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Joe Powell on Jonah Goldberg and Godwin’s Law
Posted By katie allison granju
Joe Powell listened to the Glen and Helen Show’s Podcast of an interview with conservative author Jonah Goldberg and didn’t like what he heard:
In essence, Goldberg takes his particular worldview-goggles and peers backward, cherry-picking the events and language of the past in order to bolster his views that Democrats and Liberal politics virtually destroyed America and only the Rise of the Neo-Conservative has saved us from oblivion.
He also embraces an already well-known bit of fakery on the internet - making use of Godwin’s Law, which states that the longer an online discussion continues, there will inevitably occur the invocation of Hitler and Nazis to the topic discussed. Judging from the trio’s discussion and several excerpts from his book, he takes that Law as primary to his thesis. He also says title came from writer/social activist H.G. Wells and that Wells was a founding father of the modern American Liberal Democrat.
Wells was certainly a Utopian, though his novels tended more to show the failings of Utopias and the destructive elements of human nature. He was certainly well-regarded in the early days of the 20th century, but Goldberg’s elevation of his status is problematic at best.
Goldberg’s propositions involve creation of an argument, which may be provocative but are more “academic,” meaning having no practical or useful significance. Specious reasoning taken to its furthest extensions. Speaking in syllogisms, one could say: Hitler Had A Mustache, Many People Have Mustaches and so, Many People Are Hitler.
At one point in the trio’s conversation, Reynolds compares former president Jimmy Carter’s appearance on TV in a sweater urging Americans to turn down their thermostats to an act of Fascism and “at least it wasn’t a brown sweater”. Oddly tortured turns of metaphor often arise in the trio’s discussion. Another is the concept from Goldberg noting that Hitler was a vegetarian and hence all current interest in healthy foods and vegetarianism is somehow related to following ideals of Hitler’s National Socialism.
Dec 29th, 2007
