From a “reader”:
Dear Mr. Goldberg,
Do you know how asinine and foolish and disingenuous it sounds when you
criticize Sesame Street? I say this even though I agree with the
thrust of whatyou are saying about Cookie Monster, that beloved little
furry blue ping-pong-ball-eyed monster that LOVES to devour COOKIES!!!
But Mr. Goldberg, I’m afraid it seems very much like YOUR PEOPLE (i.e.
the WF Buckley right) are the ones that did the damage to him — via
apparently GW Bush appointees to the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting,threatening to cut the budget for PBS, and other means . . .
Sir, I am so saddened and disheartened that those great PBS shows are
going downhill, and frankly it is sad for America — having caring,
compassionate people in the world who know how to get along with one
another and interrelate positively is not a “liberal” idea in the
current political sense in which you and others who share your political
leanings seem to use the term — NO, Mr. Goldberg — it is a human
decency such as Sesame Street used to depict for kids to model that runs
America and makes it great . . . and to the extent we don’t have it it
is a huge loss — one for which I repeat YOU and others who appear to
share your political ideas have largely eviscerated, leaving future
generations of kids now not only saddled with an enormous Federal Debt,
a reduced stature for America in the world, a weakened Bill of Rights so
vital for democracy and freedom, but now also a WEAK AND SAD SHELL OF A
COOKIE MONSTER.
Please refrain from eliminating nitrogenous liquid wastes on Sesame
Street and then announcing that atmospheric precipitation is ensuing, if
you get my Kermit and The Count-admiring drift.
Thank you for considering my views.
Yours sincerely,
[Name and Address Withheld]
PS: About your book, “Liberal Fascists” (TERRIBLE TITLE by the way,
what were you thinking???), sir, I fully agree with you that Woodrow
Wilson was an atrocious president (like GW Bush) and a war-mongerer
(like GW Bush) and frighteningly took the country in some fascistic
directions (ditto GWB) — but that does not mean that “liberals” are
“fascists” — what it means is that Wilson was NOT A LIBERAL (in the
sense that “liberal” comes from Latin meaning free, and liberals by
definition then love freedom — so to the extent fascism is antithetical
to freesom, “LIBERALS” AS YOU WELL KNOW are in fact the “ANTITHESES OF
FASCISTS” — whereas modern-day “conservatives” like GW Bush
administration are closer to fascistic — since they seem to want to
make war, invade countries, and put everyone under surveillance, and so
are surely a lot more in those ways like Hitler or Mussolini than Ted
Kennedy.
Update: From a reader:
Subject: Cookie Monster Guy is Right!
You are mean, and fascists are mean. So you are a fascist. Liberals are good, and Wilson was bad. So Wilson is a conservative. I like pizza, and pizza is fattening. So you are fat. Deal with it.
Update II: I dunno if the original reader was referring to my book’s (very brief) discussion of Cookie Monster. Or if he’s talking about this column of mine.