D'Souza Agrees With Bin Laden

Shorter Dinesh D'Souza: I agree with Bin Laden on the corrosive depravity of the "cultural left". It's what caused him to attack us on 9/11, so we must pacify him and other extremists like him by being more conservative.

And yet it is we the left who are guilty of appeasement? Besides, can somebody explain to me how the unpatriotic, treasonous left is the terrorists' best friend if they hate us?

Stephen Colbert smacks this unmitigated stupidity hard, and it's awfully difficult not to take pleasure in watching it here:

Colbert: I agree with you. There are some good ideas these guys [the terrorists] have. This is what you’re saying, that there are some parts of our culture that are corrosive, and you agree with some of the things that they’re saying.

D’Souza: I’m saying that…

Colbert: No, you have the courage to say that, right? That you agree with some of the things these radical extremists are against in America.

D’Souza: I’m more concerned…

Colbert: Do you agree with that statement? Just, do you agree with that statement?

D’Souza: I agree with it.

Colbert: OK, good. Finally, someone has the courage to say that there are things in America that the liberals do that are causing our destruction.

Steve Benen weighs in:

I have to admit, most Americans tend to disagree with the radical ideology of the Islamic terrorists who slaughter the innocent. It’s refreshing to see a celebrated conservative ideologue stand up and explain how and why al Qaeda might be right.

Indeed, it helps set up a helpful dichotomy, doesn’t it? In Western civilization, we have progressive Americans on one side, and terrorists and conservative Americans on the other. That’s not my characterization — that’s D’Souza’s.

Indeed. And as Steve pointed out in the same post, D'Souza is not alone in thinking this way. The likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have made a cottage industry of demonizing the left even before 9/11.

Frankly, conservatives should be insulted if they think about it. D'Souza is suggesting that their ideology aligns naturally with that of terrorists and that their real enemy are their fellow Americans who belong to the cultural left.

Timothy Noah sums up what D'Souza gets so wrong:

We didn't have it coming. The left had it coming! D'Souza and his comrades at the Hoover Institution were just innocent bystanders! [...]

The heart of D'Souza's book isn't his libeling of the American left, but rather his libeling of the American right. D'Souza notes, correctly, that al-Qaida's hatred toward the West in general, and the United States in particular, is animated to a great extent by America's permissive culture. But Bin Laden isn't some Michael Medved figure grumping about the vulgarity of American Pie. He's got bigger fish to fry. Al-Qaida's enemy isn't the excesses of secular culture; it's secular culture itself.

More at Think Progress.



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