Demagogue

I found his public humiliation of Jonah Goldberg amusing, and it shows that he can certainly hold his own in a one-on-one fight with purveyors of nonsense. But don't miss Cole's important post from earlier this week about a new variation on the VRWC's strategy of turning misstatements, oversimplifications, and lies about political opponents into "facts" that "everyone knows." I find some of Cole's counterarguments tendentious, particularly his saying that "much of the Arab world" has peace treaties with Israel on the basis that Egypt alone has one-third of the total Arab population. But the garbage that he's dealing with goes way beyond tendentious.

A word to the wise: when you read in an article that Juan Cole claims to have invented the Internet, be skeptical.