Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Monday, July 30, 2012

The Unparalled Snark Of David Weigel

To ease myself back into blogging, let's look at a comedy piece by that sly wit David Weigel, who does a dead-pan mocking of Dinesh D'Souza's fuckumentary 2016: Obama’s America.


Farah abides. He doesn’t walk out.
He's quite the brave little toaster. Or he's a cynical exploiter who plays on spite and racism to con his marks out of "donations." It may seem that Weigel is giving Farah his due, even comparing him to the unflappable Dude that Abides, but sarcasm is an elusive thing.
The movie is really too good to get pedantic about.
See? That actually seems sincere, which it cannot be. Now, watch this set up:
Ha! Weigel is saying that D'Souza's rejection of a conspiracy theory is proof that D'Souza's conspiracy theory is right. He's so funny.

Yes, Mr. Weigel,  D'Souza sure does sound illogical. D'Souza's theory is that Obama hates America, more or less. D'Souza takes every politically-motivated critical utterance as proof and, McArdle-like, ignores any evidence that directly disproves his theory. For instance, D'Souza declares in Forbes that Obama does not not believe in American exceptionalism, when Obama has said the exact opposite. Here is the question and answer from the press conference:

Obviously D'Souza is so ridiculously (and renumeratively)  biased that he chooses to ignore the truth, twisting it into a self-serving (and profitable) lie. Weigel is not a babe in the woods; he has undoubtedly heard of that press conference, if he has not read it himself--which he probably has. He is being sarcastic by appearing to agree with D'Souza. He certainly is not so stupid and self-deluded that he believes D'Souza's easily disproved lies.

Here Weigel appears to sympathize with poor, abused D'Souza, to thow those righties off the track. Hehehe, Weigel mutters under his breath. That'll fool them.
Hahaha! Can't you just picture D'Souza putting on a fedora and assuming a Harrison Ford-ish expression as he pretends to scour Obama's bio for the accidentally revealed truth, earnestly running his finger over the text line by line, so as to not miss one misstep? And I might actually watch the movie if I get to see D'Souza hop around in an attempt to understand how the hula undermines Americanism and riding a scooter makes you a commie. I''d also like to see D'Souza tell Sarah Palin that growing up off the mainland makes you less American.

And I suspect Grandma Sarah thought D'Souza was offering marriage in exchange for goats, took one look at the gentleman in question, gently let him down by telling him to come back with more goats, and slipped out the back before he returned.

Indian Jones III
Stop it, Dave! It's too funny.
Oh, no! Don't tell D'Souza about Nixon's 70% top marginal rate! He'll have a stroke!
I know just as much about Stanley Ann Dunham's relationship with Obama's father as the professor (nothing) yet I find her epiphany a little unconvincing. Weigel's a sly fox, isn't he?
They also require students to attend chapel once a week, which must mean, by D'Souza logic, that they are all atheists.
Weigel lists more of D'Souza's claims, stating that most of them (actually, all of them over here in Realityville) are wrong. This, Weigel says, proves D'Souza's good faith. Heh! And I thought I was good at sarcasm.
Bravo, Dave! That is a pitch-perfect imitation of right-wing petulence when faced with liberal-biased reality.
Now, there's damning with faint praise. The "biggest coup" is a cousin who seems to favor financial redistribution, as long as he is the recipient.
“Do you really believe that?” asks D’Souza. “It’s true,” says George Obama. “They would have developed us. Instead, we were fighting over nothing!”
I think I found McArdle's bus rider.
He hasn’t been his brother’s keeper, has he?  
“He’s too busy helping the world?” asked D’Souza.  

Kudos to Mr. Weigel for appearing to support Mr. D'Souza while exposing the latter's bad faith, ineffectiveness, and just plain stupidity. I couldn't have done it any better myself. What could be more ridiculous than supporting the viewpoint of a person whom you have just proven wrong?


ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I give Weigel credit.

When he participated in a listserv and said these guys were assholes, he got fired.

He's figured out how to sneak it by the WaPo.

Both Sides Do It said...

Good to have you back, especially in such fine form. Not a lot of places combine this kind of conceit with "fuckumentary".

But in some sense it gives Weigel too much credit. D'Souza so completely and obviously misreads, distorts, and lies to fit his ideological ends, and has been doing it for literally thirty years, that to give him any sort of credence is to fundamentally betray the core principles of public journalism.

Pointing out how inane and incompetent and ideological Weigel himself is in his treatment of D'Souza is all well and good but doesn't really get at how mendacious it is to treat D'Souza with anything but withering contempt.

Susan of Texas said...

Should I have been meaner? Because I can do that.

Anonymous said...

Dave Weigel, who once said that slimy bastard Dick Armey was one of the congresspeople he admired most? That Dave Weigel?

He has a cunning act. Almost as good as Young Conor Friedersdorf.


Lurking Canadian said...

It is good to have you back, Susan!

I must disagree with you on one point, though. The quoted passage, when read through wingnut eyes, does not show Obama supporting American Exceptionalism. Indeed, it shows him rejecting American Exceptionalism.

He says, "Every country believes itself exceptional." He says, "I believe in American values even though they are imperfect."

To a wingnut, "American Exceptionalism" means, "America was created by the Baby Jesus; the Constitution was dictated to Moses on the slopes of Mt. Horeb; and nothing America has ever done, or could ever do, is bad."

Obama doesn't believe that, which means he's an America-hater just like Bin Laden.

Downpuppy said...

For those wondering what Megan is up to -

(Warning : May induce vomiting)

Anonymous said...

Lurking Canadian: I believe you mean Mt. Sinai -- or are you [now, or have you ever been] a filthy Elohist?

Susan of Texas said...

True, by wingnut standards Obama's lack of jingoism practically declared his allegiance to Satan and all his acts.




And, evidently, British.

Downpuppy said...

I went ahead & blogged the whole nightmare -

Dan Coyle said...

That photo is stunningly repulsive. I've always felt D'Souza is genuinely mentally ill, but I think he's physically ill as well. What the hell is going on with his left eye? the bags under his eye has a double bag.

Downpuppy said...

I've decided to go through the rollcall of Wingnut Welfare pundits one by one & SQUASH THEM LIKE THE BUGS THEY ARE!

So far, just Neil Munro & Doughy Pantload, but this stuff writes itself. PBS is doing a 70's country/pop fundraiser, with some decent songs, which is a bit distracting, but anyhow, The Rolled Up Newspaper isn't going anywhere, & I finally got around to claiming the Downpuppy gmail addy.

Substance McGravitas said...


The zombie lie is a current favourite phrase.

keatssycamore said...

Hilarious Argle-Bargle tweet I saw at that muck reads link:

" Megan McArdle @asymmetricinfo Ann Friedman on what we should learn from Jonah Lehrer: don't let your mouth write checks your reporting can't cash "

I'll probably wake up laughing.

keatssycamore said...

More goodies from Blenderella. You have to see these tweets between her and David Steinberg. They are classic McMegan -

Here's some of the thread (which I hope gets Susan so worked up she makes an entire snark post out of it):

@DavidASteinberg @asymmetricinfo if you can't read a scientific pub. and understand and paraphrase what you read, you shouldn't be reporting on the topic.

@asymmetricinfo @DavidASteinberg I disagree. Scientific specialties are quite narrow; no one can have a reporter who just does, say, antibiotic research

And, of course, we eventually wind up here:

@asymmetricinfo @DavidASteinberg I have read lots of studies on pharmaceutical effectiveness. I still don't understand organic chemistry or drug synthsesis

Amen to that, Megan McArdle!

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

You have to admit that she'd make a great consultant on those topics, keatssycamore.