From a listener:
Jonah,
I am currently listening to your interview with Hugh Hewitt and wanted to offer you kudos on your book, from a lefty Democrat. I will keep this brief and nonacademic, but I’m motivated to give you credit for raising important issues. My own political background goes back to my college days, and it was in pursuit of an Environmental Studies degree that I first encountered the parallels between Hitler’s fascism and some of the more radical, modern strains of environmentalism. In addition, I maintained a radio show on a “pirate” station, run by an “anarchist collective”. That experience showed me the willingness of those on the far left to posit an perverse moral obligation to control discourse and ,given power, I believe they’d look to control action.
I still consider myself a liberal, although my experiences have steeled my resolve to not allow absurd discourse to go unchallenged. I welcome your book (haven’t read it yet), and hope that all fair mined individuals on the left see it as an opportunity to directly and honestly face certain historical truths.
While many on the right will see your book as validation that the left is comprised of wacky commie sympathizers, I see it as an opportunity to continually redefine the political spectrum in America. I can’t stand those that would rather dismiss or ignore a point of view, rather than seek to understand it, and be prepared to modify one’s own opinions in light of facts and common sense.
Good luck in promoting it, and whenever you get nasty emails, or have your book stolen from the shelves, just know that there’s at least one liberal who plans on buying the book and imagines it might serve as a cautionary tale that can actually help me put into perspective those aspects of history I do not want to see represent the future of liberalism.
Sincerely,