Serial Idiot Goldberg Annoyed At Fascist Name Calling, "Not What I Hoped"

I have a love/hate relationship with Jonah Goldberg. I love to write about him because he is such a rich source of material, one of my "serial idiots" that provides a column in just about everything he has to say because it is so ridiculous. Hate, because by writing about him, I give him and his delusions more attention than they deserve. Holding on tight to his post at the National Review, received shortly after the Monica events for which Jonah held a minor, supporting role which he inflated to get himself on the tv machine as often as possible, Jonah weighs in on the teabag use of the term "fascist."

Speaking on C-Span this weekend, he was quoted as saying:

"One of the great failures of my book is that it has popularized the use of 'fascism' as an epithet. And one of the things I was hoping to do, and I failed miserably, is shut down the use of the word 'fascist' as an epithet. Instead it's become bipartisan. And I don't like it. I don't think it's all that helpful. It might help my books sales, but that's not what I had hoped to do."

After one moves beyond the breathtaking egotism involved in his first statement (after all, fascism has been a discredited political movement since basically forever) you have to consider that one does not write a book with the title "Liberal Fascism" with the intent to remove the word fascist as an epithet. As a member of the "conservative movement" (that's Jonah, always after the main chance, a Democrat who flipped when he saw that that's where the money is) use of the term liberal is an epithet. Attaching anything to it makes it a pejorative and adding a term commonly used to characterize negative political ideology to the term liberal, he has attempted to equate liberals with negative politics. As the two--liberal and fascism--are ideological opposites with fascism typically a preserve of the extreme right, trying to link the two is nothing more than an attempt to demonize liberals.  According to dictionary.com, [emphasis added]

FASCISM:
[fash-iz-uhm] –noun
1.( sometimes initial capital letter ) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
2.( sometimes initial capital letter ) the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.
3.( initial capital letter ) a fascist movement, esp. the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.
LIBERALISM:
[lib-er-uh-liz-uhm, lib-ruh-]–noun
1.the quality or state of being liberal, as in behavior or attitude.
2.a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.
3.( sometimes initial capital letter ) the principles and practices of a liberal party in politics.
4.a movement in modern Protestantism that emphasizes freedom from tradition and authority, the adjustment of religious beliefs to scientific conceptions, and the development of spiritual capacities.

Not sure I can find anything that equate the two or even links them other than they each represent a political philosophy. But, the mindset of someone who could equate the two, or believe it, is the same mindset that would believe that socialism and communism are the same thing, and that what was embodied by the Soviet Union was what was envisioned by Marx.

Ah well. Perhaps Jonah hadn't been able to get outside of the pages of the pages of his column lately and needed to get some face time on the tv machine again. If you are unfamiliar with Jonah, he has an amusing history and typically wacky ideas which I have written about here, here, and here.
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k

Michelle Bachman - Ms. Toons - Exploits the Holocaust

Thanks to Think Progress, we have these images of the signs used by Michelle Bachmann and her "House Call" protest on the steps of the Capital today. In case you think this is just Ms. Toons (as in Looney) acting on her own, she is joined at her news conference by House Members John Boehner, Minority Leader (OH), Eric Cantor, Minority Whip (VA), Roy Blunt (MO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Virginia Foxx (NC), Ginny Brown-Waite (FL), Jean Schmidt (OH), and Sue Myrick (NC)) as well as other members.

Look very closely at the next image, read the heading.

 

 

I don't know about you, but I am deeply offended by members of my government saying that the government (of which they are members) of my country (meaning me and you), is the same as Hitler's Germany.

I lived in Germany when it was divided. I worked in West Berlin, in fact, my office was in the building where the Generals' Coup was planned (and where they were executed). The year I lived there was the first year that the Holocaust was taught in German public schools. I had friends who had been in the Hitler Youth (if you lived in Germany you were either in the military or in Hitler Youth depending on your age). I learned a lot about the war, about what it was like to be German during WWII, and after. I studied Hitler and the holocaust. In this country, I have known people personally touched by the Holocaust and to have someone who obviously knows nothing about history try to equate the two is outrageous.

It is bad enough to have the right-wing wacko's talk of fascism and socialism and equate President Obama to Hitler. It is bad enough when Ms. Toons rallies her followers to arrive at the Capital and seek out their representatives until "they can see the whites of their eyes" a clear reference to shooting.* But this? But to have our leadership use these images and the kind of messages that they send and to have our MSM silently stand by in (seeming) approval is beyond comprehension and deeply, deeply offensive. 

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon.

k

* In the Revolutionary War, there was a shortage of bullets, so soldiers were instructed to wait until they could "see the whites of their eyes" before firing