Tuesday evening, at the University of Alaska's Wendy Williamson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m, National Review Online's editor-at-large, Jonah Goldberg will give a talk based on the premise of his bestselling book, Liberal Fascism.The talk is sponsored by UAA Student Activities, The Northern Light campus newspaper, and The Alaska Press Club. I'm a member of the board of directors of the Alaska Press Club, and voted for our organization to financially support UAA's presentation of Goldberg. I voted to support the concept of "free speech," rather than as an acknowledgement of any intrinsic value to the premises of much of what Goldberg is about.
Jonah Goldberg's deep and abiding intellectual dishonesty has been criticized by the left for far longer than he has been a bestselling author, or lecturer commanding speaking fees in the five figure range (UAA will be paying him over $10,000.000 for Tuesday's talk). His book, Liberal Fascism, came out early in 2009. Partially through huge pre-purchases of the volume by right-wing bulletins, promotional organizations, think tanks, book clubs and the like, it got pumped up to best seller status.
For instance, I subscribe to a lot of right-wing news groups, such as NewsMax, for instance. I was offered FREE COPIES of Liberal Fascism by three of them. I declined to take the offer, as I would have then been bombarded by hundreds of nutty far-right screed spams per day, as a result of the architecture of how these false deals work.
Here are a set of links to some important background material on Goldberg's Liberal Fascism:
David Neiwert's initial review of the book. Neiwert, who stayed with Judy and I last year at about this time, as he investigated Sarah Palin's past ties to the Alaska Independence Party, the John Birch Society and other eliminationist and millenialist armed groups, has written a lot of the most in-depth material about Goldberg.
Jonah Goldberg's response to Neiwert's review.
Neiwert's response to Goldberg's critique.
Neiwert's January, 2009 list of articles on the subject.
Digby's observations on Goldberg's progression in early 2009.
Neiwert on Glenn Beck's adaptation of Goldberg's false meme.
Rox Populi's Best Jonah Goldberg Nickname contest.
Neiwert's piece reviewing Goldberg critiquing his critics.
That should keep you busy. I'll be back with more information on Jonah Goldberg, Monday and Tuesday.
18 comments:
$10,000 are you joking?
I highly recommend "Liberal Fascism" to all those with an open mind. I purchased my copy (as did many other Americans) via Amazon and found Goldberg's arguments to be intriguing and eye-opening. This volume is especially relevant given the Obama government's attempt to increase government control over US society. Thanks for publicizing Goldberg's visit, PA, if his speech is as compelling and fascinating as his book, it should be a great evening. Remember, open your mind and the truth will set you free !!
Phil,
I fully support Mr. Goldberg's Consstitutional right to pitch his falsehoods.
What offends me is that UAA is paying the douchenozzle $10,000, and providing the venue.
I can only hope that this intellectual dishonest champion of the radical right is verbally eviscerated by those in attendance.
And which falsehoods would they be ?
Are you denying the premise of Goldberg's book or are you merely offended because he is "right-wing"?
Have you read "Liberal Fascism" ?
Anonymous 11:13AM
You needn't read Liberal Fascism to know it's bullshit. I spent an hour and a half thumbing through that piece of crap and I have read various reviews of it as well as Goldberg's response. There is no such thing as Liberal Fascism. Goldberg writes about the Nazi's being SOCIALISTS...well, that's true in the sense that they subsidized ARYAN BUSINESSES!!! Read Dr. Lawrence Britt's 14 characteristics of Fascism. Liberalism is the antithesis of fascism. PERIOD. No matter what the LIAR Goldberg writes. AND...Phil is correct. The reason that lying fuck is a NY Times best seller is because right wing think tanks like The Heritage Foundation buy his book in bulk to make it a best seller. Then they give it away for free. It's a lie that GOLDBERG is a best seller...
Jonah is also a BIG ADVOCATE of TORTURE! ILLEGAL TORTURE. I am all for free speech, but you don't yell FIRE in a crowded movie house, and you ought not to make shit up and forward false premises that are nothing more than right wing propaganda...
I'm more interested in how Beck and his crowd are co-opting the false liberal fascism meme and using the stature of NRO (Wm F Buckley must be turning over in his grave!) to catapult this horseshit into the realm of acceptability.
Anon @ 11.27, please calm down, you sound very angry. Did anon @ 11.13 strike a nerve or something ? For your information many political books are mass-purchased by organizations that support the politics behind the book - both left and right do this - but the fact that Goldberg's book did exceptionally well is that, like it or not, Americans actually purchased it as well.
You forgot to mention that the Nazis were actually National Socialists, they were strong advocates of abortion, despised the free market and hated the church - all themes shared by today's so-called "liberals". Both the Nazis and "liberals" believed that strong government was the answer to every problem. History shows us that the American Left loves strong government....witness the NYT's fawning over the early days of Stalin and a recent NYT article praising the Chi-coms for imposing order from above.
Rant and rave all YOU LIKE but nothing changes the fact that Goldberg's book is a best seller and "progressives" hate him because
he exposed so pretty uncomfortable truths for them.
Has anyone mentioned the deep vein of misogyny that ran through both Italian and German Fascism ? In view of the attacks on Sarah Palin by the "progressive" Left , I thought that was interesting.
"I am all for free speech, but you don't yell FIRE in a crowded movie house, and you ought not to make shit up and forward false premises that are nothing more than right wing propaganda..."
So, you're not that crazy about free
speech unless it reinforces your "progressive" view of the world ?
Phil:
Thank you for allowing comments like those from your anonymous trolls above. You are better than the far-right-- you support free speech.
But would our troll pals set a place at their table for you? As your tolerance (allowing their comments here) shows, you've given them a place at your table. But they'd probably be too wimpy to accommodate you in their own environment. Their tempers would get inflamed and their little brains would explode.
"I don't believe that liberals are Nazis; I believe that if Nazism came to the United States it is entirely possible that liberals would be at the forefront of the battle to stop it."
-Jonah Goldberg
The first major book to accurately describe the mechanisms whereby fascism took over the German government, was Wilhelm Reich's "The Mass Psychology of Fascism." Its final version was published in 1942. It was banned in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union from publication. It was banned in the USA during the McCarthy years.
In the book, Reich accurately describes the important role German Christian institutions took in undermining the authority of the Weimar Republic, and in assisting the grassroots organizing of the pre-1933 National Socialist apparatus in the states, free cities and other local governmental levels.
Essentially, the importance of Reich's observations - that both Italian/German Fascism and Soviet Communism were intensely authoritarian, is unmentioned in Goldberg's attempt at analysis.
In the sense of the overriding authoritarian nature of both fascism and Soviet communism make them far more similar to existing right and new right models in the USA, than to existing left and far left examples here.
"In the book, Reich accurately describes "
How do you know it was "accurate" ?
"In the sense of the overriding authoritarian nature of both fascism and Soviet communism make them far more similar to existing right and new right models in the USA, than to existing left and far left examples here."
Of course ! That's exactly why the Left demands more and more government control of people's lives while the right demands less government. It all makes sense now.
And isn't it the US Left that supports the dictatorships in Cuba and Venezula and Gaza, and wasn't it the US Left who worshipped Stalin & Mao and Pol Pot ? Guess they weren't very authoritarian were they?
The US left doesn't support the "dictatorships" in Cuba, Gaza and Venezuela. It stands in support of open relationships with Cuba and Venezuela, and in solidarity with the people of Gaza, not their governments per se.
The US right has had no problem backing military coups and dictatorships in many places. I am disappointed that we have not done more to restore the president to Honduras, though. It is the US right, including mining and mineral industry concerns that backed the recent pro-fascist coup attempts in Bolivia.
"I am disappointed that we have not done more to restore the president to Honduras,"
Would this be the Chavez proxy ? The Honduran Constitution states that NO president should serve more than one term - Zelaya deliberately went against this stipulation and with the prompting of Chavez preceded to press ahead with plans to overturn the Constitution. Both his own party and the opposition were against this and the Honduran Supreme Court , desperate to defend a relatively new democracy, ruled that Zelaya was breaking the law. With the backing of the Supreme Court, the two major political parties (including Zelaya's ) instructed the military to intervene (as per the Constitution). Zelaya's removal was not a coup but a democracy defending itself from a would-be dictator. That Obama would suck up to the murderous thugs in Iran while pressuring tiny Honduras to destroy it's own Constitution is deplorable. That the Left would side with Chavez and his crony, considering Chavez's support of the fascist theocracy in Iranian and the thug Putin in Russia, is further proof (if needed) of the Left's continual siding with dictatorships. Once again the US Left is on the wrong side of history.From Walter Duranty onwards , it seems the Left can't help siding itself with authoritarian regimes. Plus ca change....
Jim,
Gusty doesn't believe in freedom of speech unless it's his own brand of it.
"You forgot to mention that the Nazis were actually National Socialists."
If you think this means Nazis were socialists, you're an idiot. There's nothing more to be said.
-Yusef
Free speech is a fine thing. Paying ten large to sleep with the enemy is not.
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