Yesterday, as you may recall, many people responded to the lunacy of Charlotte Allen’s NRO clarion call that feminism is to blame for the slaughter of little kids at Sandy Hook. Her theme was if a man had been there, things would have turned out differently. (Perhaps the man would be dead too?)
Anyway, today she is back on the pages of the NRO to defend herself, and of course her defense is that she is a victim. Yes, people attacking her stupid essay is the same as if she where Adam Lanza or something. It’s the Wingnuttian reflex, so I cannot blame her for her culture, obviously. But let’s listen in, shall we?
“I’ve been reviled by the Holy Trinity of online liberal journalism: David Weigel (Slate), Alex Pareene (Salon), and Jessica Valenti (The Nation). Also: Daily Kos, Media Matters, and Mediaite, just to name a few spleen outlets (you can Google my name plus “Sandy Hook” to see the links to dozens of others). At Esquire’s Politics blog, Charles Pierce gave me the McArdle Award, named after the Daily Beast’s Megan McArdle for suggesting that gang-rushing the shooter would work better than gun bans to avert mass murders or minimize their deadly damage.”
You know, that’s a pretty good roster of high-rollers, Charlotte. You should feel proud that they read your piece. What else have you got?
“(Since I wholeheartedly agree with McArdle — and I suggested that very tactic in my NRO symposium piece–I’m honored to accept the award.) One of Pierce’s commenters wrote that someone ought to “beat the stupid” out of me. Remarks like that are the way that liberal guys demonstrate that they, too, possess testicles.”
Agreeing with McArdle is actually a symptom. You should seek help. The single reference to physical violence at Charlie’s place seems so minor to me. You know that if Ilse, She Wolf of the Nazis Michelle Malkin were playing the role of Pierce, by now her Orcs would have sent death threats and showed up in the dorm rooms of college campuses (which actually happened when Malkkkin decided to publish contact information for a group of UCSC students who opposed the Iraq War). But, you know, Charlotte is now living in fear because a northeast liberal… wrote something.
But now, for the pièce de resistance:
“Finally, even Jonah Goldberg right here at NRO accused me of “blaming the victim.” Et tu, Jonah!”
I mean really, if your thesis is so stupid that Doughy Pantload mocked you, you should give up your wingnuttian welfare, Charlotte.
“No, I was not blaming any of the 26 victims or the parents who enrolled their kids at Sandy Hook. I am, however, blaming our culture that denies, dismisses, and denigrates the masculine traits—including size, strength, male aggression and a male facility for strategic thinking–that until recently have been viewed as essential for building a society and protecting its weaker members.”
Well, actually you did. You wondered why the non-existant husky 12-year old boys didn’t tackle the killer or the janitor didn’t throw a bucket at the guy with assault rifles and body armor. Aside from the fact that you made up the part about 12-year olds being at the school which only goes through Fourth grade.
“We now have Hanna Rosin at Slate urging parents to buy their little boys Easy Bake ovens so they’ll be more like little girls. Women are less aggressive by instinct, and they are typically trained to be nice. I praised and continue to praise the courage of the Sandy Hook principal, Dawn Hochsburg, and the teachers who gave up their lives along with her, but with some men on the scene who knew what to do, some of those lives might have been saved.”
Please tell male chefs everywhere that they are feminine. I’d love to see how that plays out with A. Bourdain. But more importantly, even after you praise Dawn Hochsburg and her staff who died trying to protect their charges, you continue to say that a man would have been successful where they were not. Having testosterone does not improve thinking. Trust me, I know about that.
“I am also responding to David Weigel, who told me I gotten my facts wrong: that there are actually two men, a custodian and a fourth-grade teacher, on Sandy Hook’s 52-person staff. He’s right, and I stand corrected. This does help prove my point, though: just two adult men in a building containing 500 people — and it’s not clear that both of them were at work that day.”
Wait a minute: Weigel pointing out that you were factually wrong proves that you were right? Also/too: sentence fragment.
“Indeed, a visit to Sandy Hook’s staff website is a depressing experience, the sea of women’s names. Why aren’t there more men? Perhaps not enough want the job? But why? Because they are tacitly discouraged from careers in elementary education? It’s certainly not the money, because union rules typically require kindergarten teachers and high-school chemistry teachers to be paid on exactly the same salary scale.”
Note the subtle dig at unions. But given that you are a great believer in cliché gender roles, and are arguing for strong men to help weak women, shouldn’t you be telling us that real men shouldn’t be in nurturing roles like education? I’m so confused by what you are trying to say, Charlotte!
“Another depressing page on the Sandy Hook website is the “Safe Schools Climate” page. It’s a page of links to “anti-bullying” resources. Yes, the Sandy Hook staff’s idea of a “safe school” was a school where kids didn’t say mean things about each other on Facebook! The Sandy Hook massacre was a tragedy, but it was at least in part a tragedy of the collision between feminist delusions and reality.”
OK, back to stereotypical gender roles: bullying good, respect and cooperation bad.
So there you have it: Ladies should act like ladies: all weak and terrified, and men should act like men, except when they should be nurturing school teachers. Again, I cannot believe that the the NRO (the most intellectually dishonest rest-stop on the Information Super Highway) publishes this sort of twaddle.
