This post is an example of how not to blog, and a warning not to mix blogging on emotional issues with bad temper. At the time I wrote it (and now), I was puzzled by much of the reaction to Mel Gibson. In particular, I was puzzled by the hostility to Gibson's views on Jews (in his recent outburst as well as in his movie The Passion) from bloggers who do not ordinarily address issues of anti-Semitism (which I should emphasize is not the same as being indifferent to it). But it was done the wrong way. I was puzzled by the way Henry Farrell, a serious blogge at Crooked Timber, would go out of his way to dismiss Gibson movie The Passion as obviously anti-Semitic, although he does not usually write on the subject. Maybe from a mix of a foul mood and insomnia, or something else, that turned into an implied accusation of at least hypocrisy or maybe somethiing worse. Farrell does not deserve that. And it was silly to bring Arianna Huffington into the post. I cannot see how anyone can take the Huffington Post seriously, and so her comments should not have been dumped on in an (unsuccessful) atempt at a serious post. You can look at the original post below.
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I admit to being a bit puzzled by the fury being directed at Mel Gibson. Clearly his behavior was appalling, something he has admitted. The puzze for me is the furious tone of much of the commentary, and the sources of it. I am not talking about, say, Meryl Yourish, who is consistently ready to fire at anything that looks anti-Semitic. I am thinking of something different.
Mel Gibson, you are discredited forever.
Everything you ever did is now tainted.
"Freedom!" It has no meaning anymore.
What artist has ever crashed like this? Not Michael Jackson. Not Woody Allen. Not O.J. Simpson. You've shown an evil heart and it changes the meaning of all of your artistic work. How horrible! How painful! Try to imagine the penance you must do.
Is she serious? Simpson murdered two people, and then ran his defense by stoking every bit of racial animosity in America. All while sober.
Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber denounced The Passion as anti-Semitic, yet a hunt through Crooked Timber finds silence from Farrell on suicide bombers keen to kill as many Jews as they can. Arianna Puffington is worked up, pretty much calling for Gibson's blood, but she has no problem with bloggers on her own site (try here and here) who praised the Mearsheimer and Walt rant. Yet not a word from the Crooked Timber crowd or the whole Puffington Host on Illinois' Democratic Gov. Blagojevich getting cozy with the virulently anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan.
I am not trying to, nor am I interested in, defending Mel Gibson, most of whose movies that I have seen I have not much enjoyed. But I am curious about what is going on.
UPDATE: Daniel Lapin offers more fully thought out ideas.
