Weblog Review: Clusterfuck Nation

Weblog of the Week: Clusterfuck Nation

Why I Like It: Are weblogs nothing but “a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web”? That’s what Michael Gorman, the president-elect of the American Library Association, had to say about weblogs recently, in an article that was picked up by Slashdot and Joho the Blog.

Certainly, Gorman’s definition applies to a lot of weblogs. It doesn't, however, apply to Clusterfuck Nation, a weblog written by the author Jim Kunstler. He's a writer whose style is often referred to by reviewers as "highly opinionated." And it is, and that's what makes it interesting: it's so unlike the homogenized, freeze-dried opinions of newspaper editorials and mainstream political weblogs.

I first learned about Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation when Ernie the Attorney gave notice of what he called a "provocative new weblog." Apparently, Kunstler had already been publishing something much like his weblog on a personal website. He's still double-posting there, where his archives are much easier to navigate.

Recommended Reading:

1. A post about Fahrenheit 9/11 in which Kunstler confides that Michael Moore gives him "the chills and the creeps."

2. A post about suburbia and why the New York Times "is rapidly becoming the supreme organ of cluelessness in our so-called culture."

3. A post about the hypocrisy of America's so-called intellectuals who call themselves "greens" merely because it's the fashionable thing to do.

[Below the Fold: Other posts in the weblog review series.]

Other posts in the weblog review series are here.

Comments

[Abnu]

Evan, I thought it was especially interesting the way you promulgated
Kunstler's current post "Born Again" without actually associating
yourself with those views. Very clever.

[JR]

Evan: Kunstler is indeed "highly opinionated." I never read his blog before today.

Abnu: I just read that post you linked to and got a good laugh. I am a Protestant evangelical--you know one of those stupid people he talks about.

I like this comment: "Friends of mine are alarmed about the rise of the
Pentecostals and evangelicals. Personally, I think there is going to be a hearty backlash against them. It is beginning to look too obvious that they don't care about several crucial aspects of the human project in its current form. They don't care about global warming. They don't care about the gathering world energy crisis. They don't care about America's phony economy based on ever more suburban development."

My religion tells me to be a good steward of what was entrusted to me. I deeply care about the environment and the economy. I wish to perserve both for generations to come. And you know what, there are plenty of others like me.

[Evan]

Abnu: Thanks for saying I'm clever, but please don't give me too much credit. I meant merely to highlight a weblog that I like to read. Whether I agree with specific opinions expressed within the weblog was beyond the scope of the post. Besides, as you know, if I want to state strong opinions and call them my own, I'm capable of doing it without the use of innuendo.

[fizure]

Archives of the blog can be located here:

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/archives.html

All best,