] An argument that judgment matters but knowledge does not
] is profoundly anti-intellectual. It implies that we do
] not need ever to learn anything in order make mature
] decisions. We can just proceed off some simple
] ideological template and apply it to everything. This
] sort of thinking is part of what is wrong with this
] country. We wouldn't call a man in to fix our plumbing
] who knew nothing about plumbing, but we call pundits to
] address millions of people on subjects about which they
] know nothing of substance.
]
]
] But I did not say that Goldberg's judgment is always
] faulty. I said he doesn't at the moment know what he is
] talking about when it comes to Iraq and the Middle East,
] and there is no reason anyone should pay attention to
] what he thinks about those subjects, as a result.

[ This is Juan Cole disassembling pundit Jonah Goldberg in no uncertain terms... he says a good deal of interesting and informative things in the process, however, so I found it worth a read, even though the political rap-battle aspect didn't interest me particularly. -k

p.s. Another choice quote :
"Goldberg is hoping to Kerryize me because my position on the war can't be reduced to a sound bite. I don't really care. I'm not running for office and I'm not making any money to speak of from this punditry gig. If people can't imagine that you can hate Saddam and also think a unilateral war and long-term occupation of an Arab country are bad ideas, that is their problem."

I should add, from my standpoint, I'm not 100% with Juan on this one... it's our problem too, because misinformed people make bad decisions, and in particular use the lack of a rebuttal as supporting evidence for those bad decisions. He may be saying that it is impossible to convince the sort of people who have such a strongly held opinion otherwise, which is possible. ]

Informed Comment