Friday, December 6, 2013

More PIE

Now dead, Nelson Mandela is unable to flee baptism by the dependably incontinent Rod Dreher.

Best one: [NFR: READ THE FREAKING ITEM! -- RD]

8 comments:

  1. I love Rod's responses to his commenters. 8 times out of 10, a good percentage of them see through whatever BS he's peddling this hour. And boy, does Rod resent it. I can't figure out why he just doesn't close comments or heavily censor them at least, like he does on his Bonnie Blue Revue blog where he tries to influence local politics in St. Francisville. It's pretty masochistic, given how thin-skinned he is.

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    1. The problem for Dreher is that his readers did read the freaking item -- that's why they said what they did.

      A good rule in any business is: Never insult your customer.

      Of course Dreher worked for years at the Dallas Morning News, which insults its readers on a daily basis. So little wonder he didn't learn that lesson.

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  2. The most disappointing part about that piece is that some readers mistakenly associate Dreher, and "The" "American" "Conservative", with actual conservatives.

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    1. Pik, I think I see what's confusing you.

      See, it says right there in the sidebar

      The American Conservative is breaking ground and our ideas are reshaping the right.

      using that tried and true capitalist business model perfected by the CPB - begging:

      Your tax-deductible, end-of-year gift of $10, $20, $50–whatever you can afford–is critical to our continuing success. With your commitment, we’ll build a healthy conservatism for the future.

      In fact, Pik, I'm even more concerned now: your conservatism may be downright unhealthy. Have you thought about that? It might not contain all the policy features that a new, improved, reshaped healthy conservatism will be able to offer you on Allison's new Conservatism Exchange, where that tired, plodding, linear historical culture of old white men is being replaced by the exciting new dog's breakfast cultural confetti of Rod Dreher's mashup du jour.

      Interesting times, Pik. With our commitment, TAC will enable us to live in even more interesting times.

      Keith

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    2. Yeah, "healthy conservatism" indeed. That struck me almost as funny as "our continuing success".

      P.S. The mashup you link to is unintentionally hilarious. For a piece entitled "More Artists, Fewer Intellectuals", it sure is loaded with a lot of opaque intellectual claptrap. If Dreher wants to solve his false dilemma as he says he does, a good start would be to spare us pieces like that.

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    3. Oh, dear, Pik, now look what I've done. I've blindly urged you to send your hard-earned money to TAC so that they can reshape and heal your unhealthy conservatism into a newer, healthier one, and just now I learn that the truth is, most American writers are irrelevant to politics and public life today. The government doesn’t much care what writers have to say because the public doesn’t much care what writers have to say.

      So if the public doesn't care what the writers I just urged you to fund have to say, where do the real effects of your money ultimately show up? As tiny little oyster boluses conga-lining their way through some dark and stormy colonic boulevard?

      Maybe one reason the public doesn't care what these writers have to say, though, is that they reveal only two paragraphs down that they've only lifted their non-original thoughts and words virtually verbatim from older, better writers:

      What a burden to bear, that the government not only allows us complete freedom — even freedom for atrocities like MacBird! — but, like ninety-five percent of Americans, couldn’t care less what we write.

      OTOH, such cribbing does reduce the literary overhead on aquiring those oysters tremendously. So there's that.

      Keith

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  3. Speaking of PIE, Dreher and TAC are approaching their logical endpoint:

    ... regurgitating Seymour Hersh screeds ...

    All the news that fits the narrative, regardless of source or validity (e.g., Hersh has a history of being a useful idiot for the Syrian government).

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