By now, dear reader, you have undoubtedly heard about the brouhaha that erupted in response to Dinesh DÂ’SouzaÂ’s latest screed, The Enemy at Home. Apparently, Mr. DÂ’Souza, a veteran polemicist from the dreaded Culture Wars, didnÂ’t realize that his pals on the political Right wouldnÂ’t take too kindly to his insipid arguments.

Well, gee: In his jeremiad, Mr. D’Souza places the blame for 9/11—and, more generally, Islamist terrorism—squarely on the American Left. You know: A sort of “Jimmy Carter Made Me Do It” defense for Osama bin Laden and his ilk. Who would ever find that offensive?

Well, dear reader, it turns out that a lot of political conservatives do. So many, in fact, that the leftists who previously caterwauled about DÂ’SouzaÂ’s stupidity have long since ceased: Once they realized that their political opponents also thought DÂ’Souza was full of it, they grew bored of the whole matter. To our lefty pals, it seems, Mr. DÂ’SouzaÂ’s errors were only worth mentioning if a sizeable number of conservatives agreed with them.

We, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” have been following the Dinesh D’Souza meltdown with sad fascination. Frankly, it’s like watching a car wreck—you don’t want to look, but you just can’t help yourself.

After all, Mr. DÂ’SouzaÂ’s umpteen vituperative replies to his critics have resembled nothing so much as the retorts of Martin Bernal, the red diaper baby crank who wrote Black Athena. But at least Bernal disagreed with his political adversaries, whereas Mr. DÂ’Souza burns bridges with every nasty reply.

By now, Mr. DÂ’Souza has penned around 450 angry responses to his detractors. And, as far as we can tell, they are almost comically devoid of arguments. Gosh: Even an idiot would stumble upon an argument once in a while, we figured. But not Mr. DÂ’Souza.

Instead, he has merely managed a veritable festival of ad hominem fluff. In his mind, Scott Johnson, who wrote a disparaging review of the book in The New Criterion, is some lowly “weblogger,” and, apparently, not worth trusting.

In fact, Mr. DÂ’Souza even remarked that he thought The New Criterion went out of business years ago. Boy, that says a lot for his reading habits. Perhaps heÂ’s been too busy reading Cat Fancy?

What is shocking about all of this, dear reader, is the realization of how strangely thin-skinned Dinesh DÂ’Souza is. This is a guy who wrote a book called The End of Racism, which argued that racism no longer exists in the United States of America, for crying out loud. YouÂ’d figure that such a fellow would be rather inured to hostile press.

But, oh no: When his book was criticized, he couldnÂ’t respond diplomatically, but had to flail away at everyone, employing the nastiest terms possible.

Posted by: Chip at 12:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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