Andrew Sullivan

[[File:Andrew Sullivan cropped.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Sully himself.]]{{pundits}}
'''Andrew Sullivan''', affectionately nicknamed "'''Sully'''", {{lived|1963|}} is a [[conservative]] [[author]], editor, and blogger at ''andrewsullivan.com'', though he has been characterized as a "[[deep cover liberal|crypto-liberal]]" by many on the right. This is probably because he is a displaced [[United Kingdom|Brit]] writing for an [[American]] audience, where a conservative is a [[moonbat]] in American terms. And the fact that he's an open [[homosexual]] and happily married to another man. 

His blog icon on The Daily Dish featured the slogan "Of no [[Partisanship|clique or party]]."<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1879276_1879279_1879289,00.html The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan], ''TIME''</ref> The Daily Dish is notable for helping to popularize the idea of the political blog.

==Political views and religion==
Sully loves the British [[political philosopher]] Michael Oakeshott, who was the subject of his dissertation. He is very outspoken in regards to [[LGBT]] issues, particular being a leading advocate for the [[gay marriage]] cause in the 1990s and 2000s.<ref name="sullydefend">[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/business/media/im-still-reading-andrew-sullivan-but-i-cant-defend-him.html "I’m Still Reading Andrew Sullivan. But I Can’t Defend Him."] by Ben Smith, New York Times, 2020 August 30</ref> (Though, in a clear demonstration of the "your mileage may vary" aspect of Sully, he also wrote some columns in the early 2020s that were seen as [[transphobic]].<ref>[https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/12/28/andrew-sullivan-gay-spectator-lesbian-anti-trans-transphobia-backlash/ "Gay commentator Andrew Sullivan says he ‘needs’ lesbians to nurse him when he’s sick in bizarre anti-trans diatribe"] by Lily Wakefield, PinkNews, 2020 December 28</ref><ref>[https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2021/4/28/andrew-sullivan-terry-schilling-framing-transition-evil "From Andrew Sullivan to Terry Schilling: Framing Transition as Evil"] by Leigh Finke, Advocate, 2021 April 28</ref><ref>[https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2019/9/23/andrew-sullivan-coming-your-children "Andrew Sullivan Is Coming for Your Children!"] by Riki Wilchins, Advocate, 2019 September 23</ref>) He was very critical of the [[George Bush|Bush administration]] after endorsing Bush in 2000 and later endorsed [[John Kerry]], [[Barack Obama]], and [[Ron Paul]]. Initially, he supported the [[War in Iraq]] but later changed his mind and became a critic of Dubya's detainment and [[torture]] policies, especially [[Gitmo]]. He has also stated that he can't take [[neoconservatism]] seriously.<ref>[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/a-false-premise.html A False Premise]</ref> As a result of this, he has been disowned entirely by the American right and ''[[Forbes]]'' actually named him as one of America's [[No True Scotsman|top 25 liberals]] (with ''Forbes'' throwing in some mild [[homophobia]] just for good measure).<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal_slide_8.html "Forbes' Top 25 Liberals"]</ref> Sully quickly replied:
{{quotebox|Not many liberals, I wager to say, endorsed Ron Paul for president for the GOP in the primaries. Not many liberals, I dare to say, have written books on conservatism that rest on a reading of key conservative thinkers such as [[Burke]] and Oakeshott and Montaigne and [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]]. And the conservatism I adhere to, as any reader can tell, has remained very constant for twenty years. There is very little shift in tone or argument from my first book, "Intimations Pursued," to my last, "The Conservative Soul." It spans twenty years.<ref>[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/01/forbes-definiti.html Forbes' Definition of "Liberal"]</ref>}}

When it comes to [[religion]], he is a [[Roman Catholic]] but came up with some crap about how the [[Bible]] doesn't actually condemn being gay, was critical of [[Pope]] [[Benedict XVI]], and described himself as a "secular Catholic." He debated arch-[[atheist]] [[Sam Harris]] over the internets.<ref>[http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Secular-Philosophies/Is-Religion-Built-Upon-Lies.aspx?p=1 Is Religion Built Upon Lies?]</ref>

Among his most annoying features is his insistence on bringing up racialist pseudoscience every once in a while (despite his readers' complaints). While Sullivan insists that he is doing this to [[Just asking questions|facilitate conversation]] and that speaking of the book is often stifled by "[[political correctness]]," he almost never has anything to add other than simply rehash Murray's thesis. He justified this initially in 1995 with:

{{quotebox|The notion that there might be resilient ethnic differences in intelligence is not, we believe, an inherently racist belief.}}

This is presumably a [[special pleading|special]] new meaning of "racist" unclear to anyone else. He has continued to push it as a meaningful contribution to the world in the two decades since, going so far as to ponder the genetic size of black men's penises as a genuine search for truth as well as noting the genetic differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardic [[Judaism|Jews]].<ref>https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1287308815633874946</ref>

Sully is a prime example of "your mileage may vary" for his noted ability to be right on the money one second and completely clueless the next.

He stopped blogging in early 2015 because of the toll it was taking on his health (which was already somewhat vulnerable on account of his being [[HIV/AIDS|HIV-positive]]). Most of his readers migrated to his former home at ''The Atlantic'', whose "Notes" feature, launched in mid-to-late 2015, was essentially a revival of Sullivan's old style of blogging but done with different people. In 2017, he took up writing for New York Magazine, essentially bringing back his old blog. 

In 2020, however, Sullivan resigned from ''New York'', complaining in his last column that, in his view, his complaints about the "[[woke]] program" of [[critical theory]] made him toxic to other people at the magazine. <ref>[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/andrew-sullivan-see-you-next-friday.html "See You Next Friday: A Farewell Letter"] by Andrew Sullivan, New York, 2020 July 17</ref> (According to employees at ''New York'' and others, it was indeed Sullivan's continued embrace of [[biological determinism]] and [[scientific racism]] that most of his peers found abhorrent.)<ref name="sullydefend"/>

Sullivan then went on to start a weekly blog on {{wpl|Substack}} shortly after his resignation, which remains active as of November 2022.

In the wake of the [[Black Lives Matter]] protests, especially recently with the death of George Floyd, he's gone so far as to say that one cannot both be a [[Christianity|Christian]] and a supporter of the movement, to the extent that he praised Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod, who refused to kneel in support of the movement because it offended his religion.<ref>https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1287057974834462720</ref> He has also claimed that the movement is an attempt to destroy liberal democracy<ref>https://twitter.com/thetomzone/status/1287094940850442241</ref> and mocked the protestors in Portland as being part of a cult,<ref>https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1286722684756398083</ref> that you can't really know what's going on since you can't trust the mainstream media.<ref>https://twitter.com/sullydish/status/1287064487820955648</ref>

==Trig Palin conspiracy theory==
Sully boarded the crazy train during the 2008 elections when he became the prime proponent of the Trig Palin [[conspiracy theory]]. He made over twenty posts to his blog over a two day period about [[Sarah Palin]], alleging that she had somehow faked her [[pregnancy]] in order to cover for Bristol.<ref>[http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/when-sarah-pali.html Trig Palin conspiracies start here]</ref> The Internet collectively said "Sully, you're a fucking idiot," and got on with its life while he cranked out more posts about the Trig Palin conspiracy theory.

==External links==
*[https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/ The Weekly Dish], Sully's Substack site

==References==
{{reflist|2}} 

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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Political pundits]]
[[Category:Racists]]

Categories: Authors, Bloggers, Centrism, Declinists, Liberals, Liberal conservatism, Catholics, LGBTQ people, Living people, Political pundits, Racists