I always mix up him and Bill Whittle, because they’ve both become highly respected throughout the conservative blogosphere for their “ability” to state the blindingly obvious in 10,000 words when 100 would do.
(And it always annoyed me that the names of their blogs — the USS Clueless and Eject!Eject!Eject! — hinted at a military record neither man actually had.)
Today den Beste shares his profoundly original and provocative thoughts on “the danger of gloating.”
You have to read it, if only because I resent being forced to suffer alone.
Fact: most people are idiots. Trying to calmly convince and convert them with facts and arguments is a waste of time. As den Beste says (because, er, everybody knows this already) most people won’t admit to changing their minds even if they’ve been won over by your brilliant observations, because they care more about personal pride and social acceptability than being correct.
Bob Hope went overseas to entertain the troops, not to convince the enemy to switch sides. The West is now socially silo’d. There’s little leakage. “Tone” and “gloating” and so on are 20th century concepts. Boring.
