If there’s one thing that’s true of modern conservativism — and the wingnut blogosphere in particular — it’s that it’s dominated by reactionaries. The reactionary is sort of a nihilist, with no real core principles of their own. Instead, they rely on a sort of parasitic reasoning to guide their beliefs — that their political opponent is always wrong.
By extension, this means that the enemies of their enemies are always right. And nowhere do we see this more clearly demonstrated than in the case of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who, under the name “Sam Bacile,” posted a YouTube video that is — at least in part — blamed for widespread middle eastern violence and the deaths of Americans. For the Islamophobic right, Nakoula is damned close to a hero and the attention he’s getting from them begins to look a little like martyr worship — the right, obsessed with seeking any opportunity to play the victim card, do love their martyrs.
And who is the latest Hero of the Right?
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has convictions for possessing drugs used to make methamphetamine and bank fraud, a declaration of bankruptcy, demands for unpaid tax bills, and a byzantine network of at least 17 aliases including “Kritbag Difrat” and “PJ Tobacco.”
Nakoula, a balding, married father of three and an Egyptian Coptic Christian, who once owned a petrol station, is believed to have worked on the script for “Innocence of Muslims” in a California jail cell.
Production began weeks after he was released from a halfway house in June last year.
He is currently on probation after serving a year of a 21-month sentence for fraud, which involved obtaining credit cards in the names of other people.
He was also banned from using the internet, computers and email without the approval of a probation officer for five years.
All of this is a matter of record and none of it is open for debate: Nakoula is a known con artist, jailbird, and meth cook. He is also the guy the right have chosen to ally themselves with. Those smoldering ruins, those dead Americans? Who cares? What’s important is that a small group of extremists make Islam look bad and Nakoula’s the guy that made it all happen.
And that makes Kritbag Difrat a fucking hero.
