About Jonah Goldberg’s new book is that this whole “liberals are fascist” argument is going to morph from something idiot frat boys would argue after three credit hours in poly sci. and a dozen Mickey’s Big Mouth and would be laughed out of the room to something that idiots like Peggy Noonan and David brooks will peddle with straight faces on Hardball.
That it will probably also be a best seller is also depressing.
zhak
For a long while, I thought this book was actually leftist snark, since fascism is, after all, an extreme right-wing form of government steeped in extreme militarism. Applying the term to liberals (or Whole Foods!) is simply silly.
How did this thing get printed?
Doubting Thomas
Only because Mommy and friends will buy a zillion copies. 2 months from now it will cost $1.29 on Amazon.
O/T: The Great White Hope Obama announced his support of Dodd’s filibuster today by declaring his vote won’t make a difference so he’s going to spend the day campaigning instead. What a sorry piece of work he has turned out to be. Did anyone see Bill Moyers this weekend? Interesting…
calipygian
The Doughy Pantload is still pissed at all the swirlies and wedgies he got in college. And probably still gets at K-Lo’s House of Crazy.
cleek
remember when some anonymous guy entered a MoveOn contest with a Bush=Hitler video ? good times, right ?
remember how it was beyond the pale, a sure sign of the depravity and treasonous treachery of everyone who wouldn’t sign an oath to polish Bush’s knob ?
yeah, this is completely different. this is a book.
numbskull
Didn’t Doughy Pantload just give a talk on how war gives his life meaning?
I don’t think “war” means what he thinks it means…
srv
Digby explains y’alls future:
Reap what you ignored, and smile when they call you fascists
In the meantime, your fanboys think Harry and Nancy are swell, and we just need more of the same. If you don’t like a gov’t-telecom merger, you’re just a wacko now.
Jake
Spoken like a true Fascist John. I bet your vision of the future is a Doughy Pantload sitting on a human face. Forever.
calipygian
Doughy Pantload giving a talk on war is like a virgin giving a talk on sex. I’ll bet Doughy Pantload is going to lecture on sex next. As usual, it will be the dumbest thing he’s ever said/read. Until the next thing. Which is “Liberal Fascism.” Which will be the dumbest thing he’s ever written/said. Until the next thing.
Elvis Elvisberg
Imagine if there were anything about movement conservatism worth defending. Then people like Goldberg and Ponnuru could write books about that, instead of how DemonRats like death, poopies, and fascism.
Chris
I see you’ve discovered the leitmotif of Jonah’s writing. The answer likely has something to do with his mother and the favors she’s racked up over the years of Clinton-crotch-sniffing.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
As a black man who supports Obama, but also gets tagged with the “acting too white” bit, I’m gonna say you’re being a hell of a lot more offensive than you might need to be on this…
Then feel free to not vote for him. But trashing him, and not also trashing Hillary, who made similar comments when the Dodd filibuster potential first came up, seems…disingenuous. Perhaps it would be better to not trash anyone on this issue, ’cause it’s an ugly piece of work, no matter how you look at it. No one, save Dodd, is exactly crowning themselves in glory on either promoting, or “stopping”, this bill.
Zifnab
As a white man who wishes he could support Obama if the guy weren’t a giant empty suit with a good speech writer, I’d like to inform you that this has nothing to do with “acting too white” and everything to do with selling yourself as the savior of the party when – in fact – you don’t have the balls to put your political ambitions on hold when actual Congressional work needs to get done.
Hillary doesn’t get much flak around here because we expect this half-assed weak tea from her. I’m not giving John McCain any hate over dropping the filibuster ball for the same reasons.
But if I was going to an Obama Fundraiser and he didn’t show and I asked why and the campaign guy said, “Right now he’s on the floor of the US Senate fighting for your right to have a telephone conversation that the government doesn’t spy on,” I’d cut the man a check right there and pledge Obama-for-Life. Sadly, Obama is too busy glad-handing and baby kissing to worry about DOING HIS FUCKING JOB.
jenniebee
John Bolton is known for his bushy moustache and support for a strong executive. Stalin had a bushy moustache and he definitely believed in a strong, unitary executive. Therefore, Bolton, and by extrapolation conservatives in general, are actually communists.
Bet you didn’t know that.
srv
Proof that Democrats aren’t Fascists.
But they are Fascist Enablers.
libarbarian
My GOD man! I think you have actually improved on Orwell. I mean, that is SO MUCH more horrible a picture than his simple “boot”.
myiq2xu
I thought fascism was the fusion of authoritarian government and corporations. Like Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco, or the United States under Shrub Bush.
Nevermind, what the hell do I know. I only majored in history with a minor in poli-sci.
Doug H.
Chris Dodd isn’t a Democrat?
Zifnab
You must have a
Naziliberal bias.Jen
I’m going to say that if we can somehow resist dropping, what, $27 on this for the comedic value (I know, a bargain at less than $.07 a page! but Hold! Hold!), that it will not hit the bestseller list.
The Other Steve
Hag!
Seanly
ZOMG! Jonah is on to us. And it only took him, what, 3 years to write his magnum dopus.
The bewildering part is that somehow he got over 400 pages.
jcricket
Fascism is the new black, dontcha know.
You know, I had a whole post about how this all proves the right has got a massive case of projection, and how nationally prominent wingers are crazy extreme, but its the democrats who are somehow “out of touch”. But I deleted it. BTDT, SSDD, etc.
I just can’t even bother anymore. Republicans and their crackpot theories have ruined our economy, poorly managed a necessary war, fucked up an unnecessary one, poisoned our discourse, set our scientific research back 5-10 years (depends on subject) and generally made us the laughing stock of the industrialized world. And yet here we are, arguing about a book with a smiley-face hitler image with “facts” so laughable that it would be rejected as a high school (grade school?) term paper.
I’m just too fucking tired of this, and I don’t know how Sadly No gets the energy every day to mock these fuckstains.
Doug H.
I’m still waiting for an explanation on how President “La ville c’est moi” Kucinich or President “States Rights – except in certain cases” Paul would be any different than any other joker who win the keys to the Oval Office.
The Other Steve
That’s totally improper use of logic.
The proper conclusion is John Bolton is Josef Stalin.
jcricket
And John, the most depressing thing about this is that we’re discussing it. In a sane world this would be like the Turner Diaries or a moon landing hoax book, in that we’d all get a laugh and a few kooks would buy it.
But no, it merely serves to push the “center” further to the right and make crazy-ass arguments seem sensible, which gets us further from the changes and policies America needs to get back on track.
Fucking Republicans and their disdain of serious thought (how about just “thought”).
The Other Steve
They wouldn’t try to kill the mime.
jcricket
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
All screed and no sex makes Jonah a doughy pantload.
srv
Tell that to Digby, Atrios and maybe Dodd.
RSA
A few months ago I saw a signed copy of one of Ann Coulter’s books. At a flea market. In a pile marked “Any item $1”, along with old VHS tapes, ancient gaming controllers, and a lot of dust. I had to laugh.
calipygian
The same guy who says that Hitlery is worse than Hitler also wrote this:
http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200410080941.asp
Is there any wonder that you will get Ann Coulter’s new book, Jonah’s new book and a NewsMax subscription all for $5 bucks next March?
srv
They’ve both pledged for immediate withdrawals from Iraq.
Prove RP is going to just be more of the same.
The Other Steve
No, that was a joke. see Hot Fuzz.
Sorry, just thinking of Fascists made me laugh.
Doug H.
And Nixon had a secret plan to end the war.
He’s running for President with plenty of big money backers.
tBone
The year 2000 called, srv. It wants its “The Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans, so vote for a nutty 3rd-party candidate!” shtick back.
The Other Steve
Republicrats!
myiq2xu
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
Punchy
I’m convinced there’s a contest amongst these chumps to out-“insane” each other, and then see who can sell the most.
What vexes me is the supposed audience for this. Educated, respectable R’s cant possibly take seriously a “liberal = facist” argument (patently absurd), and God know the bass-ackward yokel fucks in Mississippi 1) can’t read, 2) have no spare non-cig scratch with which to buy this crap, and 3) only know Amazon as a bunch of trees in Illegal Land.
Shorter–who’s gunna actually buy such academically, blantantly dishonest shit?
Bubblegum Tate
Well, it’s already sort of happening, but you’re right, this is likely going to be the thing that breaks, for example, the “Hitler was a total leftist!” idiocy from the ranks of the knuckle-dragging wingnutosphere into “respected” forums. And people will have to treat it seriously in the name of “balance,” lest David Horowitz launch a hissy-fit about how the damn dirty leftist fascists are censoring any mention of how Hitler was, like the damn dirty leftist fascists, a damn dirty leftist fascist.
It is, of course, an utter crock, and anybody with any knowledge of history will see right through it and probably enjoy a hearty laugh. But this is merely the current apex of a long-term strategy. Wingnuts have been pushing the whole “liberals = fascists!” bullshit for years.
Oh, and it’ll be a bestseller because of bulk buys by the Conservative Book Club. That’s pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Wilfred
I thought this was a gag until I read the book jacket notes. This pathetic fool has finally reached the same levels of crackpot political discourse as, well…
It really is getting to be Marching Morons time, isn’t it?
Ryan S.
Talk about a RL incarnation of Godwin’s Law.
Hey, wait I bet this book could have a use after all. I propose a law to make all citizen carry around a copy of this tome at all times, and whenever anyone makes an inappropriate Nazi analogy it is legal to chuck the book at the offenders head.
jrg
Here it is: the 14 points of fascism:
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism (OMG, Obama’s not wearing a lapel pin!)
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights (Jack Bauer says torture works)
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause (Why are we wasting time with this discussion when there is a war on Christmas on?)
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism (Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran)
5. Rampant sexism (A woman’s body is property of the state)
6. A controlled mass media (Fair and Balanced! Facts are distorted, because they always support the liberal POV)
7. Obsession with national security (We’ll all be wearing burkas unless you liberals can learn to crap your pants on demand)
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together (God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq)
9. Power of corporations protected (Why should Blackwater have to follow “laws”)
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated (Unions are communist and anti-American)
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts (hey, ya’ll, let’s go burn some Dixie chicks albums!)
12. Obsession with crime and punishment (Clenis!)
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption (Heck of a job, Brownie!)
14. Fraudulent elections (Florida)
Yep, sounds like the liberals (If you’re a gibbering, drooling mongoloid).
Grumpy Code Monkey
I love the smell of spoof in the morning.
srv
Shit, all you do is make crap up. Me thinks, at best, you can’t read or are confused about articles with “Big Money” in them.
That means a lot of money. It doesn’t mean corporate or PAC backing.
You should try reading for a change.
You were yucking that up until Florida. Best of luck next time.
myiq2xu
Doughy Pantload should hang around with one. Then he would have someone to look up to.
Ryan S.
However, as an amendment to my law I would suggest that the book be made available translated into chinese by a man that can’t read english. Wouldn’t someone to get bored and try to actually read the damn thing.
jcricket
Shit like this, and Coulter, and Limbaugh serve (as others have pointed out to me) to push the discourse to the right. Tancredo says crazy shit not so it will happen right now, but so that the previously extreme policies actually appear sensible when compared to the bat-shit-fucking-insane drivel he’s spouting (and is repeated with much seriousness by the right-wing commentariat). And the press goes right along with it.
The left has nothing like this, and so Edwards, who would basically be to the right of Sarkozky, appears like a raging moonbat leftist.
Stuff like this is red meat for the base, and part of a long-term strategy to move the discourse to the right.
jcricket
Plus, wanna take a bets that a significant portion of early sales are bulk buys by right-wing groups to give out free to their members? The same right-wing groups sponsored by Scaife, Moon and the other loons on the “self sufficient” right.
Paul L.
You are correct the left/progressives have never promoted anything remotely resembling fascism.
Environmentalism Is Socialism
Echo without Bunnies or Men
calipygian Says:
The Doughy Pantload is still pissed at all the swirlies and wedgies he got in college. And probably still gets at K-Lo’s House of Crazy.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Lucianne didn’t send her little(well, not so little actually) angel to a real college. She was afraid he’d been exposed to too many negative influences, drinking, fucking,(or maybe the other boys beating the shit out of her son like when he grew up, all over again) etc, so the Pantload ended up going to a women’s college Goucher.
So we can make a new round of jokes for Jonah, who couldn’t get laid attending an all female college.
Echo without Bunnies or Men
Paul L, how appropriate that your empty, uninspired blog is called Kingdom of Idiots.
Wilfred
This is fascism? The mind, she boggle.
rawshark
Truth doesn’t matter, only winning matters. And winners write history.
myiq2xu
Authoritarians – people who will “believe” whatever bullshit suits their purpose.
The same people who thought lying about a blowjob was an impeachable offense but think lying about the reasons to go to war is no big deal.
Silver Owl
As a sentient human, adult and liberal Goldberg’s book is the same old tiresome bullshit he blogs about only printed for a small clique that has the same angsts for all their lives. They are desperate for any and all attention they can get. It’s been that way all the decades of my life.
Same old shit different day. lol
Echo without Bunnies or Men
Wanna be scared? Go here to see Jonah and his “one and only”
http://www.charmaineyoest.com/archives/goldbergs.jpg
Beej
A whole bunch of generally good, hard-working, fairly honest people are going to buy this load of codswallop because they 1)didn’t really study any substantive history in school 2)don’t remember what they did study in history class because it was soooooooo boring 3)love Rushie, Hannity, and Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage because those three will do all the thinking for them and that’s a lot more comfortable than having to think for oneself, especially when you’ve never been taught how.
Was it Barnum that said you’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public? I think it was. Unfortunately, old P.T. probably had something there.
Ted
That was great.
tBone
Your point has apparently flown right over my head. Or vice versa.
Zifnab
Hey, Paul L’s got a point. Think about it this way. Nixon – poster child for Bad Presidents of America – created the EPA. And what organization is more fascist or totalitarian than the EPA. They won’t let me dump mercury in my riverbeds! It’s like Watergate all over again!
Johnny Pez
C’mon, Cole, admit it. You’re just jealous because your mom never pulled strings to get you a book deal.
Paul L.
If you overlook banning DDT with junk science.
jcricket
I know Paul’s basically a one-trick troll, but for a more fair and balanced look on the DDT “junk science” myth, click here.
As usual, any glibertarian attack on science/public policy/environmentalism (read: anything that sounds like John Stossel said it) is about 10% facts and 90% pseudo-scientific claptrap.
jcricket
It was either that or be forced to write “I shall not make historically inaccurate analogies” 1000 times to get the 400 pages.
At least it’s not 400 pages of the doughy pantload fellating himself. Oh wait, that’s exactly what it is, metaphorically speaking.
jcricket
Sorry – these scans of the actual book are too funny.
If this passes for serious thinking on the right, I have no fear that in the long run, Dems will be running this country.
Jake
You had me going for a while srv, but “‘Cos he said he’d do it,” blew your cover.
Well played my friend.
cleek
wingnut trolls who feel bored with their old taking points.
incontrolados
There’s an idea in there somewhere.
What if there were so many bulk buys and everyone with a few bucks to spare bought two or three copies . . . could it outsell the Bible?
If we organized ourselves it could happen!
Are you with me?
Johnny Pez
Hey, I just realized! Pantload stole his book cover from Martin Mull. Mull so needs to sue his ass.
alphie
Always accuse your opponent of doing what you yourself are doing.
Bob In Pacifica
Don’t be too hard on little Jonah. His mother was a political dirty tricks whore for Murray Chotiner and Nixon in ’72 who graduated to being Mark Fuhrman’s literary agent and Linda Tripp’s friend. Jonah’s daddy has a worse pedigree. He can’t help being the little turd extruded from a couple of real fascists.
If only Saddam hadn’t attacked the World Trade Center.
Dave_Violence
Liberals are fascists. What the heck kind of people ban smoking, certain foods, armed citizens, etc.?
TenguPhule
Then Paul L should volunteer to host a DDT party.
All poison, no brains.
J. Michael Neal
Those of you getting on Obama for not being in Washington need to bone up on Senate rules. The important vote was on Dodd’s filibuster. Aside from the actual tally, which demonstrated that Obama’s presence wouldn’t have mattered, you need to remember how a cloture vote works. It takes 60 votes to end debate; it doesn’t have anything to do with how many Senators are present. The actual rule reads:
“”Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?” And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn — except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting — then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.”
Obama effectively voted against cloture simply by not being there.
Jess
I thought this comment over at MY’s summed it up beautifully:
Anne Laurie
I’m going to say that if we can somehow resist dropping, what, $27 on this for the comedic value (I know, a bargain at less than $.07 a page! but Hold! Hold!), that it will not hit the bestseller list.
I’m going to say, from past experience, that Regnery’s already paid for as many truckloads as will be required to have this on next week’s “bestseller” lists, using whatever state-of-the-art metrics needed to game those lists for maximum publicity at minimum expense. Most of those truckloads will be converted to *actual* pulp before the post-Xmas rush starts at the recycling centers, with a few pallets reserved for Conservative Book Club promotions. (“Get a year’s subscription and a copy of Liberal Fascism for only $4.99! Or get a year’s subscription without Goldberg for a mere $6.99!”)
Books like this are not bought to be read, they’re bought as symbols of membership in the (literally) Right Thought Brigades. If it weren’t for the hordes of moonbats waiting to eviscerate Jonah’s contribution to the lesser good, Scaife would have bound 400 blank pages inside Jonah’s cheerful cover design. I half-expect some critic to get as far as page 271 and discover that some unfortunate proofreader missed the sidebar expressing amazement that Goldberg doesn’t have to carry an umbrella everywhere because decent people keep spitting on him.
alphie
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Hardcover)
Amazon Rank:
#10,544 in Books
#2 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines > Fascism
#16 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines > Conservatism
Sounds about right…
myiq2xu
How brave and heroic of him.
Hart Williams
Seems an act of fundamental buffrontery (sic) to publish a book on “who the fascists are” with a former Nazi publishing house.
Or maybe Lucianne Goldberg’s little boykin (she of the Linda Tripp manipulations) doesn’t quite know as much as he feels he does. [Details and documentation at link.]
cleek
voters
The Other Steve
Wow a whole website devoted to the promotion of junk science.
cleek
there are several books promoting DDT junk-science, as well.
Cyrus
I’m so confused. Socialism if fascism, now? I thought socialism was communism! Does that mean communism is fascism, Paul?
Darkness
If the Kingdom of Idiots is empty, don’t we all win?
Oh, or were we supposed to be exiled there and they escaped? That would explain quite a lot if it were the case.
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
The quote comes from H. L. Mencken. The second sentence is particularly prescient:
No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
MJ
I am wondering if any of you people have actually read the book?
DougJ
I think you’re being too tough on frat boys here. They have their problems, but, taken as a group, it is unfair to them to be compared with David Brooks and Peggy Noonan.
Fats Durston
But…but…but, that would mean they are recycling, and therefore fascists!
Beej
Dave, I never actually heard the second sentence, but you are absolutely right, it’s wonderful.