Thursday, March 5, 2009

How not to argue

"What is it supposed to mean to describe conservatives who have a beef with Limbaugh's views or rhetoric as 'highbrow'? Are the opinions illegitimate or mistaken because they supposedly come from a vantage point of cultural sophistication?
-- Rod Dreher
Having plowed the fields of culture for many years, I don't want to deny being sophisticated, but that's not really the beef, is it? Calling people "mongoloids" isn't exactly sophisticated, even if you do reference it to A Confederacy of Dunces. I mean, Huck Finn is a work of literature, so maybe there are some words in Huck Finn that Rod Dreher wants to start slinging around.

In any conflict between Rod Dreher and Rush Limbaugh, Dreher loses.

2 comments:

  1. As I wrote on my blog, who is Rod Dreher to be the guardian of cultural sophistication? He is a journalist for s second-rate newspaper whose primary contribution to the world of ideas is a book where food selection is the centerpiece of ideology. Michael Oakeshott he is not.

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  2. Dreher actually has a lot to contribute to conservatism, especially his views and writings on the 40-year decline of Western culture and the junking of traditional social values. I just wish he wouldn't get his back up so badly when he hears Rush Limbaugh expound his own views.

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