The Joke that Keeps on Lying: Jonah Goldberg. Conservative Projection on Steroids

Jonah Goldberg’s commentary is often so ridiculous I have rarely mentioned them here at Democurmudgeon. What Goldberg passes off as conservative intellectualism is pretty much recognized by many as self parodies already.

What might be most obvious are his attempts to project conservative qualities onto liberals, leaving Democrats holding the Republican bag of characteristics we hate so much. That would makes liberals the purveyors of greed, lust for power, “fascism” and self interest, all the while being socialist “spread the wealth” peaceniks, singing Kumbaya and supporting the downtrodden and needy. Nice trick if you can get away with it.

In “The oughts: Struggling to define a deadlocked decade,” Goldberg now tries to establish the entire a decade as one of liberal self-indulgence. Never mind that the Bush administration and Republican Congress named it the “self-indulgent” “Ownership Society” already. Get a load of this.. ah, load of s**t:

Does anyone know what we're supposed to call this decade? Personally, I always liked the "oughts," …. The best reason to call it the oughts is that one is left with the sense that this decade ought to have been about something, and yet it really doesn't feel that way. Bottled water is personal, inward-driven. And the iPod hastened a trend toward the personalization of music, and entertainment generally.

Goldberg apparently missed the “personalization of music” with the transistor radio and Walkman decades before, as well as the “best of” cassettes we all put together that “personalized our music.” I “personally” bought a turntable and played my “personalized” lp’s on it, along with stacks of CD’s from my own “personalized” collection. Goldberg continues:

Meanwhile, many of the most popular and defining TV shows of the last decade have been about me, myself and I. Survivor premiered in 2000, launching a parade of reality shows that rewarded will-to-power, ambition and self-centeredness. The Sopranos was nominally about the Mafia, but it was really a biting commentary on bourgeois life, centered on a narcissistic sociopath who nonetheless won our sympathy. Series such as Dexter, House and countless others have elevated egomania, self-absorption and narcissism to admirable character traits.

Simple question: Does egomania, self-absorption and narcissism describe conservative, pull up your boots straps, small government, ownership society members; or pro choice, gay marriage supporting, social safety net lovin,” “government can help” with our collective taxpayer dollars liberals? God, I’m stumped. Perhaps this next passage of wisdom will help clarify things.

Still, I do think society craves a theme, which is one reason why Barack Obama's airy rhetoric of unity appealed to so many people, particularly recent college grads, the wealthy, journalists and others most directly immersed in, and responsible for, the self-indulgence of recent years.

There you have it. It’s the appeal of unity to those “college grad” intellectuals (their so damn smart), the wealthy (not counting the Walton’s, corporate conservative CEO’s and Wall Streeter’s), journalists who tattle tale on wrong doing and all the other self-indulgent liberal categories.

Did you note how Goldberg mentions college grads as if it were something bad, elitist, and not something essential when having to compete with other global “eggheads,” and their emerging highly sophisticated technological economies.

Perhaps Goldberg is “Struggling to Define a Deadlocked Ideology?”