McWhorter does some damage to his own credibility in this article by complaining about supposed ad hominem attacks launched by Beck, while simultaneously launching bogus ad hominem attacks against Beck and Beck’s purported lock-step, unthinking followers.
I do not get cable TV. In fact, I have never actually watched or listened to any of Beck’s shows, nor have I ever knowingly read any of his writings, but my impression from what I have read about the current Priven tempest (written by others, such as on the Powerline blog) is that Beck’s comments about Priven have been based on the substance of what she has written and advocated, and that he has not been simply calling her out as a dangerous Commie (which she appears to be) who needs to be attacked.
McWhorter has always seemed to be a bright thinker, one who searches for the truth rather than jumping on bandwagons or reciting talking points. I accept the fact that we disagree on a number of issues. For example, I find that his support for Obama is terribly misguided and reveals serious flaws in his thought processes. However with this article he has gone completely off the rails, to the point where he is starting to spew the kind of demagoguery and venom that he ascribes to those evil right-wingers. It’s not a pretty sight...
I thought highly of John McWhorter until he endorsed Obama. Could he be in the process of pulling a David Frum—or worse, a David Brock?