That’s sad, because it hurts Joe Gandleman the most, since it’s his site and he honestly tries to promote an environment where people from both sides can discuss things. He states that he doesn’t ride herd on his co-bloggers, and that’s generally a good thing. However, that kind of policy relies on the honesty of the co-bloggers to exercise some degree of moderation in how they present their posts. Michael Stickings’ vitriol is currently undermining that effort.

As Europeans often will say, when you confront them with anti-Americanism, “we’re only talking about your political leadership, not Americans as a whole,” likewise much of the American criticism of Europe is based on their political and cultural elites. And in both cases, there’s a certain amount of bunk to that and a certain amount of truth.

It’s unfortunate that the real people don’t get to see and hear more of one another. The voices that carry loudest don’t speak for most of us. But we who set ourselves up as authorities in this World-Wide Web ought at least to take the trouble to distinguish things. Especially those who claim the title “moderates.” Moderates don’t reach for the tarbrush as their first instinct.

As I’ve stated before, that the job of exposing Islamic supremacism to the masses for what it is was left to a bunch of formerly obscure cartoonists, merely for want of anyone in the Western media with more gravitas willing to take the lead, was really the most shameful aspect of this whole story. The stakes of this war really should have been made clear to the people of the West much, much sooner.

Listen, Michael Stickings is a smart guy, but you’re right, I don’t agree with his characterizations here. And I feel he usually goes overboard with the rhetoric. There certainly is room to criticize Europe, and still support them…and I think that’s what most right-wingers are doing.

But let’s be frank, the right-wing media does make great hay at the expense of Europe’s nanny state. They also grossly overstate the situation over their to prop up their own ideology. I’m not saying this is wrong, I’m just saying it’s the case…and for a guy like Michael it seems that enough is enough.