Your Liberal Fascism Thought of the Day
January 15th, 2009 at 8:50 am by CrankyI’m working my way through Jonah Goldberg’s fantastic work, Liberal Fascism.
The greatest asset liberalism has in arguments about racism, sexism, and the role of government generally is the implicit assumption that liberalism’s intentions are better and more high-minded than conservatism’s. Liberals think with their hearts, conservatives with their heads, goes the cliche. But if you take liberalism’s history into account, it’s clear this is an unfair advanatage, an intellectual stolen base. Liberals may be right or wrong about a given policy, but the assumption that they are automatically arguing from the more virtuous position is rubbish.
What is today called liberailsm stands, domestically, on three legs: support for the welfare state, abortion, and identity politics.
The book is priceless for many reasons, but the most valuable take-away is that the reader will realize that no conservative or conservative-curious young person should ever be made to feel guilty about “not caring enough”.
I will do a few more posts on the themes of this book over the coming week or so. Even though the title reads like the heading on a provocative Ann Coulter diatribe, the book is a very well researched and scholarly account of Progressivism, the Cult of Personality and the misunderstood concept of Totalitarianism.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Just ordered it.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Wow, I’m both flattered and filled with an ego-busting rush at my persuasive skills.
Thanks.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I just thought I’d play Read-Along-With-Cranky. Is there going to be a bell to let me know when to turn the page?
January 16th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I got it for Christmas, but I am reading “The Forgotten Man”, Amity Shlaes new book revisiting the Great Depression, and it is a must read as well. Definitely a good look on Roosevelt and how his actions didn’t exactly help during the GD.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:22 am
No bells, Michele. For some reason whenever I hear one, I start to drool uncontrollably.
Thanks Duncan. These days, I commute by train into the liberal heart of darkness known as Philadelphia. I’m always looking for innoculations to read.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Inoculations. That’s the right word. I’m vacillating between the literary antibiotic of reading good conservative books for the next four years, or just hiding out and pretending I’m somewhere else. But when you’re living in an Ayn Rand novel and your eyes have been pried open, you can’t very well ignore the world.