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More On Von Brunn

I guess I don't understand Jamie's point here. I was addressing whether James Von Brunn's anti-Semitism (and potential fixation with neoconservatism) makes it harder to "fit [his ideology] into conventional political classification." That there are inherent commonalities between right-wing extremists and left-wing extremists is a defining feature of the conventional political classification. To point out that some figures on the left are also anti-Semitic does not undermine the picture of Von Brunn as a right-winger at all, anymore than pointing out that some right-wing figures share Hugo Chavez's contempt for civil liberties would complicate the picture of Chavez as a left-winger. To be a right-wing extremist by definition means that you share certain beliefs with people on the left, just as being a left-wing extremist means by definition that you share certain views with people on the right.

--Jonathan Chait

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