I have little to add on the recent controversy regarding the hysterically anti-American and anti-Israeli University of Michigan Professor and blogger Juan Cole; a kerfuffle for which all of the relevant links are ably collected here by Roger L. Simon. There is only one angle on this story which hasn't really been run into the ground yet; that is how absolutely pathetic and lame this public foray into internet-trolling and conspiracy-theory-spreading is for Cole and what it says about the entire hard, totalitarian-left academic establishment that he represents. Here's this imminence, this head of various Middle East Studies organizations, this "Mid-East expert" who appears on PBS etc., this tenured professor at a prestigious university, and what's he spending his down time doing? He's credulously repeating bizarro conspiracy theories, backed up with absolutely no facts, which he finds on obscure left-wing blogs. He is then taking these unsubstantiated conspiracy theories which are culled from the rougher, seedier neighborhoods of the blogosphere and hurling them at his political enemies. In short, as the gang at Powerline points out,he is using his blog for trolling; ironically one of the very practices which the professor decries in the post which started this whole mess.
And a word about the provenance of the professor's conspiracy theory. I recognize the blog he linked to that started the ball rolling. I refuse to link to it. At any rate, it's a group blog but most of the posting seems to be done by one individual in particular, whom I will not name. This person is a well-known troll on many different blogs and appears to be a bit unstable. Had the professor even taken a cursory look at the blog, or done a google search of the blogger's name, he would have seen that, though the blog undoubtedly agrees with his political leanings, it's obviously the work of an unstable crackpot who would have been handing out poorly mimeographed newsletters at the bus station before the internet came around. Now the obscure crackpot blogger gets the 15 nanoseconds of fame he craves. He's linked to by professor Cole, whom I'm sure he idolizes, and once again gets to raise the ire of non-hard-left bloggers; something he obviously gets off on. (Remember, he's a troll.) Professor Cole on the other hand is caught publicly before a large audience associating himself with this twit, and credulously passing on his conspiracy theories without even minimally fact-checking them. I have to think the professor must feel a bit ill-used.
With Juan Cole having been caught passing on half-baked conspiracy theories from well-known internet trolls and James Wolcott "having been reduced to recycling ancient bogus claims of t-shirt racism," it seems blogging has not been a happy enterprise for members of either the academic or literary establishment.
UPDATE: If you think I'm exagerrating when I say that Cole represents the "totalitarian left" consider this evidence that he doesn't let mere humanity get in the way of his ideology. (Hat tip Judith.)
UPDATE: Here's yet more evidence of the nature of professor Cole's sources. (again via Judith.)
And if you link to the actual thread, you can get updates on the Spirit of America tour!
Posted by: Yehudit | December 15, 2004 at 02:47 AM