Tarnishing the Haloes of the Saints by Baron Bodissey
NB: This following essay by Baron Boddisey first appeared at the Gates of Vienna website. It recounts events that began one dozen years ago, but whose repercussions only continue to intensify in the communist endgame.
The death of David Horowitz last month stirred up all the old traumas from the fall of 2013 prompted by the controversy over Diana West’s book American Betrayal.
Mr. Horowitz was canonized immediately after his passing, but I couldn’t bear to read all the encomia to the saint — which were legion — that appeared on almost every conservative website.
At the risk of speaking ill of the dead, I feel obliged to note that Saint David behaved in a less than saintly fashion towards my friend Diana West, beginning in the late summer of 2013. He led an unseemly charge against her, one that descended into the gutter from the git-go. He and his fellow polemicists mounted ad-hominem attacks, calling her vile names and disparaging her alleged mental state. On those rare occasions when they attempted to engage the content of her writing, they invariably set up straw men to knock down, in an attempt to refute arguments that she never made.
Diana was blacklisted that fall by all the mainstream outlets of Conservatism Inc., with only the smaller blogs and forums coming to her defense and allowing her a voice. Gates of Vienna was the largest platform among those that supported her, which — given the diminutive stature of this blog — indicates how far into the Outer Darkness she had been cast.
So what was all the fuss about?
In a nutshell: through her meticulous and well-sourced historical research, Diana demonstrated the extent to which the United States government had been penetrated by Soviet agents of influence at the highest levels during the years before, during, and after World War Two. The evidence she put together showed the extent to which policy decisions on the conduct of the war had been stealthily nudged to align with the interests of the USSR.
The grim truth about what actually happened in WW2 does not reflect well on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who, as we all know, has also been canonized and elevated to the highest levels of secular political sainthood. Anyone who tries to tarnish the halo of Saint FDR can expect to become the focus of a firestorm of opprobrium, and that is exactly what happened to Diana West when the literati became aware of her heresy.
Those who wish to revisit the controversy may browse through the American Betrayal archives. For a good overview, start with “American Betrayed, Part 1”, “American Betrayed, Part 2: Planet X”, and “An Addled Barroom Brawler”.
Diana recently recorded her own retrospective on what happened twelve years ago. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:
A few observations about what happened in 2013:
1. Most of Diana West’s detractors were ex-Reds.
The principal antagonists who confronted the “right-wing loopy” in 2013 were recovering Reds — former communists. The strength of their attack and the fact that they acted in lockstep to take down their target suggest the possibility that they may in fact have been false defectors, pretending to leave communist ranks in order to engage in even deeper influence operations.
I don’t have any definite opinion about this hypothesis, but it remains a distinct possibility.
2. Planet X is still undiscovered.
As discussed at length in “American Betrayed, Part 2”, a major but unidentified source of influence was exerting invisible pressure on all the critics, both major and minor, who attempted to discredit American Betrayal. The sudden disappearance of positive reviews, the simultaneous issuing of ad-hominem vitriol, the silence of many observers who would otherwise have been expected to have expressed their opinions: all of these point to a well-funded influence operation. Someone (or some organization) was bringing strong financial pressure to bear for the purpose of marginalizing and silencing Diana West.
In the twelve years since then, Planet X has yet to be identified, but it’s out there somewhere.
3. The Jewish question.
As was frequently pointed out at the time, most of the luminaries who attempted to take down Diana West were Jews.
However, their target was also Jewish, as were the majority of her stoutest defenders, so it’s hard to make the case for a massive Zionist conspiracy behind the attacks. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t stop the Jew-haters from doing their damnedest to ring the Jew-Jew-Jew-Jew bells at every turn.
A caveat for those who may attempt to restart the old Jew-fight in the comments: I intend to set limits on the vitriol against Jews. I had my fill of all that ugliness decades ago. Reasoned and polite arguments are welcome, but if it gets nasty, I’ll cut it off. And it’s my sole prerogative to decide where nastiness begins.
Once again, for those who want more details on the controversy, I recommend a look at the archives. You can start on August 11, 2013, and work your way forward.
A number of the posts were written by Dymphna. It brought a little jolt to my heart to re-read some of them — her beloved authorial voice rang out clear as a bell, the same voice that engaged me in so many dinner-table discussions over the years, but is now alas absent.
Sigh.
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