SocraticGadfly: Critic agrees with take of ‘The Bell Curve 2.0’

June 24, 2009

Critic agrees with take of ‘The Bell Curve 2.0’

Yesterday, I blogged about “The Bell Curve 2.0,” the stripping away of the intellectual pretensions of the “thought processes” of Andrew Sullivan.

At least one social critic from the blogworld has the same take as my initial review, only in much more depth, that what I have (so far!) done, and from a much different angle. I would, euphemistically, say that Christopher Badeaux “tears him a new one,” but, as Sullivan himself has noted about some of Sully’s proclivities, he might like that.

That said, as Badeaux notes, Sullivan rides above such trivially mortal concerns.

Ahh, to have more insight than John Paul II, Christian church fathers and others. Being alone amidst a “sea of troubles” of apostate conservatives and unconverted liberals, as Sullivan would put it, troubles him not, as he will bear arms, even if alone, against that sea of troubles.

Here’s a great pull quote, about one-third the way down:
But, few men are Andrew Sullivan. Depending on the day, Andrew Sullivan might not even be Andrew Sullivan.

And, later on, Badeaux does catch Sully, shockingly, admit
“I’m one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments.

What? Sully must not have been speaking ex cathedra.

I am sure that other conservatives will be following the new Murray book closely and weighing in soon enough.

That said, Mr. Badeaux does have an agenda himself – reading Sully out of the conservative blogosphere.

No dice, Chris; he’s yours and you’re stuck with him, even if he doesn’t meet your social conservative definition of “conservative.” Feel free to go to his post and tell him that.

And, Mr. Badeaux misses the reason for Sullivan’s animosity toward neoconservatives, whether Jewish or Gentile, but, especially Jewish ones. They’re one step ahead of their evangelical Protestant fellow travelers. Including Chris Badeaux.

UPDATE, Nov. 28, 2011: Jokes aside, Sully is still, apparently, a full-on racialist. Ta-Nehesi Coates has a roundup of reaction to his pseudointellectual bigotry.

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