Not surprisingly Matt Yglesias is vexed by the Times’ “kind treatment” of my book. I’ve gotten into habit of ignoring what Yglesias says about me and I don’t see much reason to kick that habit. But I should at least contradict him on one thing. He writes that “The reviewer, David Oshinsky, does concede that Goldberg’s main thesis is false but that didn’t seem to bother him.”
Oshinsky in fact doesn’t deal with my “main thesis” at all. As Ramesh notes, Oshinsky actually concedes that fascism is a phenomenon of the left. As for where Oshinsky does disagree with my thesis, it is so poorly supported and so unrelated to what I actually write, I’m still a bit flummoxed as to how to respond to it, save to thank the man for his kind words and hope some other liberal actually reads the book and offers a sustained argument against it. Honestly: I would actually like to read such a review. So far the reaction from Lefty blogs has been simply inane or deranged. I am sincerely interested in a serious liberal’s — or leftist’s — argument against what I have to say. And if Matt can put aside his animus towards me, maybe he’s the guy to do it. But I’m not holding my breath.