Man Of Lettuce, Man Of Steel, Or Man Of Straw?

So here I was thinking that Adrian Whatsisface's Man of Lettuce blog is not a bad little read for someone who wants to occasionally take his mind off the eternal misery of modern politics. Adrian's short daily snippets from a cabbie's life on the road in Sydney are generally very readable, and remind me of the days long ago when I held a Sydney cab licence myself.

But then Anzac Day came around. Suddenly, Adrian and I discovered we had a few... differences of opinion. Fair enough, I thought, he's not the only one in Australia who revels in the Howard tradition of glorified war. But there was something odd about the way he handled my comments. First I was attacked as a "troll" and an "idiot", then ignored, then accused of hijacking the thread. Then came this:

Your views are to be ignored and not taken seriously. I imagine others will take the same position.

There was a deliberate atmosphere of ignorance and intolerance here, all too familiar to anyone who has waded through the cesspool of the wingnut blogosphere. I decided to take a closer look at Adrian's blog.

Surprise, surprise! Who do I find on the Blogroll but his mate Omar Fadhil:

I was embarassed I haven't visited [Omar] for some time. And it's easy to forget from a distance the struggle still goes on for his people. However via the medium of blogging there is plenty of news coming from Iraq, giving an accurate picture of the people's mindset.

Well, ITM does provide an "accurate picture" of some people's mindset, I suppose! Adrian even celebrated the Fadhil's White House meeting with Bush.

Then of course there were the obligatory references to the wingnut's now-expired Good News Man, Arthur Chrenkoff. Check out this 2005 post called Go Democracy! in which Adrian (citing Chrenkoff as a credible news source), tells The Anonymous Lefty "how silly he sounds" for questioning how much progress is being made on women's rights in Iraq:

Your churlish comment in the face of genuine Iraqi hope smacks of the same nastiness motivating the deafening silence from so-called progressive womens rights activists.

Yeah, those Iraqi women are positively revelling in their newfound freedoms these days, Adrian.

Or check out this post (now citing Tim Blair as an authority) in which Adrian suggests that anyone not sorrowfully mourning the death of US war hero Pat Tillman is an "heroic moron". From the comments:

Fuck you rene gonzalez! People like Patrick Tilman are the reason this country is so great. So great in fact that it even allows disgusting people like you to go to our schools, and for the people in your shit hole village in puerto rico their the reason why your country is still a shit hole begging for scraps from this great country. Made great by people like Pat Tilman. Go to hell BITCH

Lovely stuff, isn't it? And all too typical of the wingnut world in which Adrian chooses to reside, I'm afraid.

I am always amazed at how much anger is directed towards anyone who strongly advances a pacifist viewpoint. But I am even more amazed at what a small, closetted, fantasy-fuelled world these wingnuts live in, and how desperately they seek to block out any dissenting voices of reality.

After an amazingly coincidental meeting with a lovely, anonymous little man from Kuwait, Adrian today tells us he is going to join the Australian Army Reserves. Personally, I cannot help wondering if he is not already working for the government. In any case, he seems determined to keep the doors of perception shut tight. Hopefully his commitment to the ADF will leave his with less time for blogging, but I doubt it.

The Sydney Morning Herald rated Adrian's blog one of Australia's ten best blogs around this time last year. I would think a further review of that status is overdue.