Kevin Williamson's Secret Identity Is Kevin Williamson

Today, Mr.  Kevin Williamson was Scaramuccied from The Atlantic for being, well, Kevin Williamson. Apparently, after hiring Mr. Williamson a little over a week ago week to a flurry of fifes and trumpets and condescending cavil from Jeffrey Goldberg about the importance of hearing from as many diverse voices wingnut scuttlefish as possible, Mr. Goldberg got around to, y'know, actually vetting his new hire to see if he was qualified for the job he had just been given.

In all my years and many jobs, I can say with perfect certainty that I have never been the beneficiary of a "Hire First/Ask Questions Later" personnel policy. 

Obviously, I'm not greasing the right people.  For example.

Hey speaking of terrible people landing prominent gigs for no explicable reason, you might remember that less than a week ago and obviously with nothing else in the world to write about, Bret Stephens -- another famous member of the League of Really Sketchy Conservative Hires -- decided to unlimber his own Mighty Scimitar of Antipathy to smite anyone who would dare to judge a Conservative writer by the words he writes.

Shouldn’t great prose and independent judgment count for something? Not according to your critics. We live in the age of guilt by pull-quote, abetted by a combination of lazy journalism, gullible readership, missing context, and technologies that make our every ill-considered utterance instantly accessible and utterly indelible. I jumped at your abortion comment, but for heaven’s sake, it was a tweet. When you write a whole book on the need to execute the tens of millions of American women who’ve had abortions, then I’ll worry.

See, the defense of Mr. Williamson came down to the depth and breadth of knowledge professed by his defenders.  If only you thin-skinned, intolerant Libtards really knew him as we on the Right do.   Once again from Bret Stephens in The New York Times:

I’m sorry to have to write you, for two reasons. Sorry, first, that you have to endure having your character assailed and assassinated by people who rarely if ever read you and likely never met you. 

And then, wouldn't you know it, somebody had to go spoil Mr. Stephen's Indignation Shindig by reading what Mr. Williamson wrote and listening to what Mr, Williamson said.  Turns out, Bret Stephens knows very nearly as much about Kevin Williamson as he knows about climate change.

We return now to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic a week later, being cited in this Huffington Post article entitled "Atlantic Fires Kevin Williamson After Suddenly Realizing He Believes The Things He Says":

Late yesterday afternoon, information came to our attention that has caused us to reconsider this relationship. Specifically, the subject of one of Kevin’s most controversial tweets was also a centerpiece of a podcast discussion in which Kevin explained his views on the subject of the death penalty and abortion. The language he used in this podcast—and in my conversations with him in recent days—made it clear that the original tweet did, in fact, represent his carefully considered views. The tweet was not merely an impulsive, decontextualized, heat-of-the-moment post, as Kevin had explained it. Furthermore, the language used in the podcast was callous and violent. This runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace.

Kevin is a gifted writer, and he has been nothing but professional in all of our interactions. But I have come to the conclusion that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways.

But the story doesn't end there, because why would it?  Because for the permanent residents of Our Lady of Perpetual Conservative Grievance, there can be no greater threat to their wingnut welfare gravy train than the idea that one day their long history of butt-scooting heinous drivel all over the public square might come with some marketplace consequences.

From a noted Goat Fucker:

Kevin Williamson's firing is a reminder that there are two Americas and one side will stop at nothing to silence the other. This is not about a bad tweet or a bad view. It is about the left wanting a monopoly on the public square so none can be exposed to competing ideas.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 5, 2018

The Federalist making the not-unreasonable calculation that its average reader is too stupid to figure out they're being lied to:

Kevin Williamson Fired From The Atlantic For Opposing Abortion https://t.co/XKmqFr4QaI

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) April 5, 2018

Another Regnery cockroach heard from:

Kevin Williamson: hired for his talent, fired for his views. This is chilling.

— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) April 5, 2018

But don't worry kids.  Mr. Williamson won't miss any meals.  Because in America, the wingnut welfare slop trough is deep and wide and never runs dry.

Behold, a Tip Jar!