(no subject)

[fpb]

Anyone who thinks that I was too harsh about Jonah Goldberg's repulsive and politically motivated rewriting of my own country's history ought to read today's Thomas Sowell column, where it is taken entirely at its own valuation and highly recommended as summer reading for the children of conservatives. This unhistorical, culturally imperialistic propaganda, that distorts my country's and my continent's history in the service of provincial American concerns, is going to enter the bloodstream of a whole American party, If it has not already done so. This will increase further the mutual incomprehension between USA and Europe, because you cannot stand on your two hind legs and inform anyone who knows anything of continental history - France, Italy, Germany, etc. - that Nazism and Fascism were "left wing". This sort of rubbish, especially if spoken with the arrogance of Goldberg and Sowell, will increase European contempt for American viewpoints and culture. Do we really need this sort of trash further complicating our already difficult relationship, and all for the sake of a few Republican votes in the next election?

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Do not start with an ad hominem attack. It is bad form and bad argument. I admit that mine was not admirable, but it only came at a moment of exasperation where I felt that you were not listening to anything I said. Rhetoric about bluster and all that is simply that - bluster. It does nothing to improve your argument or Mr.Goldberg's. And I claimed nothing more than that no Italian alive or dead would consider the matter in any other light than I consider it. The gross mistakes you made in your account of Fascism - such as missing the small matter of its being protected by the King and the army - certainly do not argue in favour of your knowledge, but the fact that you felt I bragged of something - give me one concrete instance where I bragged of anything, rather than simply pointing out that you were wrong in point of fact - only shows that, as the Italian proverb says, the tongue has this gift of hitting the point where the tooth hurts.

[johncwright.livejournal.com]

"I admit that mine was not admirable, but it only came at a moment of
exasperation where I felt that you were not listening to anything I said."

I accept your apology and forgive you. Let us be friends.