Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Atrios's Decline Continues: Unwarranted Attack on Lawrence Kaplan

This post from Atrios is, unfortunately, not that surprising given the way things seem to be going on that blog. If you click through to Kaplan's piece, you'll see that there is absolutely no suggestion that Atrios's accusation is true.

No time to discuss now...but it should be obvious to all.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I stopped bothering with atrios more than a year ago. He's a lot like Instapundit. Both of them just spout off whatever comes to mind. Atrios is worse, however, because the comments are basically just incestuous amplification.


- mac

3:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think all three are wrong.

Kaplan accepts gruesome rumor as fact. Or maybe as hidden metaphor. Reports already show Iraq as an increasingly brutal place. Exaggeration is really not necessary and is often used to serve the martial requirements of dehumanization.

That's what Atrios may be imagining. Still, what he suspects is not in the text that JMM reprints.

But Josh is too hopeful to treat Kaplan's statement as a concession. I think Kaplan's excusing Duhbya by saying that all the competence in the world would not have changed the current picture. I just don't see Kaplan drawing the conclusion that it's time to find the exit.

My reading is that Kaplan wants us to stay indefinitely, possibly because he thinks it helps us even if it doesn't help the Iraqis; he just doesn't hope for any lessening of the carnage.

4:20 PM  
Blogger Orlando C. Harn said...

Power Corrupts: The Duncan Black Story.

Seriously, I remember when Atrios was kind of like Digby's Hullabaloo blog. Now it contains an actual paragraph of thought maybe once every two months.

4:30 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

I agree with all y'all.

I've in particular thought about the Atrios-Instapundit similarity, and that Atrios seems to have been corrupted by power. Or, rather, popularity. With legions of vicious dittoheads that confirm his every assertion, no matter how lame, and who rabidly defend him against any criticism...well, I think it must be like reading your own press releases.

9:00 PM  
Blogger Alexander Wolfe said...

You're right. He's not saying that all. He's saying exactly what he says.

9:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Duncan Black, a/k/a Atrios

5:30 PM  

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