Friday, January 11, 2008
Something must break now:
For the life of me, I can't get Alex Koppelman's Salon Q&A with Jonah Goldberg to load. It's a shame, because I hear Jonah refutes all of his critics with scintillating brilliance and we all look totally stupid now. However, a colleague e-mailed me a graf in which Jonah engages my criticisms head-on:
How do you feel about the reaction to your book so far, especially from the liberal blogosphere?

I think most of them should be ashamed. I think it's been fairly idiotic; you look at -- Who's that weirdo, the guy with the "Too Hot for TNR" blog? Spencer Ackerman. That's absurd, and it's childish. Type my name into Daily Kos. As hilarious as some people might think it is to call me a "Doughy Pantload," at some point if that is the crux of your objection to a 500-page book that Tom Wolfe says is the best and most important revisionist history in a very long time, that says a lot more about those people than it does about me.

Whoa, seriously? I'm "childish" and a "weirdo," but the trouble with the Kossacks is that they call Jonah names? Did I read that right? Instant replay!

Who's that weirdo, the guy with the "Too Hot for TNR" blog? Spencer Ackerman. That's absurd, and it's childish. Type my name into Daily Kos. As hilarious as some people might think it is to call me a "Doughy Pantload," at some point if that is the crux of your objection to a 500-page book that Tom Wolfe says is the best and most important revisionist history in a very long time, that says a lot more about those people than it does about me.
Huh. At least Jonah's consistent. He practices the same kind of illogic found in his book in his everyday argumentation. This Goldberg guy may not actually be as smart as he tells us he is.
--Spencer Ackerman
posted 3:44 PM |
"This Goldberg guy may not actually be as smart as he tells us he is."

This Goldberg guy may not actually be as smart as . . . hmmm . . .

Ok, there's nothing low enough to qualify as an actual joke there. Jonah's taken stupid to a whole new level previously unexplored in the history of the universe, and nothing can be fairly compared to his work, even in humorous jest.
Blogger Unknown | 4:20 PM

The most revealing part of the interview comes when Doughbob admits he doesn't know what Mussolini's "Doctrine of Fascism" argues because -- [cough! bullshit! cough] -- he hasn't read it in three years.

This is like claiming to have written a book about Marxism without knowing fuck-all about the Manifesto.
Blogger davenoon | 12:43 AM

Okay, this is just straightup blogwhoring, but here I wonder about Jonah's racial essentialism (in re: medieval and modern Italy) and why he's giving a friendly interview to an antisemite who wants to strip American women of the vote.

A more focused treatment of Goldberg from a better writer than I am can be found here.

I hope you enjoy these half as much as I've been enjoying your, er, childish takedowns of LF.
Blogger Karl Steel | 6:54 AM

You can add 'nutcase' to your list of epithets now. Truly, Goldberg's argument has never been made with such thought or such care.
Blogger Ginger Yellow | 12:10 PM