Jonah Goldberg's Bizarro History

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:



Jonah Goldberg's Bizarro History

In his new book, Goldberg has decided to dream up fascists on the left rather than acknowledge the fact that the real American fascists have been lurking in the right's closet for lo these many years.

David Neiwert | January 8, 2008 | web only



Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg (Doubleday, 496 pages)


* * *
The public understanding of World War II history and its precedents has suffered in recent years from the depredations of revisionist historians -- the David Irvings and David Bowmans of the field who have attempted to recast the meaning of, respectively, the Holocaust and the Japanese American internment. Their reach, however, has been somewhat limited to fringe audiences.

It might be tempting to throw Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning into those same cloacal backwaters, but there is an essential difference that goes well beyond the likely much broader reach of Goldberg's book, which was inexplicably published by a mainstream house (Doubleday). Most revisionists are actually historians with some credentials, and their theses often hinge on nuances and the interpretation of details.

Goldberg, who has no credentials beyond the right-wing nepotism that has enabled his career as a pundit, has drawn a kind of history in absurdly broad and comically wrongheaded strokes. It is not just history done badly, or mere revisionism. It’s a caricature of reality, like something from a comic-book alternative universe: Bizarro history.

The title alone is enough to indicate its thoroughgoing incoherence: of all the things we know about fascism and the traits that comprise it, one of the few things that historians will readily agree upon is its overwhelming antiliberalism. One might as well write about anti-Semitic neoconservatism, or Ptolemaic quantum theory, or strength in ignorance. Goldberg isn't content to simply create an oxymoron; this entire enterprise, in fact, is classic Newspeak. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=jonah_goldbergs_bizarro_history

[theoldman]

1. Jonah Goldberg is an example of what happens to a Jew's

brains when they join the right wingnuts. My Jewish friends laugh and say that no one is perfect.

[ProgressiveFool]

2. Does this mean we get to start goose-stepping?

It always looked like it might be fun in another context...

[spanone]

3. he's an intellectual popcorn fart

[Igel]

4. I'm surprised that the author didn't pick up on the allusion.

When I searched for Goldberg's, um, tome in the local public library's database there was only one hit: H.G. Well's "Liberal Facism" (more specifically, a critical appraisal of whatever was put forth under that title).

Written by the same guy as here: http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/4/541 .

To save you from clicking on the link, unless you or your (educational) institution subscribes to the journal, the only text available is appended.

Possibly this is the same text as in the volume of criticism, but I'm less interested in critical reviews than Wells' text. Still haven't found Wells' text.


---------------
text from link:

During the 1930s H.G. Wells's theory of revolutionary praxis centred around a concept of 'liberal fascism' whereby the Wellsian 'liberal' utopia would be achieved by an authoritarian élite. Taking inspiration from the militarized political movements of the 1930s, this marked a development in the Wellsian theory of revolution from the 'open conspiracy' of the 1920s. Although both communist and fascist movements evinced some of the desired qualities of a Wellsian vanguard, it was fascism rather than communism which came closest to Wells's ideal. However, in practice, despite the failure of approaches to parties of the left and centre as possible agents of revolution, Wells rejected the British Union of Fascists. The disparity between Wells's theory and his actions when faced by the reality of fascism echoes the unresolved tension between ends and means at the heart of the concept of 'liberal fascism'.

[WinkyDink]

5. I've always thought Wells was a Socialist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

[SoCalDem]

6. When your Momma looks like a WWII Nazi spy, what would we expect?

[Prefer]

8. why in her logo

does she make that red lower case cursive italic "i" stand out from the rest. Is she saying "it's all about me"?

[gratuitous]

7. Coming soon to a three for a buck promotion near you!

Get Jonah's book, along with a big, big, big selection of titles from Ann Coulter, Bill Bennett, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly at three for a dollar when you agree to have your e-mail in-box polluted with scabrous nonsense from Newsmax or WorldNetDaily or the Fox Business Channel. Just mention the "Dear God Would You Please Pay Attention of Some Kind, Any Kind To Us" when filling out your e-mail. Or, if you prefer snail mail, fill out your request (red crayon will be given first priority) and send it to:

Sucker
P.O. Box Emenohpee
Knuckledrag, KS

[Kansas Wyatt]

9. Liberal Fascist?

What the fuck is a Liberal Fascist?

Now I see... Republican trick to accuse your opponent of exactly what you are guilty of, which either portrays your opponent as the only one guilty or equally guilty and is a wash in the publics eye.