The Stupidity of Modern Conservatives, Part II
I recall the trashing I would see Stanley Fish receive in various 'intellectual' conservative outlets. Having read about half of his Milton book, Surprised by Sin, I can testify that the man is a genius and great scholar. That doesn't mean I would agree with everything he's written (this is the first time I've read him at length), but he is certainly not the babbling moron these conservatives would have him. The anti-intellectualism most conservatives display is a good indication that what passes for conservatism these days is really... I'll give you a hint: it starts with an 'f'.
And, it makes me re-think my re-action to Rudy Giuliani's assertion that he had 'never heard' the blowback explanation for 9/11 when Ron Paul brought it up. I now see that, in a sense, he may have been speaking the truth -- he had never heard it in that he had always refused to listen when it was brought up. In that sense, even the next time someone suggests it to him, he will still be able to say, truthfully, 'I've never heard that before'.
And, it makes me re-think my re-action to Rudy Giuliani's assertion that he had 'never heard' the blowback explanation for 9/11 when Ron Paul brought it up. I now see that, in a sense, he may have been speaking the truth -- he had never heard it in that he had always refused to listen when it was brought up. In that sense, even the next time someone suggests it to him, he will still be able to say, truthfully, 'I've never heard that before'.
Stanley Fish is far and away my favorite postmodern lit critic, because he's intellectually honest enough to say what's on his mind in plain English. I tried to struggle through a couple pages of Derrida and gave up. Most postmodernists who write in a dense Continental style claim their obscure prose is necessary to make some kind of obscure philosophical point or other. I think the point is something like "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, then baffle 'em with bullshit."
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