GLAD WE'VE CLEARED THAT UP.

GLAD WE'VE CLEARED THAT UP. Jonah Golberg:

In response Matt admits to "actually knowing nothing about the historical record of Lindbergh" but seems to take offense to the comparison nonetheless -- even though I pretty clearly don't buy the conventional mythology of Lindbergh as a virulent anti-Semite (nor, I would like to think, would any fair-minded reader interpret me as calling Yglesias an anti-Semite of any kind).

Is ably refuted by...Jonah Goldberg:

Clark's comments, predictably, earned him denunciations from Jewish groups. After all, the notion that rich, secretive Jews living in places such as New York are pulling strings to visit war and misery on the masses is a time-honored anti-Semitic cliche heard from Charles Lindbergh, Ignatius Donnelly and "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Well, that's settled! If you ever want to explain to someone what "disingenuous" means, I would suggest "analogizing someone to the famously anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh in the context of a discussion about whether a particular line of political discourse is anti-Semitic while claiming that the analogy doesn't imply an attribution of anti-Semitism." As we can see, even Goldberg can't possibly believe that nonsense.

--Scott Lemieux