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.
