Hey, why the Hell should His Rantiness be the only member of the Blogosphere to not blather about this whole affair?
As we’re sure that you already know, most likely to the point of nausea, the bright rising star of the Right Sphere, Ben Domenech of Redstate.com, turned out to be not quite all that he was made up to be.
A 24-year-old conservative with a career that most of us can only hope to emulate got a job with the Washington Compost, writing a conservative blog in order to stick a thumb in the ruptured aneurysm that is the subscription number at that Stalinist rag. Of course, the Loony Left were outraged. How dare an infidel infiltrate their madrassah of GroupThink and profane it with a different viewpoint? So they set out to destroy him, using their usual tactics: Death threats, threats about raping his sister, calling him a “racist” (how fucking droll and last century is that?) and then, after having tried everything and failed miserably, they finally hit the mother lode. Something damaging that was, unfortunately for Ben, utterly true.
Ben’s a plagiarist. Just like Ward “Shitting Bull” Churchill.
Not good. His Rottieness has absolutely no patience with people nicking other people’s work and passing it off as their own, no matter where they come from. No, we’re not talking about borrowing a turn of phrase or using somebody else’s work as inspiration. We’re talking about lifting entire paragraphs, word for word.
That’s just pitiful. What’s worse, it’s theft.
We personally owe a great deal to other writers and Heaven knows that we’ve borrowed inspiration from others from time to time, but we’ve always tried to insert the appropriate “with thanks and apologies to …” before or after. When we say “tried”, it’s because we’re absolutely sure that there may have been times that we forgot, and we’re not about to swear to something unless we’re 100% sure. If we’ve transgressed in the past, please let us know and we’ll publicly and humbly apologize and correct the error.
But that’s not how Ben’s doings look to us, based on more examples than we can possibly link to here. Do a search on “Ben Domenech plagiarism” if you want to know more. You’ll find a lot, since everybody and his brother has been digging up examples for days now.
We don’t honestly know what made Ben cut corners like that, because it’s pretty damn obvious from what we’ve read that was his that he’s got talent. Talent, devotion and energy and an ideology and idealism that we, personally, find inspiring. Which is why we give a damn. If he were just a talentless hack who never had an original thought we wouldn’t give a good shit about the fact that he’s managed to fuck up his entire career and shred his reputation in the process.
But he isn’t, which makes it all the more confounding. Why, oh why, oh WHY?
The only possible reason we can see is a combination of ambition and youth, added to what we (and, it seems, LC & IB Rick Moran) like to call “writer’s malady”, which is the conviction that nothing you ever write is ever good enough. You’re your own worst critic.
But that’s no excuse for what he did, nor is His Rottieness going to try to come up with one, because there is none.
I’m just trying to figure out WHY?
Look at the kid’s CV, ferchrissakes, not to mention the stuff that he DID write. You don’t earn a CV like his at the tender age of 24 just because you lifted a chapter from a book by P.J. O’Rourke when you were 17.
And now it’s all shot to Hell because he fucked up.
That’s sad, but I hope that he learns from it. After some dissembling he finally came up with a sincere apology, and I’m willing to believe that he meant it. There’s nothing sinister in trying to defend yourself from the indefensible when your world comes crashing down around you, it’s utterly human. What matters is whether you stay in denial or finally come to your senses and own up to your fuckup. I honestly believe that Ben did. Finally.
It takes time. Admitting publicly that you fucked up and doing so without reservations isn’t easy. I should know. But you have to, or you’ll never ever be able to look at yourself in the mirror again. You may fool the rest of the world, but you’ll never fool you, and you are the one person that you will have to learn to live with for the rest of your life.
Deal with it. Learn your lesson and move on. You may have a long and hard road to travel because of your failings, but that’s entirely your own fault. Just pick yourself up and earn back the trust you’ve squandered. You can do it if you really want to, or you can sit down and suck your thumb while trying to find somebody or something else to blame.
So what would I say to Ben if I had the chance?
Son, you fucked up. You fucked up in the worst possible way and there is no excuse for what you did. You’re going to have to work a loooong time to rebuild what you tore down and it’s all your fault. No, I’m not going to cut any corners here because it ain’t going to help you any. You’ve got to realize that you were a jerk and that the heap of dung that you’re buried up to your neck in now is all your own.
Thankfully, I think that you know that, so you’re off to a good start. Just don’t ever give in to the temptation of trying to blame it on somebody else or you’ll turn into everything that you claim to despise.
You’re not the first one to fuck up beyond belief, nor will you be the last one, so quit feeling sorry for yourself if, in fact, you do right now. It’s not going to help either.
But you’re only 24, so you’ve got a lot of time ahead of you in which you can salvage the shipwreck of your career. It’s going to be hard work and you’re going to not only be as good as everybody else, you’re going to have to be better to ever get back in the good graces of anybody. No, it’s not fair, but that’s the way life is. You’re currently the lowest scum of the Earth, and you’re going to have to work your ass off night and day to ever get promoted from that.
If it’s any consolation, I think you can. You’re a smart kid, there’s no arguing with your credentials and achievements, even when you throw out the ones you made by stealing from others. You can do it, but you’re going to have to be willing to do so. You’re going to have to eat a lot of shit because of this and you can’t ever, ever refuse to, because this fuckup isn’t ever going to disappear. It’ll always be hanging over you, so get used to it. It ain’t going away.
Unlike those of us who’ve never done what you did or those of us who’ve done it but gotten away with it (and they have to live with it in their own minds too), you’re going to have to be better than everybody else to prove your worth now. Not fair, but there’s no point in getting bitter over it, son, because you brought it upon yourself. Just work your way out of it.
I hope you do, Ben, because the silver lining to all of this is that if you do manage to drown your mistakes of the past in successes and good deeds of the future, you’ll not merely be as good as the rest of us.
You’ll be better.
So hop to it, Ben. Learn from your mistakes and devote yourself to proving to everybody else that you did learn. You can, if you want to.
You gave yourself a huge handicap, but that too can be a good thing. If you can dig out from under this heap of crap of your own doing, the victory will be so much sweeter because of it.
By admitting to your own faults you took a huge first step.
G-d speed to you, and stay on the right track from now on.
Don’t make me proud, don’t make your parents proud, make you proud. Take something from the ashes and make something worth being proud of.
I think you can, but if you don’t want to, you’ll fail.
And if you don’t want to, you can go fuck yourself as far as I’m concerned.
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Been there, done that, so to speak. Sometimes due to time or because something just seems to hard or trivial at the time, you take a shortcut. While it might not be instant, but Karma does seem to get you. I’ve paid for taking the easy way, and learned it made my life harder in the long run.
It’s a shame that someone who is talented and was able to work his way into an enviable postition had this kill his career. It was his own doing and he is just going to have to face it. We condemned the writer who got that award for the crack baby story that was completely made up and this is no different.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:38 amWho hasn’t? In a big or small way.
What makes the difference between the man and the boy is what he does from there on out. I hope that Ben turns out to be a man. I hope that for him.
March 26th, 2006 at 3:20 amGreat advice Misha.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:46 amI’ve been tempted a couple of times to ‘lift’ things from a site. The little moooslem voice says ‘go ahead nobody will ever know’. Then comes ‘but you will’. I, hopefully, have always added a ‘found here’ link. Guess I should go check some of those ‘after a 12 pack’ posts. I try to live by ‘ya do what’s right because it’s right’. After yahoo (sucks) went jihad on the other blog, I sat around for several days wondering if I wanted to try again. Well as it turns out I enjoyed it even though nobody reads it. Then of all things I get listed in the Imperial Blogroll!!!!!!
Even though I know that I will never be as eloquent or insightful as Misha, for that matter 99.9% of your blogroll. You are an encouragement to ‘play it straight’ and have fun.
If I lift it I link it.
But plagiarism seems to be on the rise. Could be because so many high school and college students seem to think that it is perfectly okay to steal someone else’s work and the internet makes it so easy to do. Once the kid gets into the real world the old habits just continue.
March 26th, 2006 at 5:33 amI can’t believe anyone past middle school would plagiarize now that we have a little thing called “the internet” (praise to Al Gore).
I’m with GUYK, if I use something from another site I link to it and or give a hat tip, as I have often done to this here amazing collection of contentiousness.
March 26th, 2006 at 6:33 amWell, actually, I’m one of the ones who hasn’t really kept up with it. I read about it somewhere, but promptly forgot about it.
My question is this: Little Joey Biden did the same thing - sure, he got criticized for it some - but pretty much got a pass as far as any serious consequences are concerned.
Not to downplay what this kid did, but why the fuck is he being dumped on like this? AFAIC, until Biden suffers some major loss in his life over his transgression (loss of job, perhaps?), then as far as this kid goes, I’ve this pinch of sodium chloride here, and…
March 26th, 2006 at 7:00 amLord Spatula notes: “Little Joey Biden did the same thing - sure, he got criticized for it some - but pretty much got a pass as far as any serious consequences are concerned”
Funny what a Yahoo search with the terms, “Democrats” and, “plagiarism” turn up:
Rep. Sherrod Brown: (http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1131445870289970.xml&coll=2)
From Powerline blog: Democrats’ Top Scholar Charged With Plagiarism
Note the following from Cliff Kinkade writting in the National Ledger: (http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=2665&printer=1)
March 26th, 2006 at 8:58 am“Lowest form of scum on earth?” You honestly think that someone plagarizing is worse than someone hacking the head off of another person for not being Muslim? Lower than hanging a 16 year old girl because she got raped?
I think your priorities are a tad messed up there, my leige.
March 26th, 2006 at 10:09 amFirst I have heard of it.
Reminds me, what ever happend to jayson blair?
March 26th, 2006 at 10:30 amSad for sure. But I have written three books and learned long ago……just the courtesy of credit and recognition is appreciated and quite often returned. You cannot buy a reputation. If I copy something off a site, I also copy the link and refer to the site. It’s that simple. A damn shame, truly it is……
March 26th, 2006 at 11:08 amSorry, I can’t forgive him, what with all the looking the other way done by the other side at their wrongdoings. For example:
Perjury done by BOTH clintons in front of a Grand Jury.
Giving kennedy a pass when it comes to his murder of Mary Jo Kopechne
The unauthorized use of our fine military to attack American dissenters at Waco
The forging and distribution of documents regarding the Presidents military record…..
etc….etc….etc…
They always have a justification for the wrongs committed by their own. I’m just saying that we as card carrying members of the VRWC need to hoist our own wrongdoers on their petard and let them hang there for a while. Show the American public that we don’t tolerate law breakers in our midsts.
We American conservatives and libertarians better recognize the fact that we stand a better than 50% chance of losing the majority in both houses this November. Can you say impeachment proceedings against a wartime President? We have to make crystal clear the difference betweeen us and them and that starts with flaming our own when they do something illegal.
Oh yeah, if you want to know what jayson blair is up to, and the difference between us and them…
Go Here
March 26th, 2006 at 12:19 pmGood point.
Obviously not. I guess I got a bit carried away there, partly because I don’t consider those bastards good enough to be called “scum”.
I just have a really, really hard time dealing with thieves, is all.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:55 pmI was wondering when you were going to get around to this one…Jane really broke it off in his ass. He’ll be ok, he still has Redstate.org and rich parents, I imagine he’ll be back in a few weeks, they love him there.
Now Jaybear, pray tell what is wrong with what Jayson Blair is doing? Sounds to me like he’s dealing with his demons head on, like Misha recommends for Ben.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:01 pmIn other good news, Emperor…the Afghan who converted to Christianity is not going to be tried.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:08 pmAgain, I’m not downplaying what he did. And jaybear, you absolutely have a point that we cannot tolerate this in our own, and must punish him to the extent that his transgressions fit.
All I’m saying is that we need to be prepared to tell the Demoscum, “you bring us Biden’s head on a stick, and you will be afforded a tiny sliver of credibility as regards Domenech. But until then, STFU and don’t come around us with your bullshit, because we’ll shove it right back down your throats. Literally, if need be.”
Just sayin’, is all.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:28 pmBiden was blown completely out of the ‘88 race and will never be able to run for President again,not seriously… I hardly think that’s not punishment, Spats. Biden got his comeuppance.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:38 pmMike, one more news item of personal interest to you, in case you missed it…Schlussel, strangely not content with the personal destruction of one of her own, sees this a perfect time to attack other apparent Republican plagiaristswho have plagiarized from HER(lol), one of whom was Monica Crowley. Guess she’s mad because they use the same hair tint? And then she says that the guy who wrote the Swift Boat book stole from her too. This woman is not to be believed, dude…if the right doesn’t disown this self centered halfwit something is wrong…
March 26th, 2006 at 2:01 pmOh wait-Crowley didn’t steal from her. It’s just a straight out blonde war there.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:03 pmDS sure is a few fries short of a Happy Meal.
Anyone else hear “meows” while reading her column about Monica Crowley?
What an ego. Sheesh!
March 26th, 2006 at 2:19 pmNot hardly, Ron. As long as he and his putrid stench still reside in the Senate, he’s not been punished near enough.
March 26th, 2006 at 2:24 pmRon sez:
I don’t have a problem with what Blair is doing in addressing the bipolar issue, that’s a serious disorder. it just seems that he has profited from his notoriety as well, what with his book deals etc. I also tire of people using disorders like bipolar as excuses for their actions…ala debra la fave.
The guy’s a plagiarist, whatever community service he does is very commendable but he shouldn’t be held up as some kind of hero…
March 26th, 2006 at 2:33 pmWell, he’s apparently good for Delawarian local interests so its really up to Delaware voters to decide.
Fair enough, I don’t see any hero worship happening there though, and manic depression is very serious-if he has been diagnosed he has a hard row to hoe.
March 26th, 2006 at 3:39 pmRon sez:
Amen Brudda, I had a boss who refused to take his medications for his manic/depressive state. He was totally insane, insane to the point of physically threatening me and others on his staff. This was his pattern, he would shut your office door and then proceed to verbally and sometimes physically lay into you. He never touched me, as I was of equal size and (at the time) in better shape, but threatened me a number of times. My tack was to take the high road, let him spout off…document it, and hand it to my lawyer. But I told him that if he so much as touched me, I would press assault charges against him and sue him for harrassment and I went so far as to retain a lawyer for such an occasion. He eventually lost his wife, his baby son, and his career. Oh his last day, he came in to my office and, true to form, shut my door…I got ready to counter attack and he then asked me if I knew of any support groups in the area for bipolar. I am a recovering alcoholic and because of my security clearance all of my managers knew of this. He said that we had a common thread in that we both suffered from a disease and he wanted to join me in recovery. I hooked him up with a friend of mine who was bipolar and working hard to keep it in check. That was 10 years ago, I don’t know what happened to him after I got those two together.
The guy did a lot of damage both to employees and to our customers (the DoD). I don’t know why the top guns in the company never confronted him about this, as they were well aware of it. That’s why I took matters in my own hands and hired a lawyer. I wish him well and hope he got his family back…but I don’t go out of my way to re-establish contact with him.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:03 pmYou did the right thing, Jaybear, and a good deed too.
I’m also glad on his behalf that he finally admitted to himself that he had a problem. Without that first step, everything else is pointless.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:18 pmIf Ben Domenech ran for Joe Biden’s seat, would Biden play the plagiarism card?
March 26th, 2006 at 4:27 pmYou’re right about that first step Misha,
March 26th, 2006 at 4:48 pmIt’s the hardest one to take also.
I wonder if, as conservatives, we oughtn’t to demand a bit more from, and be a bit more unforgiving. right now, we are in power in congress, an we run the risk of being shat upon for just about any problem.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:10 amabramoff, who seems to be a filthy, opportunistic little swine, should not be easily forgiven, either.
forget this guy. read david brooks in the nyt (if you want to pay the money). we do have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than arianna huffington, david BROCK, martin luther king, etc. let’s desert him and go on. if he should happen to revive himself (and not turn out to be a repentent liberal like arianna or brock, when found out) — fine, but let him do it on his own, and come back of his own initiative. don’t forget jayson blair. WE want THEM to forget his race and call a spade a spade. just because this guy is a conservative like us, we on;t have to turn all touchy-feely and forgiving about it.
the emperor sounded altogether too tolerant, i think.
mike/san francisco
sorry…i rang off without asking the question: don’t you guys think that the COMMENTary up until this point sounds like it was generated by a bunch of hand-wringing, alanon type liberals? the burden of proof (assuming he is indeed guilty at this point) is on HIM. we don’t need to tell him in advance all the various maladies we stand willing to accept in mitigation.
please let me know what you think. everyone else so far seems too permissive to me. abramoff and delay (IF the latter did anything) should go to jail, and WE should be the first ones demanding it, for consistency’s sake. misha– what do you think?
March 27th, 2006 at 1:18 am