Lee Siegel, New Republic Critic Turned Anonymous Commenter, Blames Bush For Nasty Commenters

Lee Siegel, the senior editor at the New Republic who was suspended for posting a handful of self-serving comments on his TNR blog under the handle "sprezzatura," explained in today's Guardian why he remains unapologetic a year and half later.

Siegel, who coined the term "blogofascism" and released a book earlier this year called "Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob," rebukes bloggers for what he considers their smug complacency and anti-elitism, and chides his bosses for their unwillingness to censor reader comments. (He says he was called a "douchebag," "fraud" and a "paedophile.")

He also rips into the Bush administration, whom he blames for setting the tone for the mutual mistrust that has undermined the aura of authority that used to envelope critics:

"I began to feel that perhaps the almost total delegitimisation of political figures in the US - a process hastened by our current idiotic and criminal regime - was now being visited upon cultural figures, and in particular upon critics. It was no accident, after all, that the blogosphere really took off in the years since Bush became president, especially after the start of the Iraq war. The feeling now - post-Judith Miller's resignation from the New York Times over her inaccurate reports about Iraq's WMD - is that if it appears in the mainstream media, it's bullshit; whereas if it's on the internet, it's the truth."

At first, Siegel says he found the lively debate his blog produced "exhilarating," but soon it became "exasperating," and he says he felt the need to take matters into his own hands.

"I decided to give thuggish anonymity a taste of thuggish anonymity," he writes.

Siegel insists he didn't make an effort to hide his identity, and he picked the name "sprezzatura" because it was a Renaissance term for "deceptive simplicity."

"I did nothing to hide my style, even repeating phrases I had used when writing under my own name," Siegel writes. "It was through these reckless telltale tics that some enterprising commenters worked out who I really was."

When he was found out, Siegel defended his comments as a "prank." In his Guardian piece, he admits posting anonymous comments on his own blog was "silly," but he doesn't seem to find anything wrong with it.

"The way I see it, an advocate of gun control who shoots an armed assailant is hardly a hypocrite."

Below, watch Siegel discuss the internet and confront Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show":

Comments

[BigCheese]

"I decided to give thuggish anonymity a taste of thuggish anonymity," he writes.

Boy, you really showed them. What a tool.

[Mattjoe]

The fact that John Q Public has a platform by way of an Internet connection and a big blogging stick " is now going to hit you repeatedly as hard as he or she can plainly understandable. As is the "delegitimisation" of political figures in the U.S. " blogger anger and mistrust is proportional to self-evident administrative/ corporate media collusion. The current administration has sensory raped just enough logical people, that it has driven even the most introverted amongst the electorate to log on and say F you, but more so in retaliation for deceptions than policy stance, often (however naively) to challenge "the man" if not the intellect of the administration (when applicable) the motivation.

I think it"s fitting that a Rose use the term "aura", that 'atmosphere or quality that SEEMS to surround and be generated by a person, a SUPPOSED emanation surrounding the body' to describe perfectly that intangible and elusive value, pundits, journalists even politicians (or local car salesman), may or may not bring to the table.

Blogging is merely brain sport, a diversion from life"s day-to-day¦..so I guess that makes political blogging, not unlike bringing sand to the beach.

And I"ll never get this four minutes back.

[whitey7]

What a crybaby.

[javaman]

Why do I consider this a non story?

[LivingStardust]

Lee, if you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.

This whole story would never have happened if you (1) had a thicker skin, (2) had the guts to address your attackers directly and (3) if you had acted like an adult and worn your cup to the roughest verbal free-for-all on Earth. You seem to not understand the game you CHOSE to play.

I hope you enjoy being savaged. It will happen. You've painted a big target on yourself that reads "Troll, Sub-species: Lightweight Pantywaist". Have a nice day.

[Testtubebaby]

Just tells you how many stupid and lonely people there are out there. He"ll make millions off of the same stupid people he"s calling stupid. Still kills me how folks get their feelings hurt by some anonymous poster. A nasty response directed at me may inspire to lol ignore and move on or write something scathing in kind sure, feeling slighted or a hurt...please. I don"t know you!!!!!

[booksnmore4you]

Siegel most definitely makes good points, especially how anonymity has enabled sheer thuggery, and all sorts of crap. Try editing Wikipedia in a truly responsible way for a few weeks and you'll see the only way to do so is to resort to tribalism, and even then it is rarely successful.

[TRYKER]

Compared to life before Wikipedia and Huffpo etc., its great to have bloggers and commenters to enrich the whole.
It has also been illuminating that what they say about education in our country being sometimes lacking, is in fact too true.
The persistence of trolls spouting talking points 24/7 across the boards shows that a lot of people work for nothing, or if they are being paid to troll like that, that some people have too much money and should be shamed into doing something more constructive...like feed the starving...starve the trolls.