As Twitchy told you yesterday, Max Boot got very upset at Buckley Fellow John Hirschauer for calling him out in National Review over a ridiculous opinion column whose thrust was basically that white people can either be self-loathing or white supremacists.
Wow. I've been accused by white supremacists of being a "self-loathing white" who is "stoking the flames of race hatred" by denouncing racism. But did not expect to be so attacked in @NRO. A sad indication of what's happened to mainstream conservatism. https://t.co/Xuwz9GiExX
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) August 12, 2019
Boot figured that the only possible explanation for Hirschauer’s rebuttal was that Hirschauer is a white supremacist.
It makes sense if you’re a white supremacist. https://t.co/eJGjsZeWVN
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) August 12, 2019
But instead of quitting while he was behind, Boot decided instead to double down today:
I grew up reading @NRO. Its founder, William F. Buckley Jr., was a childhood hero. So it was a shock on Monday afternoon to see myself attacked in National Review as, essentially, a traitor to the white race. My @PostOpinions column: https://t.co/Nylc6u9cga
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) August 13, 2019
We’d post an excerpt, but honestly, the whole thing is ridiculous.
I find Boot's reaction to be hysterical and out of proportion. I think he thinks it's an attempt to police the way we have this conversation, but it's just making things worse–which is kind of what the NR article was saying.
— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) August 13, 2019
The article in question accused Boot of generalizing about people by their skin color and portraying anyone who disagrees with him of being a white supremecist. Boot reacted to it by accusing National Review and the author of essentially being white surprmecists. Beyond parody. pic.twitter.com/XXKs4n1xVj
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/1161367408571015169
In other words, Boot’s piece is right up Tom Nichols’ alley:
From @MaxBoot – Opinion | National Review’s ugly attack on me reflects the Trumpification of conservatism https://t.co/wfBp2wjaLm
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 13, 2019
Tom, I think Boot is being hysterical here.
— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) August 13, 2019
Saying that everybody who disagrees with you is in the KKK is the left's thing. We shouldn't horn in on it.
— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) August 13, 2019
I think they outsourced a hit job on him to an intern in a piece that shouldn't have run and now they're pretending like it was just another article. "One of the self-loathing whites" is pure alt-right bullshit and NR should be ashamed to have published it.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 13, 2019
“An intern.”
Do you even know how the NRI fellowship works? Hirschauer is a fellow there and they write pieces at NRO. It's the same program that people like Elaina Plott, Robert Costa, Betsy Woodruff, Xan DeSanctis, etc. Boot was trying to play the woke "Listen up here, white people" role
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 13, 2019
I'm sorry, does that now mean it was a good piece that an editor shouldn't have worked with him on?
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 13, 2019
That has nothing to do with what you said, Tom. You said it was "outsourced to an intern" like he's some coffee fetcher. Try harder.
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) August 13, 2019
Intellectual honesty is too much work. And it’s certainly no substitute for those sweet, sweet Resistance clicks.
https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/1161370423004749825
It's hard to overstate just how dishonestly Boot reframed the piece, or how ridiculous it is that he's turned it into a column, or how much respect is being flushed down the drain by ppl gleefully taking his side because they haven't read the NRO piece.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 13, 2019
It's rather obvious that most of the people responding didn't read the piece. They just accepted Boot's framing and are now ranting about Trumpification or some nonsense.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 13, 2019
Boot, Rubin, Nichols etc. can't even argue substance anymore. They haven't just adopted the left's politics, but also the dishonest tactics that dominant certain sectors of the left.
They lie about their opponents and then count on each other to spread the lies.
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 13, 2019
Hey, it seems to be working for them. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
I mean these are almost back to back tweets. He goes from praising Buckley as his childhood hero to agreeing with Tim Wise 's blatant smear against Buckley.
This is not a serious person. pic.twitter.com/venMCdTy0u
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 13, 2019
Max Boot forfeited the right to be taken seriously a long time ago.
We’ll leave you with John Hirschauer’s excellent response to Boot’s hysteria:
Here is a response from the National Review author to "Max Boot’s Tired White Supremacy Smear" https://t.co/NIWWwIkCmb
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) August 13, 2019