The New York Times is supposedly writing a story on this, and I too have touched on it before.  To wit, the slow transformation of Charles Johnson from prominent right-wing blogger into… well… something sane.

Yesterday, he made it official in a post on his blog, Little Green Footballs, entitled Why I Parted Ways With The Right:

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)

5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)

6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)

7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)

8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)

10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)

And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

Ironically, Little Green Footballs was, for many years, the pre-eminent place for bigtory, hatred and not-so-subtle islamophobia. 

Basically, his blog has become a personal journey.  In 2001, when only a handful of people actually had blogs, LGF was mostly a technical computer geeky blog, with some middle-left politics sprinkled in.  Then 9/11 happened, and Johnson — in the words of another blogger back in 2002 — "lost his shit".  It became full of anti-Islam screeds and gained noteriety as the political blog of the right, long before most people even heard of the word "blog".  And now. it's settled down — still political, but much more reasonable.  Readership from the rabid right has dwindled to almost nothing (and now other right wing blogs, having rose under LGF's shadow, mock Charles Johnson).

The New York Times piece should be interesting.