My most recent TRB column ("Trite Makes Right") took on Jonah Goldberg's contention that liberals, because they make their arguments less openly, recite clichés more often than conservatives do. Part of the fun in attacking Goldberg is that he is (to borrow a favorite phrase of Reuters press columnist Jack Shafer) a slow-moving target that bleeds profusely when hit. Goldberg has nowreplied to my column in classic Goldberg fashion, i.e. by asserting that his thoughts are too subtle (and too frequently expressed in Latin phrases) to be grasped by mental pygmies such as ... well, in this case, myself. And that it's just a goddamned shame that a distinguished magazine like The New Republic, where giants once dwelt--fascist giants, in Goldberg's estimation, but giants nonetheless--should come to this. Hélas! Goldberg could answer my column, but truly, what's the point? Time presses on, and there is more urgent work to do.
Timothy Noah is a New Republic staff writer and author of The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It.
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