I had an interesting little discussion with Josh Trevino on Twitter concerning my friend Pam Geller two days ago; I was making the point that Pam had done yeomanlike work in covering radical Islam. Josh suggested she was irrelevant, over the course of several tweets:
There were more along those lines.
Now, I like Josh (and also owe him a drink from a lost bet, which I’m anxious to pay up on) and I’m certainly not going to throw him under the bus over a disagreement about a friend, but there is an interesting point that our discussion brought to mind.
Ten years ago, it would have been unlikely that you would have heard of me; I had a few reviews on Amazon, but my web presence was practically invisible.
Five years ago you might have known about me because of a few e-mails I sent as a reader of Glenn Reynolds’ blog—and perhaps a post or two on the HiWired tech blog, or our Podcast.
You were much more likely to know my wife and kids, whose picture was, for a while, the number-one result on Google images for “world’s greatest family.” (Don’t ask me why).
Today, my radio show is heard in six states via WCRN, a 50,000-watt radio station. I’ve had an op-ed in the New York Post, and you might have seen me as a guest on Fox 25 in Boston. You may read my work here at The Conservatory, or at The Minority Report. Or at Examiner.com.
As for my own blog, here is where it is now read:
90 days at Datechguyblog.com
Who knows where I’ll be next year?
Pam Geller was a New York mom before 9/11; now she is read all over the world, and has appeared and made her case on every cable network. She speaks all over the country, and is hated enough by the followers of fundamentalist Islam that she needs bodyguards. She is relevant enough that CAIR relentlessly attacks her, and she is feared enough by the left and the media that they are trying to blame her for a mass murder in Norway!
Where will she be next year? In two years? I don’t know, and neither do you. How relevant was Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann or the Tea Party in 2005? Two decades ago Rush Limbaugh was a niche-market talk show host; today, the Speaker of the House calls him on his show to push his bill. I’m sure there were a few people in Nazereth around 20 A.D. who were gossiping with each other, murmuring, “when is Joseph’s boy going to get married, settle down, and make something of himself?”
The lesson? Don’t follow conventional wisdom when judging someone’s influence or “relevance”: Conventional wisdom is correct right up until the moment that it isn’t any more.
Dan Collins on July 29, 2011 at 7:57 am said:
Yeah. Pam deserved blogger of the year honors last year for her many initiatives, including those regarding the bus ads, which have brought to the fore the issues of double standards in public displays of religious/anti-religious messaging. If Josh is singling Pam out for a lack of effectiveness in the Meat Space, he’s not paying attention.
Political Clown Parade on July 29, 2011 at 7:25 pm said:
Spot on assessment of Geller’s work. I particularly loved the line: I’m sure there were a few people in Nazereth around 20 A.D. who were gossiping with each other, murmuring, “when is Joseph’s boy going to get married, settle down, and make something of himself?”
Da TechGuy on July 29, 2011 at 9:18 pm said:
Ironically it was that comparison that made him abandon the conversation
Political Clown Parade on July 29, 2011 at 9:25 pm said:
LOL. I bet it did!
Kevin O'Brien on July 29, 2011 at 8:30 pm said:
Josh who?
dave in dallas on July 29, 2011 at 8:33 pm said:
I don’t know josh but his answer about PG looks mighty pompous from out here in flyover country. I have met Pam Geller on several occasions, although she probably wouldn’t remember me, and I was always struck by her energy and commitment and sincerity and happy SERIOUSNESS. To dismiss it as “noise” is a bit insulting, as if young Josh is trying to elevate himself by stepping on someone else. His tweets weren’t private, were they? So he might have been playing to his audience. Obnoxious. Pam Geller is worth ten of him.
Austin on July 29, 2011 at 8:52 pm said:
she’s brave and truthful and that’s a good example for us all. I read her and I live a long way from NYC!
Dan Maloney on July 29, 2011 at 8:57 pm said:
Who is Josh Trevino and how many policies or elections has he swayed??
toadold on July 29, 2011 at 9:11 pm said:
One indication of “relevance” is how desperate people are to declare someones political views irrelevant. Fear and panic seem to be present due to all the efforts to promote control on what goes out on the net by totalitarians and leftists. False flag commentators, FCC smoke jobs, and a host of other efforts. First Amendment for me but not for thee.
M. Thatcher on July 29, 2011 at 9:13 pm said:
Have read Geller. Read Da TechGuy. Trevino? Not so much.
Noo on July 29, 2011 at 9:34 pm said:
I also know that Pam Geller is a lousy baseball player and WILL NOT be recruited by the NY Yankees. Nevertheless she is read more frequently than Derrick Jeter and Joba Chamberlain combined. Be careful which criteria you fling around in debates.
kcom on July 29, 2011 at 9:42 pm said:
I vividly remember the day after April 15, 2009. It was the day after the first Tax Day tea parties. I particularly remember a post where a leftie commenter declared the rallies to be an “epic fail”. Of course, that’s just a variation on “it’s just noise:” Now it’s two and a half years later and we’re still hearing insults against the Tea Party. But, in the meantime, not only has it survived but the 2010 elections brought scores of those tea partiers into government and legislation can’t get out of the House without taking their views seriously into account. Some “epic fail”.
It reminds me of the story I heard from a former World War II POW. He said in an interview that every time the Germans gave them news of the war it was news of another Nazi victory. But, he said, the POWs couldn’t help noticing that all those German “victories” were getting closer and closer to the heart of Germany. They put two and two together and figured out what was really happening despite the German propaganda. The protests and insults against the Tea Party remind me of that.
kcom on July 29, 2011 at 9:44 pm said:
And, of course, so do the arrogant dismissals of Pam Geller.
ahem on July 29, 2011 at 9:59 pm said:
Pamela Geller comes out with the info first; she’s a great and tireless investigative journalist who leaves no stone unturned. She’s an organizer who gets people moving. She’s also an advocate for those who are persecuted, helping them fiercely and passionately, to her own financial detriment and even to her own physical endangerment.
Trevino? Josh Trevino? Who’s he? Who the hell is he?
Bohemond on July 29, 2011 at 10:17 pm said:
So “irrelevant” that the New York Slimes is trying to blame her for a mass murder on another continent…..
Dan Collins on July 29, 2011 at 10:39 pm said:
I fully expect all of you to stand up for me this way if ever I’m so dismissed. What? Well, just make some shite up.
Assistant Village Idiot on July 29, 2011 at 11:17 pm said:
Over a billion Chinese don’t care about her, which is to say that context is important in discussions of relevance. How much influence on the world does Joe Biden have? There really aren’t too many people who can move the world dial perceptibly, but that’s hardly a sensible definition of relevance.
You can make anyone sound irrelevant if you try.
Ediv710 on July 29, 2011 at 11:23 pm said:
“Two decades ago Rush Limbaugh was a niche-market talk show host;”
Two decades ago was 1991. Rush Limbaugh was on WLS and WABC, the two largest radio stations in the country. He was also invited to the White House as Bush The Inept was seeking to ingratiate himself with conservatives.
Whoever is claiming Geller is irrelevant is a kook and likely a RINO in fear.
cbinflux on July 30, 2011 at 12:07 am said:
Rush has a ~ 99.997% accuracy rating. Pam? Not so much.
She’s launched a few bad rumors, etc.
cbinflux on July 30, 2011 at 12:10 am said:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/12/the-education-of-pamela-geller
J.M. Heinrichs on July 30, 2011 at 2:33 am said:
Being published in “Reason” is not a guarantee of comprehensive erudition, especially when the topic is ‘religion’. Neither Mr Balko nor Mr Knapp show much evidence of contextual comprehension in critiquing critics of Mohammedanism. But they both probably find the MESA-types splendidly and intellectually vibrant.
Cheers
Tim on July 30, 2011 at 7:20 am said:
It’s pretty sad if your criteria for relevance are influencing policy or influencing elections.
Zilla on July 30, 2011 at 7:35 am said:
Pamela helped to save the life of Rifqa Barry, she has fought to make sure that the murdered victims of “honor killings” are not forgotten and has blown the lid off of the cover-up of a murder victim in Florida. She fights every day to help those who have chosen to leave islam and find that their lives are in danger because of it. She has exposed the corruption and coercion in political islam and the left that has infested the highest levels of our government. These are just a few of the “relevant” things that she has done. If it weren’t for Pamela, that massive victory mosque and jihadi recruiting center would likely have already been erected at Ground Zero.
She is far from irrelevant. Pamela is a good person and she is under fire by those who commit blood libel because they have a vested interest in silencing her and those like her who tell the truth about islamic supremacists. She deserves all of our support. Please contact me if you would like to add your name to the Roll Call list of those who are publicly standing with her, and others who are being wrongly vilified over the Norway atrocity, HERE.
Russ from Winterset on July 30, 2011 at 7:40 am said:
“I fully expect all of you to stand up for me this way if ever I’m so dismissed. What? Well, just make some shite up.”
My left arm was covered in horrible, festering sores that all disappeared completely within 24 hours of receiving an email from Dan Collins. Thank you, Dan!
Dan Collins on July 30, 2011 at 8:29 am said:
Thanks, Russ. My emails cure scrofula, croup and lumbago, too!
Patrick Foley on July 30, 2011 at 12:02 pm said:
Pamela is fearless. We should all be so irrelevant. She’ll be remembered by the powerless she defends.
Douglas on July 30, 2011 at 12:20 pm said:
2 decades ago, Rush Limbaugh was a best selling author and mega station radio host. You have to go back 25 years to make rush a marginal figure. I still have my original copy of “The way things ought to be” edited by. . . judith regan. I believe it came out in 91. 20 years ago.
Linda on July 30, 2011 at 12:31 pm said:
Two things, Peter.
1) You are way too nice to people. That Josh guy was rude.
2) This post is brilliant, and the “Joseph’s boy” conclusion made me laugh out loud.
oops, that’s like four things.
cheers!
Mark Allen on July 30, 2011 at 6:02 pm said:
I’ve heard of Pam Geller and visit Atlas Shrugs quite often, never heard of a guy named Strevino…did you mean Trevino?
jefferson101 on July 30, 2011 at 7:37 pm said:
Just to note, since this seems to be quite the going thread.
I’ve never had a “Problem” with Pam Geller, but she’s never been a regular read for me, either. I have the same problem with her that I do with a lot of other folks in the Blogosphere. They may be on my side, but they are way too shrill, tend to jump to conclusions regularly, without waiting to see the facts, and have skin that’s way too thin.
Be calm, be patient, and don’t have to be fighting below your weight all the time, young lady.
You don’t have to respond to every disagreement, and you don’t have to get righteously indignant over everything that happens. There has always been injustice in the world and there always will be. You can address it in general, or in particular, but you can’t do both, and you particularly can’t do it all the time. Focus, for heaven’s sake!
I’m not prepared to see the United States take the steps that would be necessary to stop the stoning of 14 year old rape victims in Somalia or Iran, Bangladesh, or wherever. Noting the occurrence is not a bad thing, but acting as if “we” should be doing something about it? I’m more worried about Abortions in this country that I am about what some idiots in Bangladesh do. If they want to kill each other for whatever reason? I hate that it’s happening, but I’m not in a position to intervene.
If they want to be set free, they can set themselves free. I’m not their keeper, and for some reason, Ms. Geller seems to present everything as if I am expected to save them.
Sorry, but it’s not my, or my Nation’s job, to save the world. It could be noted that the previous sentence encapsulates most of my issues with GWB, too.
FWIW