endeavor", it would make a lot of sense, if proselytizing is what you wanted to do, to debate with the unconverted on a high-rating blog like Click Opera.

And by the way your civitily of tone is very welcome. I don't like fighting, whatever impression I may give. It's fine to disagree, and it needn't lead to "You're a schmuck"-type character assassination.

crunchy cons

[jmathewes.livejournal.com]

Crunchy Cons (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400050642/sr=8-1/qid=1153747446/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-2809220-5891136?ie=UTF8) the book, and the blog (http://crunchycon.nationalreview.com/).

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

As much as I ♥ you, I have to roll my eyes at the Karl Marx poster. Communism hasn't worked. There's a big difference between communist and socialist, and while some of the ideas implemented in socialist countries such as Sweden may be related, they are practical rather than sky-pie "we will share everything with no property" etc.

Maybe I'm uneducated, but I personally would rather not espouse or appear to espouse symbols of the naïve destruction of full-on communism.

That said, I'm basically a socialist, but with Libertarian quirks.

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

Just to go on a thought...
I find it odd that people accuse modern liberalism with hiding a corrosive idealogy of anti-Semitism like This Guy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1RJD10TTI568L/104-0233597-2997501?ie=UTF8&display=public&page=2) at amazon.com (see the second to last) when this doesn't even make sense because alot of the people in the media they accuse of being liberal and anti-Jewish are well...Jewish. That's how it is, and while some people may feel torn between their loyalty to their "tribe" and their communist/socialist leanings, it's ridiculous to call a group with so many Jews in it anti-Semitic. I'm not saying this with any prejudice, because I don't see any harm in noting that many Jewish people, through their own innitiative, have been upwardly mobile in the US in high-powered media jobs.
And of course, the media is a good tool for anyone's propaganda, should they rise to the top, but that's me being cynical.

[(Anonymous)]

I for one detect some crypto-rightwingism in your thinking. That is, although on the surface what you offer is a mix of Marxism and liberal thinking, the results are sometimes close to what a right-winger might want. Witness your extreme cultural relativist stance. We can't criticise the way any other cultures do anything (unless they're the dominant culture, ie, the US). When the female genital mutilation argument comes up, you dismiss it as the stock response, the cliché of these sorts of discussions. Which it is. But that doesn't mean it doesn't need addressing. Extreme cultural relativism is related to both isolationism and libertarianism, both predominantly right-wing ideologies.

Your gender politics are a little like that as well. You are an admirer of the conventionally feminine (and criticise people like Sarah Lucas for not being feminine enough). That admiration is essentially conservative, and you ignore the role that the passiveness of conventional femininity plays in the submission of women.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Extreme cultural relativism is related to both isolationism and libertarianism, both predominantly right-wing ideologies.

Cultural relativism is the result of people with different cultures living in close proximity -- quite the opposite of isolationism. Also, there are both right and left wing libertarians, as there are both right and left wing isolationists.

As for the conventional femininity leading to women's oppression, isn't that a bit like saying that preaching non-violence would condemn the people who practised it to be oppressed by the violent? In other words, isn't it a bit like saying Gandhi endorsed militarism? What if my ideal gender model is a sort of "mutual capitulation", like the scene where two Japanese people bow to each other, each trying to be more obliging than the other?

[desant012.livejournal.com]

Why can't people make room for all points? I mean, if we are "family" as humanity, then where's the shared area between right and left wingers? I think it's this extreme division that really blinds the humanity behind the issues - people and situations become tools to dominate others through personal ideas and opinions.

Big-time ego stuff. It lets the filthy hippies in CA get hard thinking about people dying in NYC, and lets Malkros feel some personal gratification at thinking how much those dirty, jobless hippies might suffer one day.

Let's be fair

[constructionism.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of some of the weedier politics that have come from the west coast.

After September 11th, I had the opportunity to encounter a few political "personalities" from the west coast (this was strictly online). To be fair, there are some self-styled "radical leftists" whose views appear to me quite reactionary and racist. We don't have much of that strain here in the industrial midwest, which has a long history of labor struggles.

Some people might want to read about "third way" fascism...where some strains of anarchism overlap with fascist populism. The Unabomber is a good example of this. Some people practice nihilism when they think they're engaging in productive social criticism.

Public Eye is one good site that has documents on this. It was quite a problem during the whole "globalization" hoo-ha of the previous decade.

[(Anonymous)]

All I know is that similars attract...

[tabristheangel.livejournal.com]

For long-time readers it's no surprise that you blithely cavort back and forth between the political and the artistic, making a mockery of the divide between the two (a divide long held sacred by many on the right). Perhaps your most recent political post appeared more difficult to write off as the inane yammerings of some hippy/commie/musicmaking/leftist since the subject matter dealt very directly with a current political situation. Compared to many of your other writings, your post about Israel was not delivered in your usual roundabout, meditative, stop and smell the roses manner, and thus it may have been seen as a pointed challenge to anyone on the right who was surfing in search of a fight.

Then again, maybe they're just getting to know the enemy...

[(Anonymous)]

. . . making a mockery of the divide between the two (a divide long held sacred by many on the right).

Aestheticizing politics? Momus is a crypto-right winger!

Compared to many of your other writings, your post about Israel was not delivered in your usual roundabout, meditative, stop and smell the roses manner . . .

What European leftist talks of Israel in a reasonable manner?

Momus, I consider myself relatively left-wing. I support public health care, strong unions, democratic electoral reform, and civil liberties. I also support Israel's right to self-defence and its war against Hizbollah. This doesn't seem like an issue of right or left. We have one side a multi-ethnic, law-bound, democratic state of Israel, and on the other, a bunch of theocratic thugs (Hizbollah) holding the beautiful, potentially prosperous, and cultured nation of Lebanon hostage to their Jew-hate and mythic ambitions. It's tragic and depressing that so many innocent people are dying in this, but let's remember that the press has no way of distinguishing "civilians" from Hizbollah irregulars, or for that matter, from Hamas gunmen. Nevertheless, it's easy and morally satisfying to blame Israel for all regional violence; this blame allows the bien-pensant European to expiate lingering guilt over imperialism and war by transferring it, predictably, to a Jewish scapegoat. Israel, condemned and vilified by world opinion, becomes a ghetto nation. And people wonder why they're so indifferent to world opinion...


piratehead

[myemobook.livejournal.com]

When I started listening to your music I was young. I HAD no politics. That's not so unusual. Now I'm older and some of your views appeal to me and some of them drive me nuts, but not in some clear-cut left/right away.

It often seems this blog is not meant for longtime fans of your music, but for recent fans of your thinking/writing. So be it.

[gillen.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the right-wingers are doing here, but you had me at Poison Boyfriend.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you wearing big black (under)pants under that snazzy kaftan or have you got a furry bush?

[kaipfeiffer.livejournal.com]

he told me it's grey underwear.
i'd suggest pink undies for a subtle colour touch.