Via FaceBook and Twitter I've become re-acquainted with YidWithLid, a blogger who posts from the far right of the political right. In some ways, YidWithLid and I are alike. I respect his showmanship and his ability to write button-pushing, attention-catching posts and I recognize that he is quite good at what he does.
Last night, YidWithLid and I had a little dustup on Twitter, which was a continuation of smaller dustups we've had on FaceBook. These dustups always start when Yid posts something that refers to global warming as a "hoax"(1) or when he suggests that President Obama is ready to stick a knife through Israel's heart (2). Both of these assertions are false: To date, Obama has done absolutely nothing to undermine Israel or previous US policy, while global warming enjoys the support of every single scientific society with the relevant expertise in the world.
But when I share these facts with Yid via Twitter or FaceBook he either ignores me or reasserts that his lies are actually true.
I like YidWithLid. I think he's a good man who believes he is telling the truth, but laboring under vital misapprehensions. Over the last several weeks, I've extended to him several private invitations to post on DovBear, hoping that the great conversations that always result from controversial posts here might provide the necessary correction to his thinking. (I know this works. The blog conversations here have corrected my own thinking too many times to count.) Each time I've made this invitation, YidWithLid has begged off claiming to be too busy with his own blog. When I point out that all he'd have to do is crosspost he doesn't answer.
So now I'm going public with my invitation. YidWithLid, you are cordially invited to cross post any Obama or global warming post to DovBear, where they will be reviewed by one of the sharpest, fairest and most vocal group of commenters in the Jewish blogosphere. My audience is diverse, knowledgeable, and ready to call BS on anyone, be they democrats or republicans. On this blog liberals enjoy no special protection: a bad idea is a bad idea no matter who says it. If you believe your ideas about Obama and global warming are true, please submit them to the scrutiny of the DovBear audience. If your ideas pass muster with them, you will have convinced me of their truth, as well.
You have nothing to lose but your misapprehensions and by inviting you to post here, I'm demonstrating that I'm willing to risk losing mine, too.
UPDATE
Pwak pwak pwak!
YidwithLid has unfriended me from Facebook! If that's not a confession of weakness, what is?
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(1) You'd be surprised how often he does this. On FB, he mentions the "global warming hoax" with a frightening frequency.
(2) Too many examples to cite them all. Here's one headline, from last Monday, that's representative of the rest: "President Obama Discussing Ways To PUNISH Israel" (YidWithLid seemed blissfully unaware that the article he cited in this post, completely undermined the fear mongering headline. It included quotes like: "The measures under discussion [are] all largely symbolic" and "Placing conditions on loan guarantees to Israel, as the first President Bush did nearly 20 years ago, is not under discussion" and "the official added, “Israel is a critical United States ally, and no one in this administration expects that not to continue.”)
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