Libertarian Girl: Vapid and now Plagiarized
Libertarian Girl has been a busy blogger in the last month. So far she’s done her best to associate the moniker “Libertarian” with vapid, insensitive, reactionary drivel. Examples:
Opining on GWB’s judicial appointments without knowing anything about them:
I don’t know the specifics of each of his appointments who were filibustered by Democrats, but I presume that Democrats didn’t like them because they are strict constructionists when it comes to interpreting statutes and the U.S. Constitution. (I only hope his appointments aren’t religious nuts whose only raison d’etre is prohibiting abortions.)
Whining about the lack of interesting content in the echo chamber while adding to the problem:
I’ve been looking all over the right wing blogosphere for interesting posts, but nearly every blog I read is posting about the same thing. “Look at how many hundreds of millions of dollars of tsunami aid we gave! We are not stingy!”
I think there’s so much irony here. Right wing blogs have normally critized[sic] the left wing for caring about what Europeans think of us. Liberals would say “Bush is a bad president because Europeans don’t like him,” and then right wing bloggers would go crazy and write “who cares what Europeans think?”
Ignorantly criticizing criticism of a “conservative”:
(3) It’s a shame that a conservative black guy has to be the focus of public anger. I don’t know exactly what Williams stands for, but if he’s labeled conservative then he can’t be all bad.
Taking a brave stand against “liberals who hate the United States”:
Most of the opposition to the war in Iraq came from liberals who hate the United States and think our country is so bad and evil that we have no moral authority to take any military action. Liberals think we’re really not much better than Iraq.
I disagree strongly with the liberal “hate the United States” viewpoint. Although I am extremely disappointed with our nation’s increasingly authoritarian and socialist agenda, we are still a nation of freedom, and our nation was founded on freedom. Through freedom and free market capitalism, not by conquest or evil, we became a great superpower.
Now, despite her poor arguments and general lack of useful content, someone has stooped to copying one of her posts verbatim without attribution, perhaps to get on the Libertarian Girl bandwagon (recognized by its vile pink paint job).
At 7:14 AM this morning, Libertarian Girl posted about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. At 9:21 AM, the exact same post showed up on New York Night Owl’s blog. I guess she’s looking to tap into the same group of fawning ideologues (see here, here, and here) who are willing to overlook the poor writing and thinking in favor of a pretty face.
Message to Libertarian Girl: The world can do without any more Ann Coulter clones. Find your voice, learn from your critics, and try not to post unless you have something useful to say. Ignorant vitriol and vapid nihilism are so 90s.
Message to New York Night Owl: Plagiarism sucks.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…vented…
Dear Mr. X,
You had the time to effectively ridicule not just one, but two somewhat attractive but marginally intelligent fellow bloggers today but not the time to review my application essay??? For shame 😛
Sincerly,
ross “i got nothin'” kerr
Ross,
I just printed it out and will get feedback to you by tomorrow. God knows we need more law students. Remember man, I’m a pro. A pro crastinator.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…mea culpa…
I’m still trying to figure LG out… to be honest I don’t care for that picture of her (WAY too much makeup, although that could be the fault of the hot pink background searing my eyes). But I am sincerely interested in the opinions of libertarian females, if only because there’s so few. She comes off as a Randish asshole sometimes, but on the plus side she often points out a story I hadn’t noticed. I guess I check her blog for the same reason I check Drudge – a good way to keep current on issues.
I mean, how many blogs written by girls do you actually read? Yes, most of them are whining and bitching about their lives, but so are most male-authored blogs. Be honest: we read them because we’re intrigued by intelligent girls. So LG isn’t as intelligent as you though – that’s ok. At least LG starts some marginally interesting conversations about things other than her dating life.
And she’s a newbie – give her a break! I don’t agree with half of what she says but I’m willing to cut anybody slack if they just started a blog.
plagiarism sucks on a good day, but to copy HER?? and her comments? Doesn’t say much about NY Night Owl. Poor thing. I almost pity her for stooping to such a low level.
“Through freedom and free market capitalism, not by conquest or evil, we became a great superpower.” Has this girl read her history, or does she form her opinions based strictly on events in the last, say, five years? If she thinks we didn’t take part in conquest, she might want to go over those early American textbooks again. Better yet, she could read some primary sources of American Indian writings over the last 200 years–I’ll make recommendations if she can’t find any.
Jeremy,
I understand your points. She’s new, she’s a girl, she’s a Libertarian, etc. However, bad writing is bad writing. When she posts crap and has a big “Libertarian” on the top of her blog every political and social interaction I have with a stranger becomes that much harder. She’s presenting a one-sided and often ill-reasoned caricature of Libertarianism that does nobody any good.
Read the Anti-Libertarian FAQ and think for a moment why I don’t want to provide any more fodder for it.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…concerned citizen…
Wow, look at all your comments! You think if I insulted some mildly attractive conservativista and linked it to my weblog, I’d get mad traffic?
Speaking of plagarism, you’ve stolen your moniker from this deranged member of the Virginia Militia who used to have a cable access show in Fairfax back in the day. If you start wearing a bandana to cover your face in class and screaming at wide-eyed passerby on the steps of the Capitol, I’m going to claim you’re his son.
Nope, you were right, sir. After reading her latest post on “The Liberal Mindset” I feel like a dick for sticking up for her (oh God, that sounds so bad I’m going to leave it there). She deserves the slap you gave her, and I’m going straight to my blog to give her one myself.
I actually had a quite civil conversation with the Anti-Libertarian FAQ guy. The sad part is that many of his criticisms are only too true. Maybe that’s why I quit the party to become a small-L libertarian.
Hi,
Perhaps if you had actually read my blog (http://www.shoemakervillage.org/games), you would have seen that I am on your side. I hate “fawning ideagogues” as much as you do, and the whole point of the blog is to tell people to stand up for themselves and have some self-respect instead of begging for dates with physically “beautiful” women (or men).
Next time, please review your sources a little more thouroughly.
-Steve
Dear Steve,
I did note that your blog emphasizes self-respect and integrity when interacting with others, however, your post provides her some pretty undeserved praise. Excerpt (emphasis mine):
The only person I’ve found recently who doesn’t conform to this belief is Libertarian Girl, who posted a comment here yesterday. She runs a blog that has pretty enlightened opinions on politics, and I would encourage you to check it out even if you don’t agree with her views. What’s relevant to her, however, is that one of her posts talked about a new year’s eve party where she was being hit on by some “muscular guy who acted like a frat boy.”
Judging by the thought put into the posts in her blog, she must be pretty intelligent. Likewise, quite a few people would say that I performed above average in that area (of course, I can’t say this myself; this is just what they said.) I would go so far as to bet that, being intelligent, she, like me, has trouble with finding decent people to date. I know that women, at least, always say they want a “smart” guy, but again, this is just what they say, not what they do. Comments welcome.My post provides some ample evidence contrary to your assertions, derived from her writings. As another aside, she’s going out with the “muscular guy who acted like a frat boy” on Saturday.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…close reader…
Well, we could argue on what the post means all day, but I will admit that it portrays her in a positive light. I said that she has some interesting comments to make, and I’ll have to disagree with you on her blog having poor content.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with what she says, you have to admit that it takes someone intelligent to write posts like she does. True, she probably gets such an insane amount of traffic because of her looks, not for her writing. And there are a few posts that are off-topic.
But then again, I think that a blog where nothing is said about anything else except for one subject is pretty boring. Letting her readers know some of her opinions, no matter how silly, isn’t a bad thing.
Besides, she did post a comment (see the post for January 3), and I wasn’t going to put her down for everyone to read. Any businessman knows that if you alienate your customers, you don’t survive.
“Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with what she says, you have to admit that it takes someone intelligent to write posts like she does.”
Sorry, Steve–hate to be a newcomer to the discussion, but I can cheerfully disagree with that statement.
Okay, I checked out Night Owl (for the first and only time). What is it with pink backgrounds and Glamour Shot photos? Please tell me there aren’t male bloggers out there posting beefcake shots.
There’s been plenty of talk recently of RINOs (Republicans in name only), so is Libertarian Girl a LINO?
I’m going to declare myself a Whig and then betray my party, so I can be a WINO.
Her posts are pseudo-intelligent. They come from the decision to adopt an ideology without putting any thought into it. Interesting writing is not simply a conglomeration of reactions (a sin that all bloggers commit from time to time, myself included) but the introduction of original, new thinking and criticism.
So, based on that, LG should have a column with the Wall Street Journal by the end of the month 🙂
Seriously, LG is unoriginal, unreflective, unanalytical, parroting, superficial, over-the-top, and blogging for the wrong reasons (whatever those are). I’m not one of those people who think blogs have to be the sole engine for a social revolution in information gathering and analysis. But the only thing worse than an amateur pontificating on current events and ideology is one who does it to the exclusion of saying something interesting and thought-provoking. I’m not asking for a PhD analysis – I’m asking for a level of personal investment of time and thought of which her posts (and responses to comments) are utterly devoid.
But the hot pink background should have clued me in from the get-go.
Libertarian Girl is a guy living in upstate New York. I won’t post his name here, but I’ve been investigating this for a while and I’m about to post my findings. Your exposure of this double posting is a huge find, I would like to know how to were able to do that.
Your exposure of this double posting is a huge find, I would like to know how to were able to do that.When I read the post, I noticed the British spelling of ‘rumour’ and decided to google the phrase, figuring she had lifted it off of a news site or something. Finding the exact same post on another blog was a surprise.
Given the double post was found through an American using British spelling, this is ironic.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…diligent…