Well, it finally happened.  The event Twitter has long been waiting for.  

From CNN: Henry Kissinger, a dominating and polarizing force in US foreign policy, dies at 100

Long time readers will know that Kissinger has been a frequent target of this blog.  For example, see:

* Kissinger in Grand Rapids

* Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia by William Shawcross

* Sideshow Addendum

* Kissinger? Really? Stop taking this man seriously

* Gerald R. Ford and Me

* Down the Memory Hole and Follow up From the Previous Post

* Sanders calls out Clinton on taking advice from Henry Kissinger

* My Two Cents: Nobel Peace Prize

et cetera

(...and that's not even counting all the times I've made little throwaway references to Kissinger over the years when I wanted to use him as an example of evil--like in my review of The Count of Monte Cristo, etc.)

Now, looking back at all these posts from the past 20 years, I do admit to some embarrassment about them.  There was certainly a performative element to hating Kissinger.  (It was a way of virtue signaling on the Left.)  There was also an element of bandwagonism in my Kissinger hating.  (The people I admired, Chomsky, Hitchens and Tom Tomorrow, all hated Kissinger, so I hated Kissinger.)

Now that I reflect back on my 20 years of blogging, I look back with embarrassment on posts that reflect virtue signaling, performative hating, and tribalism.  In the future, I hope to do better.

...which is not to say that any of the awful things that Chomsky, Hitchens, Shawcross, etc. attributed to Kissinger are not true.  I'm sure it's all true.  It's just to say that I regret appropriating their anger for my own virtue signaling.

On a related note, see also:

* Death is a poor way of getting rid of one's enemy and Okay, I guess it's time to tap the sign again