Unserious conservatives, cont.
Ben W. writes:
This is to address two threads at VFR—the lack of seriousness in conservatives and the Burton discussion. Conservative commentary has become big business (Coulter, Malkin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Horowitz, etc.). However these people have become expert in “conservative linguistics”—saying things without saying things. For example, using the euphemisms of “big government” and “the socialist approach” when addressing racial realities in our cities.
Conservative journalists and pundits have evolved a type of language that hints at certain things without specifying them. That’s what I feel separates you from the rest. Steyn is The Conservative Court Jester. He has become the master of the conservative idiom and euphemism. It is money in the bank for him. But has he ever addressed race, Christianity, Darwinism, homosexuality?
Malkin, Steyn and the rest are predictable from day to day. A “conservative” robot writing machine can spew out their articles. Same speech patterns, same idiom, same euphemisms centered around “big governement” and “the socialist approach.” Safe ways of speaking.
One can see this very clearly at FOX. 24 hours of nubile “journalists” who have learned conservative-speak. Has Hannity EVER had a plain woman on his panel? This is conservative titilation under the umbrella of conservative-speak. Just get a big-boobed, miniskirted blonde with a law degree and pronounce her a conservative spokesman. And how easy it is to focus everything around the perils of “big government” and “the socialist approach.” In the meantime you can see up her legs, past her skirt up to her panties as she inveighs against “socialism” using conservative-speak.
Conservatism has become a lucrative, sexy show. Perhaps McCain saw this when he picked a high heeled, tight skirted running mate …
Larry G. writes:
In reply to the “unserious conservatives” thread, I’m not sure “unserious” is the word, but there definitely seems to be an ignorance or willful blindness regarding the inabilities of blacks as a group. On the right-wing talk programs and many right-wing blogs, we hear that “skin color doesn’t matter” (of course it doesn’t; race matters) and that the problem isn’t immigration, only illegal immigration. Talk shows will have on blacks who are themselves exceptional and intelligent, ignoring the fact that they are exceptional. Even as we are having imposed on us a government composed of blacks and other minorties in key positions, we hear nothing of the fact that no black dominated government has been anything other than corrupt and incompetent. We see that in Obama himself, yet it is not attributed to race, but to inexperience and leftist ideology. Even if we survive this administration, I doubt the lesson will be learned.
Rocco di Pippo writes:
About John Derbyshire’s “We Are Doomed,” You wrote:
“What else is there? Bloviate, publish, and be a celebrity, for tomorrow we die.”
Beautiful.
Larry, I have given up on most “conservative” websites and blogs. Almost all of them say the same things day in and day out. The hope of future celebrity and/or notoriety seems to drive the whole show, and I’m sick of it. It has become horribly boring.
I read your blog, American Thinker, Don Feder occasionally and flip through the Free Republic comments, which are often dead-on and sometimes hilarious. And that’s about it. Conservatism’s ex-flagship publication National Review?—a self-conscious, uber-wordy, fearful joke. What a depressing mess.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 21, 2009 04:36 PM | Send