At Power Line, we examine the sad state of the modern American liberal-left mostly by focusing on Democratic politicians and their enablers in the MSM. Occasionally, and mostly for fun, we cast our gaze at a left-wing blog.
Once in a while, we talk about left-leaning intellectuals and/or scholars — both those we respect and those we don’t. And I’m more than happy to link to my intellectual betters when they blow the whistle on a particularly dismal performance by a leading leftist intellectual.
Our friend Peter Berkowitz does just that in the latest issue of Policy Review. His subject is George Lakoff, a linguistics professor at Berkeley and author of Whose Freedom? The Battle over America’s Most Important Ideas. According to Berkowitz, this book demostrates “the extent to which respectable publishing venues will go today in promoting ridiculous arguments, provided they are made by progressives in the service of demonizing conservatives and conservative ideas.” By exposing Lakoff, Peter hopes to highlight “the foolishness of progressive intellectuals who make common cause with the least sober elements of their party.” For “if not the party’s intellectuals, who then will guide the Democrats in going beyond preaching to the converted?”
I’m not sure that Peter has the causal relationship here exactly right. I suspect that it was the party’s intellectuals, or at least its academics, who helped convert the faithful in the first place. But I strongly commend his review of Lakoff’s book to our readers.
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