Neal Larson’s main job is hurling insults and inflammatory remarks on right wing radio, along side such intellectual luminaries as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. For a while, the Idaho-based Larson also kept a column for his musings. He got himself into a heap of trouble when he decided to attack Neil deGrasse Tyson for ruining the Olympics for Larson by playing with math on Twitter. Tyson responded as a commenter, dissecting Larson’s pitiful argument, both seriously and playfully. Tyson, didn’t point out the fact that Neal Larson had cited a Clickhole article—a very obvious spoof offshoot of The Onion. Unfortunately for Larson, Daily Kos and others picked up this story and passed it around, and we all had a good laugh at Mr. Larson’s expense. But Mr. Larson is sad face emoticon now and doesn’t like the vitriol that has come his way.
What transpired in the 48 hours after Dr. Tyson’s impressive and methodical destruction of my column, was nothing less than surreal. As near as I can tell, Idaho AP political reporter Kimberlee Kruesi first tweeted about Tyson’s takedown. It was then picked up by the Idaho Statesman. Before long, the Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Raw Story, Dead State, and a host of similar national sites had picked it up rapidly, all bearing a similar headline, that the beloved astrophysicist had destroyed a conservative radio talk show host and columnist.
If the Internet’s intention in response to my stumbles was to reciprocate harm, it worked. In the same way that it’s no fun to be called a horse’s astrophysicist, it was a nightmare receiving scores of Tweets calling me a “F—-ing moron!” or informing me that I’m a warm container of semen, that I should drink poison, or that it’s a shame I “spawned” five children. After a while, I simply had to stop paying attention — deleting dozens of emails, changing privacy settings on my social media profiles, and turning off my Twitter notifications. For those in the national spotlight, this is probably old hat, but I wasn’t equipped to handle the influx, logistically or emotionally. If anyone had sent a kind word or more gentle and constructive criticism, I apologize because I probably missed it in the onslaught of hate.
Mr Larson is bidding farewell to his column as the result of a lack of civility among some people in the social networking world. He writes a very sad song about feeling powerless to the onslaught. It’s understandable—it must be brutal. He apologized, and said he was wrong, but no one could hear. Only his humiliation was floating around the internet.
Here’s Larson two weeks ago:
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The LGBT community — true victims for so long — raced right past “equality” and in some circles is enjoying a status now of supremacy. Any group that seeks to interrupt business practices, college athletic conference membership, military service, Hollywood movie casting, grade school curricula, public bathroom use policies, and every other avenue of significant endeavor — with the politics of sexual identity and attraction — you can bet, is not seeking to be mere equals. After all, nobody goes into a contest aiming for a tie.
I will be sure to tell Matthew Shepard about this new “supremacy” he died for. Here’s Larson circling the wagons around Trump (Trump’s the “only thing that has a chance of stopping her.”):
For me, that means I shift my focus to Donald Trump’s assets, and there are many. Donald Trump is an alpha-male, which tends to make a better president in terms of leadership. And despite his stylistic flaws, Trump seems to have a genuine love for America, along with a consistent message of American exceptionalism when it comes to trade, the economy, and immigration. Despite a handful of children from three different mothers, all his kids appear to be decent, talented, hard-working, and respectable. Perhaps most importantly for the biggest political contest for public office that we ever have in America, he obviously knows how to fight and win. Furthermore, Donald Trump’s unapologetic dismantling of the structure of political correctness in America has been breathtakingly impressive.
I guess Larson’s leaving is kind of like him being the beta-male to Tyson’s alpha? Sort of gross to think of it like that, isn’t it? Here’s Larson talking about how progressives hate the Constitution.
It’s probably also emotionally painful that more often than not, the collectivism embraced by progressives creates a hellhole of oppression instead of a Shining City on a Hill. In terms of producing favorable societal outcomes, freedom kicks collectivism in the giblets every time.
What? Put buzzwords together and you too can sound like a homo sapien. Here’s Larson talking about the Washington Redskins.
There’s a good reason why Washington’s NFL team has chosen as its icon the proud and brave Native American — as opposed to a millennial with a man-bun scrambling for a safe space, or a screaming Black Lives Matter activist, or a finger-snapping drag queen. One has a heritage of honor and bravery, and the others, um, don’t.
Um, fuck you, um, dick. There’s the door.