Here is an answer to the most-often asked question about this site: what is its political orientation, its bias?
Is the FM site home of a radical leftist reformer or right-wing iconoclast?
One virtue of the FM site is its clear position about the politics of 21st century America: I stand against them. Choosing a party today is like cattle at the stockyards choosing a pen. They (being smarter than us) don’t bother with party identification. They don’t cheer the “left-side” pen: the virtue of its prisoners, the beauty of the fence, the free food. Those in the “right-side” pen don’t wear logos or bumper-stickers, or trumpet their superior intelligence over those in the other pen.
However clear, this position confuses some people. Here is the answer, more clearly stated — the true politics of the FM site, plainly stated:
- It’s a left-wing site! and
- It’s a right-wing site!
(1) It’s a left-wing site!
“You are so in the tank for the current Democratic leadership that I hope you’re breathing Nitrox.” (source)
With friends writing articles like those on the FM site, President Obama needs no enemies. Another view:
{Y}ou are a left wing idealist. you hardly ever represent the right wing in any of your posts (source).
He must know very few leftist idealists. These assertions are obviously wrong. For example, some major themes on the FM website that lefties abhor:
- A critical view of Obama and many of his policies.
- A skeptical view of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).
For evidence, look at the FM Reference Pages on the right-side menu bar; click on Obama, his administration and policies. You will see dozens of posts, including the following:
- Our metastable Empire, built on a foundation of clay, 3 March 2008 — We elect leaders with vast ambitions, but can no longer afford them.
- Is Obama running for the office of Chief Shaman?, 6 June 2008 — Weirdness from our next President.
- The evil of socialism approaches!, 22 October 2008 — Economic crisis and a leftist President. Can socialism be avoided, or is it our destined fate?
- America gets ready for new leadership (or is it back to the future?), 14 November 2008
- “Don’t Let Barack Obama Break Your Heart” by Tom Engelhardt, 21 November 2008
- Obama’s national security team: I hope you didn’t really believe in change?, 26 November 2008
- Obama proposes a new New Deal – like Japan, will we burn money to keep warm?, 8 December 2008
- Obama supporters mugged by reality (and learn not to believe in change!), 9 December 2008
- Lind explains why Obama’s foreign policy will fail, 14 January 2009
- About Obama’s coronation – wisdom from Fred, 23 January 2009
- Change you should not have believed in, 10 February 2009
As for the Democratic Party:
- The Democrats believe we are stupid. Are they correct?, 19 December 2008
Click on Science & Nature – my articles to see dozens of posts challenging the AGW orthodoxy.
For another perspective, the FM website favorably features articles from many prominent conservatives. Such as
- William Lind (Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism),
- Mark Steyn, John Derbyshire, Antonin Scalia, James Bowman, Eugene Volokh, Peggy Noonan, Allan Bloom,
- and even 3 posts speaking positively of Patrick Buchanan.
(2) It’s a right-wing site!
“It is painfully obvious this is simply a Republican party-line site.” (source)
“it’s increasingly obvious that this is just one long conservative whine about the modern world.” (source)
No wonder conservatives lost big in the 2008 elections! If the FM site represents their party line, their platform must call for ritual seppuku of the Grand Old Party’s machinery.
(a) Look at these articles about the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Wasn’t McCain the Republican candidate? The posts about Gov Palin (Alaska – R) were even more critical, but that’s a non-partisan view.
- How the Iraq and Vietnam wars are mirror images of each other, 7 February 2008 — Now we have McCain, the leading Republican Presidential candidate, talking of an open-ended commitment to victory in Iraq.
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Our metastable Empire, built on a foundation of clay, 3 March 2008 — We can elect leaders with vast ambitions (foreign for McCain, domestic for Obama), but can no longer afford them.
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Why McCain will lose the election, 1 July 2008
- McCain believes we are stupid. Is he correct?, 30 August 2008 — What does choosing Palin say about McCain? Esp note the intense discussion in the comments.
- Alaska is near Russia, and Gov Palin’s other foreign policy experience, 1 September 2008
- Governor Palin as an archetype for our time, 9 September 2008
- Before we reignite the cold war, what happened in Georgia?, 12 September 2008 — Notes from Palin’s first interview.
- Stratfor says that our war in Pakistan grows hotter; Palin seems OK with that, 12 September 2008 — More from the ABC interview.
- Campaign Update – news from the front, 25 September 2008 — Includes part 1 of Couric’s interview of Palin.
- Gov Palin speaks about foreign policy, 26 September 2008 — Part 2 of Couric’s interview.
- A comment about “turkey-gate”, 23 November 2008
(b) Articles about America – How can we reform it?. Section 4, about politics. I guess the GOP practice self-criticism as well as any Maoist sent for re-education (in the bad old days).
- R.I.P., G.O.P. – a well-deserved end, 7 November 2008
- What happens to the Republican Party after the election?, 2 November 2008
- President Bush gets in a few last blows on America before he leaves, 13 January 2009
(c) Articles about the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars. There are over 100 of them, every one hostile to these wars.
(d) Articles about the Bush Administration’s efforts to build support for a strike at Iran: 20 of them, and they brutally criticalize this Bush goal.
(e) Articles about the financial crisis, many dozens of them. If this is the Republican view, what must the Democrats be saying?
- Slowly a few voices are raised about the pending theft of taxpayer money, 20 September 2008
- The Paulson Plan will buy assets cheap, just as all good cons offer easy money to the marks, 30 September 2008
- A reminder – the TARP program is just theft, 24 November 2008
- Update: yes, the Paulson Plan was just theft, 14 February 2009
(f) Plus several dozen articles reposted on the FM site from TomDispatch, run by that good leftist — a brilliant and great writer — Tom Engelhardt (see here).