Jonah Goldberg and his father think dictionaries are liberal

[ensho]

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjdlMGY2OWU2M2I5MDcxMzZjZjhkYTFiMjkyYzQxNmE=


-this snip is a letter to Jonah about words in the thesaurus, etc. ending with this:-

I am a great fan of your columns - - and maybe somewhere in the creeping leftism of something as supposedly benign as a thesaurus will give you some fodder for some future writings...

Jonah's reply to the letter:

While annoying, none of this surprises me. I can't tell you how many people have told me that my book is idiotic on its face because the dictionary says so. By the way, my dad wrote about the deep-seated bias of dictionaries for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago.

Oh and the kind words are appreciated and *not* annoying.
------------------------


cripe

[KamaAina]

1. Well, the word "liberal" *is* in the dictionary...

...so is the word "twit". :P

[Rebubula]

15. Yeah...

...but 'gullible' is no where to be found in any dictionary...

[CJCRANE]

2. Conservatives need to find a new language. English obviously doesn't work for them anymore nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. They've already got it, and been using it for years.

It's called 'newspeak'.

http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-dict.html

[fascisthunter]

3. that's why these political cultists try to attack everything

it's not that dictionaries are liberal, it's just that truth doesn't support their twisted political view of the country and world. Facts need to be maligned in order for them to even argue their point of view. These people are crazy...

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I've been hearing that tired old line since the American Heritage Dictionary

was first published.

Here's a critique: http://deanesmay.com/are-you-a-liberal/

[gratuitous]

5. One word, one meaning

That's the way God intended it before the unpleasantness at Babel, and Jonah Goldberg subscribes to that theory of language. Like Humpty Dumpty in "Alice in Wonderland," every word Jonah chooses is exactly the word he wants, and it means exactly what he says it means. Until he uses it again, in which case the prior meaning becomes inoperative. Unless it means the same thing again. But if it doesn't, it won't.

All clear? You may need a second lobotomy to understand the Doughy Pantload properly.

[and-justice-for-all]

6. dumbasses...nt

[niyad]

8. his book is idiotic because a dictionary said so? I thought dictionaries gave definitions-

did not know they were critics.

uh, jonah, your book is idiotic because YOU are idiotic, not to mention clueless, ignorant, hate-filled and just a downright waste of skin and resources.

[Dr.Phool]

9. Who's his father? Rube?

[Buzz Clik]

10. Stephen Colbert claims that the truth has a liberal bias. I guess the English language does, too.

Jonah Goldberg is a mental cripple.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Always pecking at the special case, never seeing the broader theorem...

*REALITY* has a liberal bias.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. But, but, isn't using 'liberal' to mean 'advanced' part of Goldberg's title: "Liberal Fascism"?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Conservatives already think the U.S. Constitution and the Bible are too liberal

Why not dictionaries and thesauruses as well? Cameras, videotape, tape recorders, film, and reality itself all have liberal biases, too.

[Marr]

14. It's amazing-- but they will never even consider the idea that

they themselves are the biased extremists. This dictionary comment is a perfect example, as is the news from earlier this week that a Conservative group wants to rewrite the Bible to support their ideology. I don't know whether it's a product of extreme indoctrination, garden variety stupidity, a combination of the two... or some actual mental disorder.