Squaring the Culture

There’s been a little brouhaha over a comment at The Corner, the blog comment line for the National Review, by Jonah Goldberg.

Goldberg observed a particularly odious, gushing, fawning description of Barak Obama’s speeches, and drawing on his experience with the left’s Bush Derangement Syndrome, predicted that there would be an even more extreme derangement if Obama won the Democrat nomination but lost the election. (And here’s the clip from the speech he was referring to. It truly is over the top.) The reasoning goes, if they’re gushing like this about his candidacy, what will they be saying if he loses?

Pretty funny, actually. Only, Goldberg didn’t describe it in those terms. He put it this way:

I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become completely unhinged.

Glenn Greenwald over at Solon.com just knows that Goldberg is issuing code for “blacks will riot.” Hundreds of comment writers agree with him.

Eric at Classical Values spanks him pretty handily. It’s worth a read.

Honestly, I believe certain segments of American political life utter the charge “Racist!” as a reflex when they’re angry, surprised, or wounded. One of these members of this certain segment is hammering a nail, and slips and catches his thumb: “OW! Racist!” He’s distracted by a noise while walking through a doorway, and accidentally walks into the door: “Racist!” Somebody carrying lumber accidentally turns and bounces the wood off this member of this certain segment: “Hey! Racist! Watch where you’re going!”

And now, I am obligated by Grenn Greenwald and his friends at Solon.com to state this very, very, very plainly:

When I refer to “certain segments of American political life,” I am not talking about blacks. I’m talking about Glenn Greenwald, and people who believe like him.

I call them LLITs. Liberals Lost In Time. They believe they’re still living in the 60s. They believe the world is filled with silent, malevolent racists, lurking, just waiting for that excuse to burst out of the chains in which Good Liberals Everywhere have bound them, and start lynching blacks while snarling disgusting, racist slogans. They believe that if they continue to Fight The Good Fight, they will somehow retrieve that feeling of relevance and unassailable goodness that they felt about themselves while marching for civil rights.

I actually posted on solon.com, attempting to draw readers’ attention to the fact that Goldberg was talking about the excesses of a white writer, and was talking about liberals.

If you followed the link on his original post, you’ll see he was discussing, not a reference to Obama’s race, but an insane, gushing, embarrassingly ecstatic description of Obama by one Ezra Klein. Now, I’ve read the research concerning black-sounding names, and I understand you can’t always tell the race of a writer by the sound of his name, but I’ll wager every penny I have in the bank, plus whatever I can borrow, that Ezra Klein is white.

Goldberg is expecting, after years of hearing Kos Kids and Huffies describe their Bush Depression and watching deranged public displays by “Truthers,” that liberals will collapse into a heap if Obama loses. He infers this from the treacly ecstasy of Mr. Klein.

Not blacks rioting. Liberals bursting into flame. Seriously.

Can you folks please, please get your heads out of the 1960s? The glory of the civil rights movement is long past. You have to carry on today. Times have changed. You’re not fighting Jim Crow laws anymore.

Get it?

Want to see how I was answered?

Plumb Bob

You’re not fighting Jim Crow laws anymore.

We’re still fighting Jim Crow attitudes. Racist attitudes. Like yours.

Get it?

I guess he must have slammed his thumb with a hammer while reading my post. Poor fellow. Try ice.