Accusing Anti-Anti Racists of Stupidity is the Most Racist Act of All

You may remember Zaid Jilani from any number of idiotic columns that include “Donald Trump has a great infrastructure plan” and “The Trump administration will create the conditions for single payer because of Otto von Bismarck and Winston Churchill” and so many other wastes of words, mostly as Green Greenwald’s lackey at The Intercept. And they fit well together–both make nominal claims to being on the left while actually being nothing but contrarian trolls driven by a frothing hatred of the Democratic Party. This is what we call a meal ticket to long-term publishing success. In fact, Zilani has lately been publishing at The Federalist, as what is a little fascism in exchange for hating more on the Greatest Evil in Modern History, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer?

Now, Jilani is a very stupid person. I was on a listserv with him some years ago and the level of idiotic things this man would say about the labor movement, the Democratic Party, electoral politics, and really anything else was truly jaw-dropping. I used to get into with him but I finally stopped as I realized this was an utter waste of my time. So I was amused but hardly surprised when his response to Ralph Northam’s blackface was….to defend Ralph Northam! You can read this junk if you want, I am not going to block quote any of it. Jilani has been brutalized over this, leading to appearances on Fox News to call out liberal hypocrisy, because, again, he is a troll and nothing more. I responded on Twitter that Jilani was the single stupidest person who claims to be a journalist of the left. While Michael Tracey and Rania Khalek certainly are in the competition for this title, plus whatever H.A. Goodman is, I think it’s a strong case.

This led to a typically furious response from our good friend Glenn Greenwald. Squeezing in a little time between his appearances on Tucker’s White Power Hour and Laura Ingraham’s show, Glenn took to defending his protege in trolling. And who is the great monster in this pogrom against him? Me!

Finally, I'll take this opportunity to marvel at the license white liberals grant themselves to malign people like Zaid or Tulsi Gabbard in the most vitriolic & toxic ways. Here's a white liberal pronouncing Zaid not misguided or ideologically wrong but extremely *stupid*. pic.twitter.com/LdGIp8Hdh2

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 5, 2019

This is really hilarious and amazing. I will first note that Glenn and I started our feud in 2012 when I was calling him out as a libertarian troll on this very blog, and in which comment threads I was excoriated for attacking St. Glenn at a time when he was still seen as a hero by way too many liberals. Meanwhile, he has always been the same dishonest troll he is now, but then more people were taken in by the act. After all, only one of us supported the Iraq War and it wasn’t me.

Second, whenever Glenn showed up in the blog comments, he would inevitably go ALL-CAPS in 2 seconds and threaten to sue me or LGM as a whole. He literally once stated that we “were too inconsequential to sue,” a half-veiled threat. And what we were going to be sued over if we were consequential? Disagreeing with Glenn? Noting that he helped get his preferred candidate, Donald Trump, elected president? What are the grounds to sue? But then Glenn is just a big ol’bully and like other bullies, including his preferred 2016 presidential candidate, you have to stand up and laugh in their faces. I mention all of this because Glenn then proceeds to speak about my life in completely insane ways totally separated from any knowledge he has of my personal life, which should by all accounts be zero.

I've known Zaid for years. I disagree with him often, including on this @Quillette piece. But he's the opposite of stupid. But this white liberal – whose life has no interaction with race except as an online insult toy – looks at Zaid and sees stupidity for obvious reasons.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 5, 2019

My life has no interaction with race except as an online insult toy? What the hell does that even mean? How would Glenn know this? All I can gather here is that Glenn is calling me a racist because Jilani is not white. But of course I am not insulting him for being a person of color. I’m insulting him for being a total idiot who writes columns defending people wearing blackface immediately after they have been called out about it and without them showing any real contrition. If I was Glenn, I guess I would claim I was going to sue him. But unlike Glenn, I am not a broken sad little person who thinks bullying and appearances on white supremacist talk shows are appropriate ways to act. So I am just going to laugh at him.

Moreover, I know he is reading this. See, Glenn blocked me from Twitter in early 2017 after I congratulated him for his role in getting Donald Trump elected. But he still sees my Twitter feed evidently. I wonder which of his many sockpuppets he is using?

I also wonder why Reality Winner is the only Greenwald source to ever be arrested and charged with crimes for leaking national security secrets when she leaked documents that were unfavorable to Trump, but I guess we will just never know, now will we. Go ahead Glenn, sue me for libel.