author Rod Dreher, is so determined to insult his archnemesis that he doesn't mind hitting a couple of innocent bystanders -- myself and Daniel Larison -- in the process. He accuses Larison of "idiocy" but doesn't explain why he is wrong. Bubba is upset at the way we all noticed how Rush Limbaugh imputed to Liberalism what is in fact the central tenet of Conservatism -- the fallen nature of man. I learned the Cliff's Notes version of this reading National Review and old William F. Buckley books as an undergraduate two decades ago.Bubba would do well to seek counseling to help over his Dreher-fixation and then learn what conservatives are supposed to believe before attempting to correct anyone else.
UPDATE: Things get even uglier in the comments. We are bad writers and Dreher is a showoff because he warns readers that the contents of a Time article isn't available on line and I'm not really sure how Caleb Steagall got involved but there is this:
The impression I get of Steagall et al is of a bunch of auto-didacts with inferiority complexes about not having a position in the academy. Considering the awful state of their prose is scary enough but imagining that they might actually speak this way is downright terrifying. The closest I can imagine is the renn-faire types with their "thees and thous."
5 comments:
Nice. Accuse one of the most remarkably learned and intelligent bloggers out there of idiocy. Bubba is an insult to all those who share his name or nickname.
Yes, "autodidacts" at the University of Chicago are a particularly dreadful bunch. Of course, at least such "autodidacts" have learned something, which seems to be more than can be said for some others. And the writing--oh, my God, the writing! How did I ever get my master's thesis with such horrendous writing? My advisers must have been asleep at the wheel when they let me through, yes, sir! I shall have to repay all my stipends, too, since I am clearly a fraud who knows nothing. Thank goodness someone came along to set me straight!
You heard them Clark, you're overly verbose. Your wordiness is just a mask for your lack of profundity. Get over yourself already.
Wow. That thread, even apart from the visual-disturbance inducing white-on-black format, is really something. So much low-hanging fruit waiting to be picked. Or would that be many hanging curves waiting to be smacked over the fence?
Dime-store psychoanalysis.
Pseudo-populist resentment of those whose learning is reflected in both the style and substance of their writing.
Conflations of material success and intelligence/merit.
A dim incomprehension of the history and philosophy undergirding the judgments they bridle at as being invidious.
An utter incapacity to imagine things being other than as they are, and to grasp that The Way They Are is hardly a realization of some timeless verities. And, in light of these incapacities, a clear implication that the past was populated by benighted rubes than whom they are so much wiser, despite not being able to comprehend the arguments of their critics!
How does that go - professing to be wise....
Anyway, I wish I hadn't read it. It caused me to laugh for all of five minutes, but left me with the feeling that I had inadvertantly witnessed a neighbour indulging a nasty little vice. I feel dirty.
Personally, I liked the reference to Bill Kauffman's "front-porch terrorist" book. Pacifists are terrorists, I guess. War is peace. Slavery is freedom. And Rush Limbaugh is God.
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