NEW VILLAGE VOICE COLUMN UP...
...about all the liberal fascism going on around here, from the martyrs Brendan Eich and Donald Sterling to Condi Rice to some guy in New Hampshire who apparently wanted to set his own rules at a school board meeting. They're all victims!
Among the outtakes: When a Rutgers professor applauded Rice's decision to bail, the Washington Examiner's Charles Hoskinson knocked the prof for appearing on "Russian government-supported propaganda channel Russia Today" and added, "judging from her willingness to appear on RT, Kumar's frequent criticism of U.S. media methods does not extend to those of government-sponsored propaganda outlets." Among the Americans appearing very, very frequently on Russia Today: The libertarian writers of Reason magazine.
UPDATE. I also neglected to include in my roundup Charles C.W. Cooke's "The New Fascism," because life is short and I hadn't seen it yet. It is everything aficionados of his work would expect. Short version: Rich people make market decisions that punish Jesus freaks, so liberals are fascists. He is especially pissed that a couple of guys who are against gay rights were denied a show on, get this, HGTV. (I wonder if anyone will tell him.) Later Cooke tried to explain himself to people who can do basic logic:
UPDATE 2. Also, here's something I left out of the If-I-don't-win-a-Hugo-it's-liberal-fascism section: A rant by John C. Wright at the Intercollegiate Review, full of references to Orwell and sententia like "the lamps of the intellect were put out one by one, first in society at large, then in literature..." as if Obama's America were identical to Nazi Germany.
As funny as Wright's Auschwitz cosplay is, his attempt to explain how people refusing to praise your stupid tits-and-lizards books = tyranny is even better:
Among the outtakes: When a Rutgers professor applauded Rice's decision to bail, the Washington Examiner's Charles Hoskinson knocked the prof for appearing on "Russian government-supported propaganda channel Russia Today" and added, "judging from her willingness to appear on RT, Kumar's frequent criticism of U.S. media methods does not extend to those of government-sponsored propaganda outlets." Among the Americans appearing very, very frequently on Russia Today: The libertarian writers of Reason magazine.
UPDATE. I also neglected to include in my roundup Charles C.W. Cooke's "The New Fascism," because life is short and I hadn't seen it yet. It is everything aficionados of his work would expect. Short version: Rich people make market decisions that punish Jesus freaks, so liberals are fascists. He is especially pissed that a couple of guys who are against gay rights were denied a show on, get this, HGTV. (I wonder if anyone will tell him.) Later Cooke tried to explain himself to people who can do basic logic:
“But you like the market,” they have argued. “And this just the market working. HGTV did what it thought best for its bottom line.”
I do like the market, yes. I like HGTV, too. But my criticism isn’t aimed at HGTV or the market, both of which are merely tools. It’s aimed the culture that informs them.And so young Cooke turns Culture Warrior, which has the expected effect on the quality of his work: The rest of his entry is basically variations on "sputter, sputter."
I want television to be run by private companies that are responsive to public opinion. But does this mean I have to like that public opinion? Hardly... if it did, I would be required to be fine with the public’s apparently being so intolerant of the private views of its entertainers that anyone who steps out of line must be quickly removed from their sight.I always assumed Cooke was new to America, but I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever spent a day here, or ever watched TV or talked about it (or anything else) with people who were not graduate students.
UPDATE 2. Also, here's something I left out of the If-I-don't-win-a-Hugo-it's-liberal-fascism section: A rant by John C. Wright at the Intercollegiate Review, full of references to Orwell and sententia like "the lamps of the intellect were put out one by one, first in society at large, then in literature..." as if Obama's America were identical to Nazi Germany.
As funny as Wright's Auschwitz cosplay is, his attempt to explain how people refusing to praise your stupid tits-and-lizards books = tyranny is even better:
Custom is encouraged by countless social cues and expressions of peer pressure. It is subjective, informal, covert, feminine, and indirect.Custom is feminine? Bet he came up with that one when someone called him out for cutting the line to have his picture taken with Power Girl.
No one will arrest you if you don’t tip the waitress, but your friends will look at you askance and recoil as if you exude a mephitic odor.Sounds like he follows Dr. Mrs. Ole Perfesser's method of social criticism. As for the mephitic odor reaction, well, there's more than one possible explanation for that.