I’m a human being before I am a writer; and a writer before I am a blogger, and although it’s been a joy and a privilege to have helped pioneer a genuinely new form of writing, I yearn for other, older forms. I want to read again, slowly, carefully. I want to absorb a difficult book and walk around in my own thoughts with it for a while. I want to have an idea and let it slowly take shape, rather than be instantly blogged. I want to write long essays that can answer more deeply and subtly the many questions that the Dish years have presented to me. I want to write a book.”
— Influential and often controversial blogger Andrew Sullivan announcing plans to pursue other interests in a lengthy post on The Dish
Ladbrook
I have never loved/hated anyone as much as I have Andrew Sullivan. His posts have periodically made me rethink my positions on a variety of topics, and I do credit him for convincing me to vote for BHO back in 2008, but more often than not, I end up slinging my coffee cup against the wall. On most days, he’s a bit of a loon.
Kieran
I hope he wants to buy contact lenses too. He looks much better without those heavy rimmed Old man glasses. And keep the beard neatly trimmed too. Good luck Andrew.
SteveDenver
Good riddance.
I’ve seen Sullivan appear live on shows where the day before, his beloved conservative brethren have slammed gays and said reprehensible lies about us. But he keeps on plugging for conservatives. He is a stain.
Desert Boy
Buy bye. Don’t let the door hit cha’ in the ass on the way out.
MarionPaige
I never got Andrew Sullivan’s claim to fame. However,
It might be helpful / comical to look back at what “blogging” was like in the early days (even the way Queerty was). You had these “writers and wannabe writers” writing these pages long posts as if they were being paid by the word (which is rumored to have been how certain gay mags paid writers).
“writing for the net” is not the same as writing a book or writing for a newspaper.
Most people are not writing for the way “information” is actually consumed today and specifically how information is consumed on the net.
When I saw Mens Vogue and its novel size stories, my question always was who in Mens Vogue’s allegedly high net worth target market would actually spend the time to read Mens Vogue?
Sullivan might want to ask himself if there is still a market for this “long form” sh-t he wants to do?
Clark35
He should have quit a long time ago. Now when will the media whores Dan Savage and Joe “homo quotable” Jervis quit?
Oneway
I’d never fault somebody for differing with some of many of Andrew Sullivan’s political views. But I’d also hope that even his detectors can acknowledge the many positive contributions he has made. Early in his career he wrote the first serious and attention-grabbing argument for gay marriage. Many liberals thought it was too far fetched and conservatives hated him for it. Now, here we are on the verge of marriage equality as a Constitutionally protected right for gays. It has taken an immense village to get to this point, but he was an early leader in the face of criticism from across the political spectrum. And those of you cheering his exit: be careful what you wish for. He’s merely changing mediums. His rabble-rousing will continue on!
Cam
My problem with Sullivan is that he will try to lay out issues, but he doesn’t have an understanding of things like economics. He read politics in school but he bases his opinions on these older theoretical orators from times past. His blog was out there early, and he did originally write for marriage. However, he would get off on weird topics, he would attack the gay community for pushing for rights if he didn’t think they were giving him his due, and then would get so focused on one particular subject to the exclusion of all else that he would become unreadable. I stopped reading his blog when he went on for what seemed like weeks about circumcision.
Ladbrook
@Cam: Very true. “Tangent Andy” was the name a friend of mine gay him a few years ago for all of his off-topic discussion threads. In addition to circumcision, there was the whole Bell Curve thing, his obsession with Palin’s uterus (which got him canned by The Atlantic, of all places), his fetishistic ramblings on Reagan and Thatcher, his non-stop attempts to rewrite Catholic history once he realized they had no interest in blessing his sexual orientation, his weird periodic obsession with The Jooooos! (as of last week he was still trying to paint Bibi as the second coming of Hitler), etc etc…
My favorite Andy period was when he was exposed as an online hook-up addict after having spent years and years condemning gay men for being so damned promiscuous.
Ladbrook
@Ladbrook: And the glories of Ron Paul! We can’t forget Andy’s brainless devotion to the king of Texas crazy.
wpewen
What a piece of shit. Posturing on the Right, big tough Andrew. Compare/contrast Harvey Milk: Tough NY Jewish guy, served in the Navy, talked to the union hardhats as well as the drag queens. A true, old school Democrat. Really made things happen. Didn’t sit up at some elitist Tory world pontificating on how we should live our lives.
orjeffy
Won’t miss him or his warped views.
Bye Felicia!
onthemark
“I want to absorb a difficult book” – First time for everything, I guess.
But knowing him, it will probably be some Catholic theological b.s. like St. Thomas Aquarius or whatever.
vive
What bothered me about him was that he was for a long time even the “liberal” media’s (i.e., centre-Right media like the NYT’s and NPR’s) token tame go-to gay for opinions on all things gay. Never mind that he didn’t represent almost any of us, they took him as a spokesperson for gay issues during times when there were so many other more deserving voices.
Kangol
He supposedly quit blogging in 2005, but came right back. Go on, girl!
Bad Ass Biker
I too am of the love/hate persuasion, but the fact is Andrew actually contributed very little to his blog. For the most part he (or his interns) found articles by other more astute writers and commentators and he simply made pithy (pissy?) little comments.
jar
@Oneway: Are you serious? I suppose you are unfamiliar with Sully’s sanctimonious demonization of men having unprotected sex while he was trolling the internet, as a positive man, for bareback sex. That kind of hypocrisy is reason enough to dismiss sullivan. Who wants to read the thoughts of a dishonest moralizing schmuck?
Kieran
And they say gay men are bitchy. Ridiculous!
enlightenone
@wpewen: “…Posturing on the Right, big tough Andrew.”
On point. He’s about as tough as Lindsay Graham!
onthemark
@Bad Ass Biker: LOL – Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic is saying that Andrew’s blog Must Go On! – b/c of the good writers who are actually doing the writing of it.
wpewen
@enlightenone: And, we didn’t march in SF back in 78 so that the likes of Sullivan could sit around and tell us how to live. And now there’s a bunch of them, riding on the tails of people who really took chances. I’d say to any young gay man, don’t even think these guys give a shit. “Dish” about says it all for me. But I never was much on gay slang.