Hoodwinked: How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture

"The left's attraction to the obviously false is nothing new. For well nigh a century, in fact, America's intellectual elite has been crafting and enabling fraud on a wide range of critical subjects, among them history, anthropology, political science, science, sexology, health, and criminal justice. The culture that this fraud has produced is a veritable house of cards, one vulnerable to the first unprotected zephyr of truth." That's Jack Cashill's synopsis of Jack Cashill's good book, which was written too quickly and published too soon, perhaps to cash in on last year's controversy du jour, Ward Churchill. Churchill was merely a recent and transitory example of fraudulent progressive posturing, part of a project that goes back at least to Sacco & Vanzetti, Darwin & Marx. Mr. Cashill carefully notes that his object is not to debunk Darwin, but he demonstrates that Darwin's useful research was warped and twisted by useful idiots whose project is the apparent ejection of God from God's green, evolving earth. Marx, Godless from the ground up, didn't require the luxury of being misunderstood. Marx's contribution to the progressive project was clear & costly: Chang & Halliday, in their recent biography of Mao, show that establishing Marx's utopian kingdom was almost infinitely bloodier than Montesquieu's estimated body count from the earthly kingdom of Christ. About other things, Cashill is careless. Lillian Hellman is born in 1905, then she's born in 1904. A victim of the Black Panthers is correctly identified as Betty Van Patter; then, two or three times, as Betty Van Tapper; then back to Van Patter in the index. Leonard Peltier is called "Chippewa Sioux," a surprising amalgamation of tribes that hated each other. That's small stuff, but troubling. If a writer is careless about his own details, is he careful about bigger things? And Cashill's big story about a Godless progressive plantation (run by smart progressive elitists) where everything but God is permitted is a story we need to hear. This book is a good first installment of the story, but a better writer needs to write the next chapters. If only Whittaker Chambers were with us now. Since he isn't, these wise words from 2nd-Amendment theologian Ann Coulter will suffice: "People don't commit acts of great evil or great courage out of thin air. Character is developed out of a lifetime of choices. Almost every decision you make, however small, will be a step closer to God or a step closer to the devil. ... When you go along with the in crowd and don't speak out against liars, against promiscuity, against abortion, you are taking a step closer to the devil. But it's never too late to stop and begin taking steps toward God. It's a lot easier to make that journey with companions who know the way." Amen.

We've heard the "facts" so often that they have become the mantra's of the contemporary world--from the noble intentions of "premature antifascists" who bravely fought for a noble cause, to the handful of visionary Americans who challenged fundamental beliefs about sexuality, the environment, cultural anthropology, race, and the progress of the Soviet Union, to name just a few. With clear, incisive prose, Cashill reveals the long-simmering debates over truth and trust in a dozen different arcane-sounding fields from the epidemiology of AIDS(was there EVER a threat that AIDS was about to become a heterosexual disease?) to biochemistry (was it ever actually demonstrated that DDT posed a major threat to the environment? or was the elimination of DDT the first step in unleashing an ecological menace that now moves toward us all like a silent tsunami?). Above all, this is simply a wickedly delicious book stripping away both clothes and supposed halo's from a pantheon of our cultures' god-like heros. It is a disturbing and compelling read. There are critics posting reviews here who focus entirely on Mr. (Cashill's coverage of the debate over and against Darwinism, which is one small portion of the book. Some critics here reflect the defensiveness and intellectual insecurity that Cashill is prompting us to question. There should be no fear among thinking people in reading a concise and lively synopsis of the debates over Darwinism, any more than one should fear or be repelled by Cashill's brilliant dissection of what is accurate and what is historically falacious in the famous film Inherit the Wind, a work which probably did as much to establish the images of rigid/bigotted/fanatical creationists versus open-minded/fair/courageous/humanist evolutionists. Cashill's surgical knife and passion for the truth are at their best in these ten or twelve pages.) Cashill's book should be required reading in universities. It is certainly essential for anyone who wants to critically understand the intellectual foundations of our times. (One critical note to the publisher: the lack of a full-fledged bibliography is a significant flaw in the publication of this book. It is now time that publishers who have discovered the vitality and intelligence of more conservative readers ratchet up their assumptions about intellectual standards. While the information is in the book, the informal footnotes are no substitute for devoting the few pages it would take for an actual bibliography.)

This is one of those books that everyone interested in how government works, and history books are written, and news rooms run, should read. Cashill goes into the nitty gritty of how politically correct expedients have given the truth a back seat in news reports as well as history books and university classrooms. Nor is truth the only casualty in many US institutions and media outlets. Cashill also details how spin and policies actually cost lives through "eco-colonialism," with just one of these "big lies" having killed millions of people worldwide (all with almost no comment on the part of the American press). And it is still getting people killed even today. All Cashill's facts are carefully documented and cleverly detailed in what is as entertaining to read as it is chilling to consider. In short, this is a must-read book for those wanting to know the truth about what has been going on behind the scenes in America over the last few decades.

This book should be on everybody's shelf. I thank Jack Cashill for providing me with the truth regarding the infamous Sacco & Vanzetti episode in American history. Never before was I aware that these two convicted murderers had little interest in politics. They were not dissidents, but common criminals. Their case was used by radical Leftists merely as a way to slime the American justice system. Cashill doggedly takes to task the false heroes of the liberal establishment. Some of them may be best described as gullible dupes. Others are out and out liars. Cashill's rogue gallery includes Alger Hiss, Ward Churchill, Michael Bellesiles, Rachel Carson, Rigoberta Menchu, Margaret Sanger, Alfred Kinsley, Lillian Hellman, and countless others. A number of these individuals are literally responsible for the deaths of millions. This may especially true of the previously mentioned Carson and her absurd attack on the pesticide DDT. Did she have the best intentions? I am not interested in playing God. We need only be concerned about the horrific results. Utopian minded liberals have placed these icons of progressive thought on flimsy pedestals made of quick sand. The evidence the author offers is more than sufficient to destroy their ill deserved reputations. Only the committed ideologue will remain unconvinced. I rarely so unambiguously recommend a particular book. Some books are just not for everyone. Jack Cashill's work, however, is a rare exception. There is too much information that requires your undivided attention. The agenda driven liberal media and institutions have pull a fast one on us. How can we rectify the situation if we remain ignorant of their errors? Please take my advice and purchase a copy of Hoodwinked. The odds are highly favorable that you won't regret it.