Picture you upon my knee

Think Progress:

Yesterday, CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck joined in on the right-wing meme that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) may be a Marxist.

As proof, Beck showed his guest, National Review contributing editor Jonah Goldberg, some things he had “found on the Internet.” (editorial note: Hey Glenn, you missed a couple)

These “things” included a poster of Obama that looked like “revolutionary art” and one of his campaign workers allegedly with a Che Guevara flag.

But perhaps the most ridiculous moment came when Beck pulled out a hat one of his listeners had sent him.
The winter hat had earflaps and a red star, similar to Soviet insignia. It also said, “Obama ‘08.”

So let me see if I understand this correctly...

Two individuals who have shown a most dogged and well-paid determination to misunderstand reasonably straightforward concepts such as Marxism, Socialism, Liberalism, and Fascism get together for a little prime-time reactionary hootenanny, consisting of gibbering imprecations and piquant bon mots at each other as they act out their little masquerade of seemingly adult discourse...But then Glennie blows the con by playing preschool dress-up on the air, as JoJo pouts because the set haberdasher neglected to provide a nifty topper for him as well.

I think a page out of the Lee Atwater Big Book O' Talking Point Turkey Shooting fell out of the folder before it got placed into the sticky, cheese-dust stained fingers of Frick and Frack here, to wit:

If you're going to catapult a ridiculously huge lie, be sure not to look hugely ridiculous while doing so.

;>)

Beware The Savage Jaw

'Get your handy abridged New American Edition of Duckspeak, at fine thoughtcrime prevention kiosks everywhere...A bottle of Victory Gin for only two credits more...Curfew at 13 o'clock, citizen, move on...'

As I reflect upon this unfolding bonfire of another's vanity, it becomes plainer to see just what exact function Jonah Goldberg is attempting to perform with the intellectually vapid theories and wilful misrepresentations of fact that he puts forth in his latest yeasty screed.

For many observers, one aspect of the time's ongoing cultural warfare is in the literary sphere.
One might think that with the dwindling supply of actual 'readers' in North America, this expression would not be as critical to the process of forced societal alteration as it is, but published books still have a certain cachet and can add weight to opinion by dint of their mere presence, irrespective of the lucidity of their contents.

Over the last few decades, as the monolithic drive of the Right pushed the middle ground of 'acceptable' public discourse further toward their end of the table, certain authors have emerged from the shadowy fringes proffering increasing degrees of outrageous commentary, useful as fuel for self-righteous fires stoked by guileless types bereft of critical thinking skills.

In some cases (e.g., Regnery), these published manipulations of fact are supported financially by the deep pockets of those who see nothing inherently wrong with monied oligarchies placing their highly polished boot on the neck of the masses - this, in fact being the desired goal.

Within this frame some writers toil as propaganda spearpoints, a la Ann Coulter, injecting vile philosophical constructs into the public discourse merely so that others will commence to discuss and propagate them on a broader scale.

In accord with this, some such as the subject of this post operate as justifiers...Supporting the occluded and self delusional world views of those who ascribe all manner of heinousity to anything Left of St. Ronald the Contra-ry and permitting them to give full vent to all sorts of ill-informed thought and deed while feeling super-duper peachy-keen about it all.

History is replete with such ink-stained little helpers, buffing the toenails of their masters for position and profit, and in Goldberg we have at last found the ideal synthesized hybrid for such a task in the Modern Age of high speed dumb...

One part Alex Keaton, one part Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, with a delicate sprinkle of Lord Haw-Haw boiled in the pan and ready to serve.

Would you like a wafer thin mint?

;>)

I feel good, I knew that I would now

(Graphic from vision.org)

I was shocked to read Jonah Goldberg in today's LATimes and find myself in agreement with him. But then I read further and found his premise to be, well, false:

These investments in self-esteem paid off royally, according to a study, "Egos Inflating Over Time." Jean Twenge of San Diego State University and a team of psychologists combed through the answers of 16,475 college students nationwide who took the Narcissistic Personality Inventory survey between 1982 and 2006. Their conclusion: Today's American youth are the most self-absorbed since we've studied the subject. "We need to stop endlessly repeating, 'you're special,' and having children repeat that back," Twenge told the Associated Press. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

Seems about right. Many times Pam & I have commented on the basic selfishness of today's generation, and this fits into that idea.

Of course Jonah looks far afield for the root cause:

Nonetheless, what I find fascinating is how our narcissism surplus, to some extent, is the unintended consequence of trying to use psychology as just another branch of public health. Saturday-morning cartoons during my youth were peppered with public service announcements informing kids that "you're the most important person in the whole wide world." The long-running TV show "Wonderama" became "Kids Are People Too" to reflect a new seriousness of childhood. The burgeoning "children's rights" movement -- to which a young Hillary Clinton was connected -- saw treating kids as peers to be of a piece with the new egalitarianism. Movies as diverse as "Taxi Driver," "Bugsy Malone" and "Irreconcilable Differences" fixated on treating kids like adults in one way or another.

Right. Thing is, as an older person than Jonah, I remember watching those kids shows for fun too. And nothing on "Kids Are People Too" was intended to create the kind of selfish entitlement he and I both despise. That is, until it shows up in shallow thinkers like Jonah.

The reality of that show was that it tried to foster mutual respect between age groups, by saying that kids deserve respect even as they learn what it means to become a full-fledged person. And "Taxi Driver" as an example? I can see that portraying Jodi Foster as a pre-pubescent hooker, with all the glamour and riches that brings to one's life, would be a great teaching example for youth. Sheesh.

And the gratuitous mention of Hillary Clinton, to include the "Left" in his blame group, is just a cheap shot.

To buttress his argument, Jonah says:

. . . the hand-wringing about youth's sense of entitlement can go overboard as well. Volunteerism is on the rise, not something you would necessarily expect even after discounting for the desire to pad transcripts and resumes.

Maybe in Young Republican circles it's on the rise, but in reality, not so much. Here's from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1/10/2007:

The proportion of the population who volunteered was 26.7 percent. This is 2.1 percentage
points lower than the volunteer rate in each of the prior 3 years and slightly lower than in 2002, the first year for which comparable data are available.

Persons age 35 to 54 continued to be the most likely to volunteer (31.2
percent), while persons in their early twenties were the least likely (17.8
percent). While all age groups showed declines in volunteer rates from the prior year, the largest decline was among teenagers. The volunteer rate for females age 16 to 19 fell from 33.5 to 28.8 percent, and the volunteer rate for males of that age fell from 27.4 to 24.1 percent.

More data over there shows that from '03 to '05, 16-25 year old volunteering was indeed up, but declined in '06 to a level below that in '02. Whatever.

Here's where it gets really . . . rich:

Another result is that the generation taught to share and care beyond all precedent has become the most singularly concerned in history with making a buck. A recent UCLA study found that nearly 75% of freshmen think that it's important to be rich, compared with 62.5% in 1980 and 42% in 1966.

Ya think? At least Jonah doesn't explicitly blame this on teevee, the media, or the Left. But in today's climate of Right-Wing entitlement, as presented by GWBush and his affirmative-action college degree, Grover Norquist and his tax hatred, Duke Cunningham and his cash for favors, Mark Foley et al for their homophobic posturing while living life as gay people, Romney's 5 sons serving in a Winnebago, wanting to become rich is completely normal.

Heck, Jonah wouldn't have had a chance at richness himself were it not for his infamous mother, so he should understand about entitlement. And too much praise for kids.


Update: Jonah was right about the Army meeting recruitment goals. What he didn't tell us is that they had to bribe recruits (h/t Raw Story):

The army responded by offering 20,000-dollar bonuses if recruits signed up starting July 25 and shipped out to boot camp within a month and before September 30, said Julia Bobick, a spokeswoman at the army's recruiting command at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

The signing bonus and other incentives can add up to a maximum 40,000 dollars for new soldiers.