Yep
By John Scalzi, via Ralph Luker:
Jonah, dude, I don’t doubt that you misspoke. That’s pretty obvious. But, really. How does one — particularly one purporting to write a book on fascism — forget, even for a minute, that Mussolini was called a fascist because he was a Fascist? And not just a Fascist, he was the Fascist; indeed, the Platonic Ideal of a Fascist. Maybe you were nervous about being interviewed — you do it so infrequently, after all — but it’s kind of a big goof. We Americans may not know much about Mussolini, but we know three things: He made trains run on time, he bore an unsettling resemblance to George C. Scott, and he was a goddamn Fascist. It’s not something one easily forgets, nor should forget, especially when one is, say, talking about fascism to the press. Try to do better next time, Mr. Goldberg. You’ll look less of an ass.
Well, I’m not so sure about that last sentence, since it doesn’t appear likely that Goldberg is going to read his Mussolini in the near future. When you have to ask your interviewer what the ur-text of fascism actually contains, you’re never not going to look like an ass.
In other news, it appears that Robert Reich is now a fascist. Curiously, no one has yet mentioned Rich Cohen — who last year grew a Toothbrush Mustache — for inclusion on the list of contemporary liberal fascists.
And as I prepare for the first day of class by looking over my lecture notes on Reconstruction, I realize it’s only a matter of time before Goldberg exposes the Freedman’s Bureau as a fascist wedge organization.
