Meh, the crybabies on the far right would have found some excuse to complain and criticize regardless of whether Bannon was there or not. If he had shown up they no doubt would have whinged about any number of things: the unfairness of the questions; the unfairness of not giving him unrestrained license to turn the event into some sort of White Pride rally; the unfairness of being forced to sit in the same room with colored people who might not even be citizens, whatever.

I think the point that few of us could recognize Bannon's voice is a salient one. For all I know, he's got the dulcet tones of Leonard Nimoy and the gentle manner of Fred Rodgers, since 99% of what I know about him comes from Bannon's ideological opponents.

That being said, it's arguable that he, truly, didn't deserve the New Yorker's platform. Unlike Milo, who is detestable but planned his own speaking tour only to see it yanked from under him unfairly (we have right to public accommodations, IMO), protesting the New Yorkers' decision is in bounds.

"Unlike Milo, who is detestable but planned his own speaking tour only to see it yanked from under him unfairly"

lol a conservative billionaire funded his tours until Milo, thanks to the sustained campaigns organized against him, became too toxic for even the Mercers to be connected to. https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/mar/24/mercer-milo-tour/

It really would have been a compelling and talked about event. If you've ever listened to Bannon, he is quite interesting. Yes, adversarial viewpoints are interesting as they can, in turn, strengthen their opposition's argument in rebutting them.

So sad that libs are so insecure that they shoot themselves in the foot, yet again.

His ideas are not "on the assent". They are, if anything, "on the ascent".

That said, I'm also wearying of the "give them a platform" argument. You can use that bullshit argument to silence anyone with whom you disagree.

@4: Be that as it may, sunlight is always the best disinfectant.

Remember when guys on the Alt-Right like Bannon gave left leaning voices a fair platform at all their conferences and media?

Oh. Wait. They don't.

So. Gee. What a shock. It's the meany old liberals fault again.

It's always up to liberals to play fair. And pay nice. And give racist and fascist scum bags a platform.

And if liberals do or don't they will always draw ire from the same Alt-Right scum bags (and their apologists here) and ever other cesspool on the internet.

Fuck that bullshit.

"This was a chance to breach the echo chamber; to expose the kind of people who carry New Yorker tote bags (and I have two myself) to the man who, for some awful reason, speaks to the America that exists outside of bubbles on the coast."

Do you really think we didn't pay attention to who he was and what he thought in 2016? He ran fucking Breitbart.

@11 Exactly.

It's ludicrous to thing we have been over-exposed to this pile of shit for almost a decade.

I love the assumption that the millionaire Manhattanite Columbia and Harvard educated former Hollywood producer and media baron Steve Bannon has some natural affinity for the Heat Land.

You know what his natural affinity is? He's a racist demagogue that whips up the absolute worst in undereducated and angry white men with outrageous lies about bullshit like Obama being a secret muslim who faked his birth certificate . That's where he "connects."

It's not some some secret sauce formula. It's racism.

"It's always up to liberals to play fair."

That's the problem. The insatiable desire to keep score. Playing fair should always be the premise regardless of who says or does what, political ideology is secondary. Or, two wrongs don't make a right.

Better yet - just be magnanimous.

God damned autocorrect. Let me try that again:

It's ludicrous to thing we have NOT been over-exposed to this pile of shit for almost a decade.

I love the assumption that the millionaire Manhattanite Columbia and Harvard educated former Hollywood producer and media baron Steve Bannon has some natural affinity for the HEART Land.

You know what his natural affinity is? He's a racist demagogue that whips up the absolute worst in undereducated and angry white men with outrageous lies about bullshit like Obama being a secret muslim who faked his birth certificate . That's where he "connects."

It's not some some secret sauce formula. It's racism.

There.

GOD DAMN IT. I guess you can't do HTML in SLOG anymore.

@13 Bullshit. You don't hold the right to this same 'magnanimous" standard. You constantly apologize for the absolute worst most racist bullshit they do.

It's your raison d'etre.

You want to know what matters in politics? Power. And the left has NO power. And until the left has power this so called fairness and magnanimity will be constantly weaponized against them by the right. Used as weapons to destroy this society infoavor of the most powerful.

Until all these nifty rights the god damned left fought for — that you think are just your birthright — will be gone. Gone. You're mistake is you don't think that is happening. you better wake the fuck up.

We're seeing these rights whittle away as we speak. First whittled away from minorities and women. And now they are eating away at the rights on the working class and middle class (and blaming minorities and women). And once they are gone it will take the LEFT decades to win them back to your unappreciative ass.

And, no. We are not talking about ideology. We're talking about politics. They are different animals. Fuck you and your mythical one-sided magnanimity.

@4 it would in fact be extremely novel for a crowd that doesn't read and of his work. I mean, why would a music act play bumbershoot? Their works are already on YouTube and sound cloud, anyone can get look them up.

I'm sure that THIS time the fascist would have just opened up and told the truth, broken down on stage and admitted that the rich liberals at the New Yorker are more clever than he will ever be, rather than the usual stuff they do where they lie about everything, throw out a dozen insane theories at once, and come out looking like they won.

@16: Politics is ideology and much more. Ideology is politics and much more.

Recently, level headed historians, like Michael Beschloss and Jon Meecham have been remarking that America has seen worse times and we'll overcome this one. I understand your fear. My waking the [blank] up will never be to your hysterical satisfaction.

Debate forums never hurt anything, and they don't solve or do anything. They just end up as footnotes. So pouting (and swearing) in your silo about it would solve or do anything either.

"Debate forums never hurt anything"

What "debate?" This isn't a debate. There will be no panel asking him pointed questions with time for rebuttal. He goes on stage and spouts dressed up racist bullshit for an hour. The end.

The only thing I find regrettable is that leftwing militants in Europe haven't stabbed Bannon the death in an alleyway.

You have got to be kidding. Or compromised.

@21: From the article: "interview each other and exchange ideas on stage"

Now your quibbling the small stuff because you know I just torpedoed your main arguments.

Bannon is a first class bullshitter scum bag. For fuck sake he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs AND in the movie business.

I remember when Bannon used to spout off about raising the tax rate of anybody making over $5 million dollars so he cold siphon off the working class types into his Alt-Right. Making him seem like almost reasonable. And then he got reeeeeeeeeal quiet about raising taxes on the rich the closer he got to actual power. Now he's all "gotta cut those corporate taxes!" Back in his Biosphere 2 days he also used to say he believed in anthropomorphic climate change and a carbon tax. Doesn't do that anymore, either.

But he's still real loud about how evil them foreigner brown people are.

@26 Dude. Have you watched these talks? You can watch the video of these talks. It's not a debate. It's not adversarial.

I'd have to be adrift at sea with you for your launch your anemic sputtering torpedoes.

Despite all the historical precedents (as recent as last week in Germany) some people don't want to learn that giving platforms to fascists eventually translates into posses hunting down brown folk during broad daylight. These people don't want to learn because they believe they have nothing to fear, often because they are not brown.

As Margaret Sullivan said in the WaPo, we got it the first time.

Hear is yet another predictably contradictory money quote from Herzog:

"Donald Trump is our president. He's been normalized. His platform is running the White House"

Exactly. For fuck sake. Exactly the point, Herzog. Bannon's voice is not ghettoized. So why does it need to be have a stage? BAnnon owns his own megaphone.

Like you said Bannon in all it's racist fascist glory is setting policy. He's busy gutting the rights of racial minorities and women.So we don't NEED to hear more from it.

Look. Fascism needs to be DE-legitmized. Do you think Bannon is agin to be asked some gotcha question and suddenly shrink in shame? Or that it will stir a turning point?

No. We already know he is scum bag. And us telling him he's scum bag is mark of pride. So what the pint? A dialogue? There is no dialogue. Please outline exactly what will be accomplished by putting Bannon on that stage? Buttress the integrity of the left? They don't care about the integrity of the left. Wake up you delusional fucks.

You can't delegitimize fascist scum bags by putting them onstage next to pipe smoking intellectuals with and politely asking questions. He's not answering questions. All Bannon has EVER done is stick to talking points and ignore anything else. He's fantastic at that.

@26 Don't be obtuse. The damaging part is the validation that follows from doing a New Yorker event whether or not people at risk of liking his putrid ideas actually listen to this particular piece of drivel

@13 "playing fair" is the theory that underlines american progressive-liberalism. Yes, it is upon us to play fair even when the other side is not. Otherwise, you're just Kissinger 2.0

Who is this "us?"

@34 not you, registered republican. bye.

@35 Former registered republican. 1987-2003. Though, I never voted straight party ticket. I do now. Democrat all the way, Baby! It's not that suddenly become a gooey'll liberal. It's that the Republicans slowly became fucking lunatics.

Anyhoo. You waste 99% of your innumerable post whining and bitching about progressive liberals and their eeeeebil PC gone amok. And now — TA DAH — you're a "we?" HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Man, you're a regular chameleon. Oh. Have "we" lost track of what race "we" are today?

Why on Earth would The New Yorker magazine ever invite Steve Bannon to speak publicly in the first place?!
@27 Dr. Zaius: Like I just said......

"Please outline exactly what will be accomplished by putting Bannon on that stage?"

Your problem is that you think you're the director.

Know your enemy. You have nothing to loose. Also, the riled up you sound makes people more curious as to what your adversary has to say.

I don't care about anyone in this story except Lena Dunham's ex. He is so hot.

By the way, Lena Dunham's ex is on Sesame Street while Bannon remains on Sleazy Street.

Okay, so trump and his ilk have "normalized" bigotry and hate to where it is ever-present, and now Ms. Herzog tells us we also have to welcome that bigotry and hate everywhere, or else we'll be scared of "dangerous ideas."

Katie Herzog: Your one-stop shopping source for white male right wing apologists.

@15: Nope. The webmasters killed all forms of HTML in comments in May, if not before. You can't use asterisks in comments anymore for the same reason. Another aspect of the Stranger being a shadow of what it once was, sadly.

36 bitch get murdered

@26 - No you didn't Raindrop. Your entire premise is idiocy for clearly obvious reasons to anyone with critical thinking skills.

Sad.