David Cole: “Adam Parfrey Saved My Life”

David Cole writes:

Now, you get that that’s Vice, right? “Current-year” Vice. SJW Vice. And they’re praising a guy who published white supremacists. Therein lies the Adam Parfrey mystique. Any one of Feral House’s books would be enough to get the average author or bookseller banned, shunned, kicked off social media, protested, picketed, and defamed. Yet Adam was respected across the ideological spectrum. He was lauded by the Huffington Post and dozens of left-leaning newspapers and weeklies, but he was also praised by National Review and Reason. Here’s a guy who could appear on the podcast of the staunchly alt-right Robert Stark, and the podcast of that most mainstream of comedians, Marc Maron (following Parfrey’s death, Maron reposted the episode, adding, “The books he published blew my mind”). #MeToo activist Asia Argento praised Parfrey as an “author and editor of forbidden knowledge,” regardless of the fact that some of his books would have gotten any other man tarred by the #MeToo crew as an enabler of “misogyny.” His releases were reviewed in major newspapers, and Hollywood continually looked toward his catalog for movie ideas.

How did the man do it? How did he manage to, for lack of a better term, get away with it? Well, for one thing, he was a nice guy. But when has that ever made a difference to the PC pit bulls? He was also somewhat of an “insider,” having been born into a showbiz family. But perhaps most important, Adam had integrity. He stood by what he published, and he never apologized. So he “got away with it” the same way Parker and Stone of South Park do. Produce solid work, and never apologize for it.