Apropos of a recent talk Diana West gave at an event hosted by Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy, I told some acquaintances about it, and they began parroting the tired old memes that sadly continue to prevail about the Cold War—including that particularly annoying and galling one that Leftishly assumes that "McCarthyism" was (and remains) a horrid creature with toxic transmittable cooties. And these were, of course, solidly conservative acquaintances.
This moved me to try to marshal some evidence in defense of Diana West, and I was amazed upon a mere minute of Googling when I found this convenient Gates of Vienna page showing all the articles on the Diana West Incident collected together—amazed at the number, some 60 articles all told. Even more amazingly, I think I read them all as they came out.
It wasn’t much of a chore to do so, as I found fascinating how otherwise intelligent conservatives who are anti-Islam (Horowitz, Radosh, et al.) could transmogrify so strangely into Leftists.
Additionally, I found it enormously entertaining to read Diana West’s meticulously skillful responses and rebuttals, as well as those of her rare supporters. That long saga as it unfolded was like a protracted train wreck in slow-mo, and I was often spellbound by the spectacle of those aforementioned Conservative Converts showing, apparently, their true colors. (I would also recommend to the readers who want to go above and beyond the call of duty to also dip into the comments threads of those Gates of Vienna articles and read at least some of my comments there.)
After the dust has settled these many months later, it is clear that Messrs. Horowitz & Radosh (and their more or less passive supporters and enablers) still owe us what Lucy always eventually did for Ricky (at least after he glowered at her with his fists on his Cuban hips). Absent that ‘Splainin’, we are perfectly justified in assuming the worst, and darkest, about those two principals (Dave and Ron, that is; not Lucy and Ricky—for Desi Arnaz, unlike Dave and Ron, actually did (deeper than lip service) utterly leave behind and utterly renounce & repudiate a Communist regime…).
Well, I am relatively uneducated on these matters, but it seems to me that even the most conservative people nowadays have an ingrained somewhat PC-MC attitude, especially towards issues such as McCarthy, which the Left was quick to stereotype as being the perfect example of "Insane deluded lunatic Rightist paranoia" (never mind that there were REALLY hundreds of traitors).
ReplyDeleteThat causes even conservative commentators to automatically distance themselves to anything that even smells like "McCarthyism", whatever that made-up Leftist term is. Even if that "anything" is the actual truth. Not necessary agreeing with Diana West here, but automatically invalidating what she says due to it resembling "McCarthyism" is just plain silly.
Another thing that is just plain silly is trying to cater to PC-MC's speech and thought restrictions while being critical of PC-MC at the same time. That's self-contradictory and it's impossible to make a point succinctly and effectively when you have to dance to the tune of the same thing one criticizes so vehemently. That's why conservative commentators who are afraid of being branded "Loons" by idiotic websites like "LoonWatch", which pick "juicy" bits out of peoples' articles (most likely out of context) and then evoke animalistic hatred and derision (note that the Leftist blogs don't stimulate intellectual activity, just pure emotion unadulterated by reason. Sentimentality instead of practicality, that's a losing recipe.)
In short, hampering one's own effectiveness in order not to give the enemy (Left, Muslims) ammunition to use against you is a stupid strategy. They'll merely acquire it by other means. Better to (to go through with the war parable) focus on neutralizing them, so their shots will be ineffective/nonexistent. But alas, most people lack a pair.
Dave