Jonah And Noah

Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism seems to have become a bestseller. The title is meant to be provocative, and it's succeeded. Timothy Noah was provoked enough to respond in Slate.

After a bunch of paragraphs attacking the book, we get to this:

Goldberg's argument begins with the observation that well into the 1930s, the American progressive movement had more admiration than scorn for Benito Mussolini, who coined the words fascist and totalitarian, and even for Adolf Hitler. This isn't news to anyone with even a glancing familiarity with American history. Goldberg further argues that fascism initially evolved from and positioned itself as a muscular brand of socialism (hence Nazi, an abbreviation for "National Socialist German Workers Party"). Also true, and also known to most educated people.

Then Noah continues his attack.

But hasn't Noah given away the game? Do most people today, educated or not, liberal or not, know what he says they know? I doubt it. In fact, if Goldberg's book can get people to admit what Noah says they already believe, I'd guess Goldberg would feel he's accomplished 90% of what he set out to do.