Monitoring Political Correctness
I was at my local Books-A-Million and noticed that right on the front stacks sat Jonah Goldberg's book, Liberal Fascism.
"Great," I thought, but I have often seen Books-A-Million put out a variety of books that are not as politically correct as some displayed prominently at other bookstores such as Borders or Barnes & Noble. So today, when I was at my local Barnes & Noble, I decided to see if they also gave prominent placement to Goldberg's book. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did. It was right up front as you can see from the pictures, both under "Current & World Affairs" and "Best-selling Non-fiction." As you can see from the picture below, there are other right-leaning or libertarian books displayed, for example, FairTax
by Neal Boortz and John McCain: An American Odyssey
by Robert Timberg. It's nice to see that (at least at this local Barnes & Nobles), books that are left, right and in-between get displayed. So, glad to see that my political correctness monitoring was unnecessary, I grabbed (and paid for, of course) a book by Bill Cosby, Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors
that I have been meaning to read, and left. 
Labels: interesting books, political correctness (or lack thereof)
posted by Helen at 2:13 PM
21 Comments:
Yeah I've noticed that as well. Deep in the cobwebs of my mind I seem to recall a Michael Savage (IIRC) book that B&N refused to carry "but would special order."
Progress? Or is Goldberg's book crossed the popularity threshold?
Thought provoking article by Peggy Noonan concerning Hillary this morning. Easy to pull of Drudge.
Mad William Flint,
Well, the great thing is that since the book is a top NYT's best seller, they have to put it under best sellers, of course. However, there were other books such as the ones I noted that were on the display tables, and they have been out a while. On the whole, there were many more books along the lines of "Who Speaks for Islam?" and Al Franken's book, "Lies" but I was pleasantly surprised that a number of conservative or libertarian books were displayed also.
br549,
Thanks, I'll check it out.
I can't wait to hear about the Cosby book! Give us your impressions please.
Trey
People still shop at physical-world bookstores?
should Goldberg's book really be in non-fiction?
Maybe it's more acceptable in Tennessee. When I went to buy it at B&N Union Square in Manhattan, it was hidden away in the back of the 4th floor politics/current affairs section, behind where the store was setting up a table for an author event that was about to happen (if I had showed up 20 minutes later, I wouldn't have been able to get to that bookshelf.)
I wish you had read the Goldberg book, because I cannot imagine doing it myself.
I was writing about it this A.M. and wondering whether Mr. Goldberg mentioned any of the German Cultural writers of the late 19th century whose odd works seemed more influential on Fascists than the works of Locke could have been.
Perhaps he was studying the philosophy of Alfred Rosenberg, the NSDAP theoretician of the pre-Hitler era of the party.
I sort of doubted it, since today's Liberals ( and the rest of us, too) have never even heard of Rosenberg, but you could have straightened things out.
I think Cosby was the wiser choice.
Montag,
..."I think Cosby was the wiser choice."
Uhh, I did read it, did a podcast with Goldberg and the only reason I didn't buy the book at B & N is because I have two copies of Liberal Facism on my shelf at home that I refer to frequently.
@samuel: "should Goldberg's book really be in non-fiction?"
Yes. Most people think Hitler was a right winger, when he was a socialist. Liberals frequently call conservatives "fascists," yet a read of Mussolini's communist manifesto shows it is just another version of the leftist worship of the state.
I don't think american liberals deserve to be called Nazis or fascists. I'm not saying that at all. But they make the mistake of looking only rightward for threats that are coming predominantly from the left. Meanwhile, under the guise of liberalism, the socialist agenda is being implemented bit by bit while they literally look the other way.
It's silly, because it is like looking only right when you cross the street because your grandfather was killed by a car coming from the right. Cars coming from either direction can kill someone, just like bad social policies.
Goldberg's book is spot on.
At the Borders in Ithaca, New York ("fourteen square miles surrounded by reality"), I had to hunt it down in the stacks.
It was par for the course.
Same here in Ann Arbor too. Border's flagship store, located a block from the Univ of Michigan's campus, had the Goldberg book hidden away, when I checked about 3 weeks back. However the twaddle written by Chris Hedges were very prominently displayed.
Just another sign that conservatives tend to be more politically correct than liberals. Liberal Fascism is down to #58 on Amazon, BTW.
The B&Ns and Borders here have the same "I hate Bush, Americans are killers and pillagers" tomes.
It is good to see that some stores are changing. The NYT best seller thing helps and they grouped the book with like minded tomes. Sometimes I think book stores forget they are actually in the business of selling books.
I should know better than this, but I'll bite anyway.
fgfm, how do you figure that conservatives are more politically correct than liberals, other than in the context that you think conservatives must always be worse than liberals?
I agree with you on one sense. Conservatives tend to behave in a more politically correct manner because they are actually held to standards of decency and account. Evidence: All the smiling feminists taking photos with and cheering for the womanizing adulterous President Clinton, knowing full well that had a conservative done what he had done they would be marching demanding resignation or impeachment.
Are these stores making bad business decisions deliberately (because their politics are more important to them than their profits) or do they know their markets?
Given the competitive nature of the book market, how long will they stay in business making bad business decisions?
Or do such decisions not really have much impact?
Books-a-Million? Is that a chain? I've never heard of it.
Books-a-Million is a chain of over 200 stores based in Birmingham, AL. This is the Wiki entry on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books-A-Million
Products in book stores are placed in highly visible locations for the same reasons that certain items are placed on grocery store "end-caps" and in the checkout lines.....because the manufacturers pay for play.
Publishers pay to get certain books maximum exposure for a certain period of time. If the product does not move after a period of time, it gets dumped to the back of the store.
This is not a conspiracy against conservatives. Liberals like to make money, too!
Trust - He is probably saying we are concerned about making our views heard.
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