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Things That Make You Go “Wha–?”

Big Surprise:  Lileks has a .

Not So Big Surprise:  He has zero Friends.

Posted by scott on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 11:12 pm.

23 Responses to “Things That Make You Go “Wha–?””

I didn’t know who this Lileks fellow was, so I did a search and spent about ten minutes reading his stuff. If he’s a jerk, I’m still too uninformed to know it.

Left by edward on January 28th, 2007

He used to be quite funny, but after 9/11, he became insane. He would dream that he was all that was standing between Iraqi terrorists and his family/home. He became a total BushBumSucker. Sad, really. Especially since he can still be quite funny when it comes to pop culture, and WW2 and preWW2 ads and the like….
You won’t see too much of his wingnuttery anymore, I think he realized he lost a huge number of his fan base with it. He used to have a blog just for his wingnuttery called “The Screed”. And he’s well quoted and thought of in the Freeper world, so that should tell you something…

Left by maryc on January 29th, 2007

Say no more, guvnah!

Say no more!
Say no more!
Say no more!

Left by Marq on January 29th, 2007

Well, aside from occasional fits of 50s’ Dad style misogyny, Lileks was basically a harmless sort of nothing, a guy you wouldn’t want to spend three hours in an elevator with, but you probably wouldn’t kill him, either, even when he described his matchbook collection. At this point, he is essentially the archetype for people who prove Dubya is the worst possible president ever.

There were some people who, once 9/11 happened, developed a sort of reflexive PTSD which was in no way related to how much danger they personally were, and are, in. With a president like Clinton–not that I’m a huge fan, but he did have people skills–these people would have been led gently from under their beds and reminded that while grief was appropriate, it could be turned into efforts that helped people. They would have been reminded that we don’t need to tear ourselves apart in fear of our neighbors to be safe. They would have had their fears calmed, their anger and compassion focused in constructive ways.

Instead, a weak, cowardly, petty, vicious little vigilante whipped their fears to a fever pitch and used them against themselves for his own gain, and has not stopped yet.

Any other person as president could merely have been bad in those days. Bush could not have been worse. Between his stupidity and his bigotry and his cowardice, and his messiah complex, and his lust for power and his daddy issues and the schemers he surrounded himself with, he could not have been worse for this country. And guys like Lileks have paid for that. It’s easy enough to blame him, he undoubtedly would still support Bush even without the trauma. He certainly agrees with Bush’s positions on many domestic issues. And if at this point you got stuck in an elevator with him and the conversation turned to Arabs, Muslims, liberals, gays, and women, you might find yourself hoping for the cables to break.

(Although, as this is the seven-millionth time I’ve made this observation here and elsewhere, you may find yourself imagining a similar scenario with me playing the Lileks role. I’m cool with that.)

Anyway, jerks can be funny, and his books sell pretty well. But I’d hate to see him in charge of foreign or domestic policy.

Left by D. Sidhe on January 29th, 2007

Well, next time I won’t finish my coffee before responding; everyone else has said it so nicely, too!

And if you ever saw his forehead (and read his impotent, sniveling diatribes) you would understand why I think of him as “The Pale Cliffs of Dumb.”

Left by heydave on January 29th, 2007

Oh, and I’m sure that Lileks has lots of extra plastic sheeting and duct tape that he might unload for cheap. You know, for when the nuclear fallout hits the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area, widely known as Target Prime to the islamofacists.

Left by heydave on January 29th, 2007

I only discovered his wingnuttery some time after I became a fan of his “Gallery of Regrettable Food” book and had bought several copies to give as gifts.

And then I felt icky.

Left by The Velvet Blog on January 29th, 2007

Scott, you and SZ are the absolutely best researchers in the world. How did you manage to come across Lilek’s myspace page? For that matter, from whence came the inspiration to even consider that he had a myspace. Or finding it, to note the most salient characteristic ( zero friends – we should all become his “friends” and then perform an intervention). Why is easy to answer: to teach and to delight ( to cite Horace). But how? Amazing.

Oh, and D. Sidhe, thanks for your response. I have a good (though sadly misguided friend) who asks not why I dislike Bush ( he dislikes him now) but why I am rabid and incoherent about him. Everytime I attempt to answer, I become, well, rabid and incoherent. From now on, I’ll just point to your post.

Left by tomg on January 30th, 2007

Lileks has a great collection of mid-20th-century suburban tchotchkes. As do I. So I enjoyed his books, and enjoyed looking at his motel postcards and matchbook covers online.

And then, alas, he started to blog.

Not the biggest mistake in the history of mankind, of course, but never has my opinion of someone fallen so fast and hard. I trample on said opinion periodically when Lileks is brought to my attention.

**STOMP STOMP STOMP**

Left by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on January 30th, 2007

I dunno. If you like his stuff, which I never really got into, so it’s easy enough for me, you can just blame the terrorists and Bush for what he’s become. In a way, we’re all very different people than we were five years ago, ten years ago, whatever. And the way he is now isn’t going to earn him very many karma points, so the enjoyment you get from the way he used to be might help him a bit. It’s really not his fault, I don’t think. Under any other circumstances, he’d still be just kind of low-level fussy.

The constant conflating of Islam and terrorism and Arabs and people who look Arab was designed to do to people–voters–exactly what it has done. You can mock him for falling into that trap, but how much, really, can you blame them?

maryc is exactly right. He thinks he’s doing, politically, what he has to do to defend his family. The fact that he’s wrong, and that this is exactly the wrong thing to be doing to defend his or anyone else’s family aren’t points he gets. Of course, the fact that he’s willing to sacrifice other families–American and Iraqi–to feel safe makes him terribly unlikeable.

But, hey. Long familiarity with MST3K tells me that guys who look like Lileks not uncommonly have evil twins and such. So the stuff you like about him could be his Good Twin.

Left by D. Sidhe on January 30th, 2007

I love the Lileks and just added him on My Space.

There were some people who, once 9/11 happened, developed a sort of reflexive PTSD which was in no way related to how much danger they personally were, and are, in.

I live in NYC. Can you tell me how much danger I personally am in?

Left by Karol on January 30th, 2007

The purpose of the MySpace page is laid out up front: “Because if I don’t, someone will, and pretend they’re me.” Wingnuttery of the perpetrator aside, that’s fair enough. “Friends” are not the point.

Lileks – “Music: Not the stuff that plays on my profile page, really, but nearly everything else. Except bluegrass, which sounds like hillbilly techno.”

Mentis – “I knew there was a reason I didn’t actively dislike bluegrass. Other than Hayseed Dixie, that is.”

Left by Mentis Fugit on January 30th, 2007

“Other than” = “Another reason not to actively dislike”

English is my second language; gibberish is my first.

Left by Mentis Fugit on January 30th, 2007

Some hard-core rightwinger sent me a long message, which included the following:

Several years after the Vietnam War, one of the North Vietnamese Generals stated in an interview that they were ready to surrender and go to the peace table, but Jane Fonda and the anti-war protesters emboldened them to carry on for another year.

Anyone know anything about this? It sounds a little “too good to be true” from the wingnut perspecive.

Left by Rich on January 30th, 2007

Karol, I don’t know. But I would guess more than my Kent, Washington, neighbor who refused to leave her home for months, continues to stockpile prescription sedatives in case she is confined to her home in a biological attack, tried to get the home owners’ association to refuse to let a Muslim family move in, and still believes that the only way to protect her from the terrorists is to nuke Mecca.

I do not discount the depths of her panic, and the unfortunate effects it’s having on her life. But I don’t think she has much to worry about, unless we actually do nuke Mecca, in which case I would expect a great deal of grief for the entire world.

Her fears, in other words, are out of proportion to her risks. Yours may very well not be, though since I don’t know what either your fears or risks are, I have no idea. That might be why I didn’t say that about you. The other reason may be that I didn’t know you existed until today.

Left by D. Sidhe on January 30th, 2007

I live in NYC. Can you tell me how much danger I personally am in?

If you ask me, you’re in a lot more danger than Lileks is in suburban Minneapolis.

If you ask the Department of Homeland Security, you’re personally in less danger than a petting zoo in Kentucky.

Left by scott on January 30th, 2007

Or a windmill in Iowa. Yep, in Des Moines, with a large portion of the insurance, investor services, and mortgage industry headquartered here, and lots of caucus bigwigs, we’re considered safe, but in rural Iowa, the terrorists are apparently hot to get the picturesque windmills…

a strange business, homeland security.

D.Sidhe, I lived in Kent WA in 2002, and I swear, I never saw so many whack people who were scared of Muslims and in general acted like your neighbor. I lived in East Hill, though, so my neighbors tended to be a tad more tolerant of differences, seeing that almost none of them were born in the US. But at good old Top Food & Drug, and downtown at the Kent Cafe (or was it the Kent Diner, can’t remember,they had good fish n chips though), terrified people like your neighbor abounded.

I miss Kent though. I was very fond of the library.

Left by Candy on January 30th, 2007

You know, for when the nuclear fallout hits the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area, widely known as Target Prime to the islamofacists.

You see what it does to a guy when he spends altogether too much time in a store bedecked with The Bullseye Device. Target Prime indeed.

Left by FlipYrWhig on January 31st, 2007

But, hey. Long familiarity with MST3K tells me that guys who look like Lileks not uncommonly have evil twins and such.

You mean like how Mike Nelson was Joel Hodgson’s evil right-wing Christianist twin?

Left by agum on January 31st, 2007

D. Sidhe, I was wondering what kind of doctor would allow a patient to “stockpile” prescription sedatives.

Not mine, that’s for sure…

Left by Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on January 31st, 2007

Mrs. TB: Why, Rush-bo’s would, that’s who!

OK, easy shot.

Speaking of fear on 9/11, I still remember people flocking to gas lines because they just had to as a way of dealing with the attack in NYC. And right here in the middle of Iowa. Paranoia knows no bounds.

Left by Heydave on January 31st, 2007

I have no idea, Mrs B. She claims to have an antibiotic stockpile, too, and painkillers and other stuff. It must be quite the storehouse. She’s set for the long haul. Back when we were still speaking to each other, I did ask if I could have it when the Rapture comes (yes, she’s one of those), and in fact it’s possible this is why we’re no longer speaking.

If I had to guess, she ordered most of it from some online “pharmacy” and they’re all fakes. I’m hoping so, anyway, because if she ever misinterprets some joke on talk radio, she’s going to overdose right off.

The sedatives are what gets me, because I suspect they’re real and she’s hoarding them instead of taking them like she’s supposed to.

Candy, I’m on East Hill, too, and to be fair, most of our complex is sane, but then, we’re easily a third minority owners here. As more minority (and gay) families move in, she gets more hostile and fearful. It’s unfortunate, and common, and an intended consequence of the idiotic power-hungry policies Bush pursued.

Completely unrelated, but downtown Kent has gotten even more upscale than it was when you were here. The library’s still the same, though, thankfully.

Left by D. Sidhe on January 31st, 2007

Thanks for filling me in. I feel I’ve taken a short course in someting or other.

Left by edward on January 31st, 2007

Something to say?