Bruce Springsteen, Mass-Murdering Thug?

What do these people have in common? Roger Ebert. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Tim Robbins. Zacarias Moussaoui. Robert Byrd. Mohammad Atta. Bruce Springsteen. Ramzi Yousef.

Haven't the foggiest? You're not alone. It's hard to figure out how assorted terrorist swine are related to a senator from West Virginia or a mainstream movie critic. But this website, discoverthenetwork.org, places their photos side by side, trying to have you believe that these individuals are all part of a "network" of freedom-despising, violence-preaching, America-hating revolutionaries. It's all about "defining the left's (often hidden) programmatic agendas."

There is no dearth of kooks with web skills, so ordinarily I wouldn't give this the time of day. However, the site in question assumes a certain legitimacy because it's set up by the same folks who bring you Frontpage Magazine, in particular publisher and editor David Horowitz. I have no problem with Horowitz or even necessarily some of his ideas (for instance, I agree with him when he defends academic freedom for all, not just for lefties). The one time I've had any dealings with the guy — when I pointed out to him that one of his writers, Alexis Amory, had committed an open-and-shut case of plagiarism — Horowitz was a pretty straight shooter. He looked into it, confirmed my allegation, thanked me for bringing it to his attention, and promptly fired his thieving contributor.

Now, about that new (to me) website. There's nothing wrong with making a database of the left. There's nothing wrong with making it highly partisan — informed readers know where Horowitz, a hard-bitten conservative, comes from, so they can add salt as necessary. But it's either clumsy or scandalously malicious to imply, by juxtaposing those pictures, that there's no fundamental difference between Bruce Springsteen and terrorist ringleader Mohammad Atta, or between Robert Byrd and mass murderer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Then again, it's an impossible stretch — an epic fallacy — to even think of Islamic terrorists as being on the left in the first place. These people have mindsets that are straight from the Middle Ages. They abhor all the freedoms that the American Left, for better or for worse, has fought for, from abortion to equal rights for women, from separation of church and state to freedom of speech. Pundits on the right habitually call extremist Arabs "Islamo-fascists," which is an apt enough label, one that I've frequently used myself. But you can't have it both ways. If monsters like Atta are on the extreme right, can they also be on the extreme left? Only in an Alice-like universe where two plus two equals five, and where Roger Ebert is the moral equivalent of shoe bomber Richard Reid.

I don't know why, but Horowitz must be content to preach to the rabid-right choir. No moderate on either side of the divide will be swayed by the nutso message of his little photo collection.

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UPDATE, late afternoon: Horowitz e-mails to say that friend and foe have criticized him for the site, and that he has rebutted much of that criticism here.

He adds: "The big picture behind my inclusion of all these figures is laid out in my last book Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left. [But] after talking to a writer at Salon who is doing a story on our site, I have decided to modify the [photo] grid. It will now be divided into four columns: Totalitarian Radicals, Anti-American Radicals, Leftists and Moderate Leftists. That way the potential for misunderstanding and confusion will be reduced."

Let's hope that on the new picture grid, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be very conspicuously separated — thick lines, David, and lots of white space! — from, say, murderous scum like Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

(If you happen to read this post after discoverthenetwork.org has been altered as per Horowitz's plans, and would like to see screenshots of the original web page that caused the hubbub, look no further. Click on the images to see them full-size.)

 

Comments

[Scott Leahy]

I think you are letting Horowitz off a little easy, Rogier. Honest people do not publish such nonsense. Horowitz is a liar; has been since he was fluffing Black Panthers back in the 60's.

I could draw a closer political comparison between his own views and those of Timothy McVeigh than exists between Atta and Ebert.

But my thanks for getting me a heads-up on this wacky site of his.
Best Regards,
Scott

[Dave]

And the whole thing ignores that Islamic fundies are _right_ wingers by any reasonable or accepted definitions of "right" and "left".

[Scott Leahy]

S'more comments on Horowitz: I just love his tasty attacks on the left while hurriedly modifiying the discoverthenet website to somehow isolate Ruth Bader Ginsburg from Mohammed Atta. No, no one could ever accuse Horowitz of painting with too broad a brush.

The guy's a hoser!

He cries crocodile tears when an Alterman column runs astride an unflattering picture of himself while shotgunning his own enemies despicably, on his very own site.

Man, I really hate Horowitz, I guess ... Too bad, it does not reflect on me very well, but there you have it.

I would probably like him a little better if he would only, when printing a hyperlink with that day's opponent's name, actually link to his enemies own words. Check out his attacks on Morris Dees. Every link points back to some page at Frontpagemag, as if he is afraid for his readers to actually visit the Southern Poverty Law Center. Mustn't let the eBrigades too far off the leash, it seems.

[Lainie]

would anyone actually take the site seriously?

Wait, I just thought about that, never mind. The photo grid does look deceiving. Look! Jesse Jackson made the list!

Oh... seems a few of your lefty commenters are in denial.. and I'm not talking about a river in Egypt.

Anyone who has ever been to one of those lefty marxist orgies knows the cross links between these groups. Just saying Horowitz is a "liar" doesn't make it so.

For fun, I did the visual image of "Children's Defense Fund." We're all for children right?

Well, I'm not sure what a pro-abortion group has to do with children. The same is said for a Palestinian rights crowd.

Scratch the surface of most of these innocent-sounding groups and you've got one lefty nutbag after another supporting it...

[Jack Jones]

Scott, interesting that you accuse Horowitz of being a liar while stating--seriously I assume-- that he once fluffed Black Panthers. More drama queen antics from the drama club.