Thursday’s NY Times carried a review of Debra Dickerson’s book “The End of Blackness,” about race in America. What caught my eye was this bit of idiocy:
Ms. Dickerson has been accused of employing reductive neoconservative logic and of pandering to white readers, telling them what they want to hear.
This, of course, is a classic misreading of the term “neoconservative,” by someone who probably learned the term in the past year and thinks it means “anything that is conservative that I do not like.” Since when is there even a standard “neocon” position on race (at least, one that is distinct from conservatism as a whole), much less one that should be seen by the Left as particularly odious?
I agree. �Neocon� is a nebulous, almost meaningless term, frequently used as an ill-defined slur.
Its usage generally serves only to undermine the credibility of those who employ it.