Here's what I'm eating. Please send money!
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I had kind of stopped posting on Rod Dreher's incessant nuttiness. I outsourced that job to Keith who is just as insightful, and more entertaining. But Oengus linked to a new post which seems to be an attempt to entice readers to contribute to his magazine by showing them some food which he is eating. Whiskey, tango, fruitcake.
Anymore I skim these things, make an observation and let the rest of you help pick the plate clean. So here's the first comment which made me laugh.
Nick says:
December 19, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Rod, I love your blog. Read it every day. I’d be happy to contribute to your success. But the last time I gave money to TAC in response to one of these donation campaigns, it turned around and published that asinine Jon Huntsman piece on gay “marriage,” one of the worst paean’s to secular humanism and free market idolatry I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.
Since then, I have come to question whether there is really any intellectual coherence at TAC.
I’d like to give to support you, but I’m just not sure what else I’d be giving to. Maybe I should just send you a check personally.
[NFR: No, don't -- send it to the magazine. I didn't like the Jon Huntsman piece either, but I'm glad I work for a magazine that publishes stuff like that. Surely you get more than your fair share of the opposite viewpoint from this blog, yes? Anyway, thanks so much for your support. -- RD]
Observations.
Dreher proclaims that TAC is broadly libertarian, but when regular readers use phrases like free market idolatry you have to wonder what kind of libertarianism they're talking about.
Nick's offer to pay Dreher directly comports with the fact that he pulls at least half the load of web-hits at TAC as we reported earlier.
Nick complains about intellectual incoherence, and Rod gives him more incoherence with his "I didn't like the Jon Huntsman piece either, but I'm glad I work for a magazine that publishes stuff like that." Huh? What if there was a piece extolling the virtues of Wal-mart like George Will did many moons ago? Or something supporting the Iraq War effort? Would any writer at TAC be glad to work for a magazine that publishes "stuff like that"? Of course not. It looks from here like the main support for TAC's existence is taking positions contrary to mainstream conservatives. So they have basically cobbled together a coalition of groups who are at complete odds on some big issues. Thus the resounding dissonance to just about everyone except other hardline contrarians. And they are often short of disposable cash.
TAC probably had to pay their writers this month since it's the Christmas season, so they are groping for sugar daddies. But, man, what a pose. "No, I'm not ideological. I did compose a 10-point manifesto for my first book. But I'm not ideological. I have a sausage wrap, but no ideology. And who really needs coherence anyway?"
I know why Rod had to write this post. It's his alternative to pulling some kind of cheesy stunt like holding up a cardboard sign which says "Will blog for food."
When even a pocket as deep as the John Templeton Foundation manages to spit you out, where do you go? The Star Wars bar is in a galaxy so far, far away that that's really not an option.
ReplyDeleteSo if we put together the obvious fact of the incoherence you point out with the revelation that Dreher drives half the hits to it, we realize we've stumbled onto some sort of residuum of writers of writing - which is not the same thing as the Riders of Rohan, even though those riders seem to do nothing other than ride from here to there, then back from there to here, for no other apparent reason than that they both can ride, and do - the writerly writing version of that remote Pacific gyre.
I know there are those who still believe that Dreher (and who knows, others there) writes about religion and conservatism because he is both religious and conservative, but realize that there's simply no reason a writer of writing has to be anything remotely related to the subject he writes about, any more than a Rider of Rohan has to have an actual destination or a sign painter has to trade in what he paints on a sign.
So, at least to me, that's what TAC appears to be: a residual repository of writers of writing who write for the restless readers of reading they write for and requisition.
Keith
The first several responses to Writer of Wrohan Wrod's latest inspired gift to his donors:
ReplyDelete"Really, this guy sounds so shallow..."
"This is awful advice on so many levels."
"What a load of self-indulgent crap."
Keith
It doesn't seem like there is much reason for anyone to consider TAC as a "go-to" site for opinion, at least for a reason other than being a fan of a particular personality there. And if Rod Dreher is the leading "personality" (at least based on numbers of readers), it is little wonder they are begging for $$ to keep the lights on.
ReplyDeleteTake another quick gander at the photo. The guy is eating in the driver's seat of his car. He must have the camera held about 12-18 inches from the wrap to make it focus. He has a serious grip on the thing, like he saying "Pry this from my cold dead fingers!" I'm seeing a hilarious mental image of him taking the picture in his car outside the little roadside mini-mart.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh...all those people who said they make monthly contributions. What on earth are they thinking? Don't they know some poor people they could buy food and clothing for?
ReplyDeletePardon me for going off-topic, but...I just realized something. After Dreher pooped all over Pope Francis in TIME Magazine, TIME turned around and named Pope Francis "Person of the Year." I bet Dreher's little head exploded! LOL!
ReplyDeleteSorry, Pauli, to "drag" you back in. But when I saw the picture of what looked like a very greasy burrito with the words "Support TAC or they’ll take away my boudin!", the self-parody was simply too funny to pass up. I wonder if it was unintentional hilarity. It gets hard to tell sometimes because everything is such a shtick.
ReplyDelete"Soutien TAC ou ils vont emporter mon boudin!"
Pauli, FYI, that's a sausage casing, not a wrap. It's a pork-rice sausage, so your money buys you a load of vascular plaque (hmmm...now that makes the decision...complicated) on its way to the stool farm.
ReplyDeleteBut what I think leaves Dreher indistinguishable from the impetuous 2-year-old is his unchecked conclusion that what the world just can't possibly do without seeing as soon as possible is the outcome of his mouth parts on food, particularly sausage.
I don't know about you, folks, but there's nothing I enjoy better myself than going to the mall, taking a bite out of, say, a big sloppy ham sandwich, and shoving the results in the face of the first passerby.
Turn the camera the other way and, frankly, you'd get much the same image, merely in more parts strewn in derelict gusto across Dreher's drooling, pappilae-erect tongue.
"Oook, ommy! Iss assage iss uhishus...urr..zmack..urlm..uk! Ooo uhnna ite?"
But of course that unseen gullet is the rat hole I'm throwing my hard-earned money down at year end. What on earth could be wrong with anyone who wouldn't?
Keith
Now let's take a sampling survey to see how effective Rod's pitch is. As of this comment of mine, there have been 20 responses in comments, which multiplied by 5 will give us a tidy 100% base for our percentages.
ReplyDeletephilosopher: no donation (holding out for boudin)
Nick: no donation (yet, to TAC; will hit Rod's personal tip jar)
EngineerScotty: no donation ("what were you trying to say?")
Mark: donation
Mike W: donation
charles cosimano: no donation
Jeff R.: donation
Bart W.: no donation (yet; has bills)
Kirk: donation
Polichinello: no donation (VDARE instead)
Myron Hudson: donation
NoahK: no donation
David: no donation
Ryan Booth: donation
CatherineNY: donation
Mark: no donation
ronan ryan: donation (wants to)
Boatman: no donation
William: donation
Stephen R Gould: donation
The tally:
Donations: 10 = 50%
No donations: 10 = 50%
Total: 20 = 100%
Survey results: of the sample commenters to Rod Dreher's blog, TAC's biggest draw, only 50% had donated to TAC.
Time to look at those books real hard over the Christmas break, Wick.
Keith