MLA Requiem

Accuracy in Academia ^ | January 29, 2013 | Malcolm A. Kline

[Academiadotorg]

A pair of professors objected to our coverage of them at the Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting in Boston this year. Near as we can figure out, what they objected to was the fact that we covered them.

“Glad you could make it to my paper on 1930s propaganda and popular culture,” Matthew Stratton, an Assistant Professor of English at the University of California-Davis wrote in an effort at cordiality that belied what was to come. “I must admit, however, that I’m a bit confused by your account of the panel.”

“What exactly in my paper did you find objectionable or in need of correction? Certainly not the uncontroversial fact that Hugh Johnson admired aspects of Italian fascism? Certainly not the idea that conservative figures—from Herbert Hoover to Glenn Beck, to scads of well-photographed Tea Partiers—have long charged New Deal / liberal politics and policies with actually being fascist?”

“If you do object to the latter, may I suggest you read Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, or throw a random dart at the work of Ann Coulter and read for ten pages. If that seems too onerous, perhaps you’ll consider the words of Ronald Reagan, who in 1976 rather famous claimed that ‘Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say “But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”

“If you’d like me to send you quotations where Rush Limbaugh compares Obama to Hitler, I’d be happy to. But perhaps you object to Reagan as well, which would be mildly interesting; I frankly can’t divine what your point is, and would be interested in hearing your clarification.” Really, all we did was quote him.

[blueunicorn6]

In academic circles they call that “Throwing a hissy fit”.

[T-Bird45]

Cockroaches don’t like it when the light comes on either.

[KarlInOhio]

The real question is whether Roosevelt and gang actually did copy much of the ideology of the Italian fascist movement (which itself was a splinter from the Italian socialist movement), not whether people are now finally recognizing it. By quoting Limbaugh, Beck, Goldberg or signs at tea party protests Stratton buries the question of whether their accusations are true.

Original comments (but you knew that) on Stratton's presentation: http://www.academia.org/none-dare-call-it-2/

Look at some of National Recovery Administration blue eagle marches and see if you can see a difference from European fascist rallies.

[jagusafr]

Slight modification for Texas: down here, it’s “pitchin’ a walleyed hissy”. Local dialect, apparently.