Sunday, October 28, 2007

Vlaams Belang and the great blog divide

I've been watching with interest over the past few days an increasing number of posts about Vlaams Belang, a Belgian right-wing party. A number of anti-jihad, right of center bloggers have been posting with some frequency on the question of whether VB is a neo-Nazi wolf in sheep's clothing or simply a party of conservative policy in the American sense.

Pamela at Atlas Shrugs and Charles at Little Green Footballs, bloggers who've in the past seem to have had a friendly relationship, are nearly at digital blows on the topic. While I'm on the fence myself about VB, I think Pamela's charge against Charles was over the top while Charles' response was measured and reasonable. And Charles has enough facts to cast suspicious light on VB.

Hot Air appears to be on the anti-VB side (though you'll have to read between the lines and in the comments to come to that conclusion) while Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna seems more sanguine about VB's motives.

All of these are blogs I read regularly and for which I have immense amounts of respect. I only hope that a permanent schism doesn't develop over this within the anti-jihad blogosphere. As for me, I'll have to learn more before deciding which side I'm on. But right now, VB doesn't look too good.

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